Only What You Can Carry and Other Assorted Thoughts

The everyday:

Life in Zaragoza is very pedestrian. Walkers, bikers and patinetes electricos (electric scooters) far outnumber the private cars. Bolt is the local rental company. It seems that everyone has a backpack, messenger bag, or reusable grocery bag at all times. There are also hundreds of rollie carts that resemble golf club bags. You see them locked up at grocery stores, on busses, rolling down the side walk, sitting next to diners in cafe's; they are everywhere, kind of like dogs.

This pedestrian lifestyle definitely changes how the average person shops. Just this week I hit our local grocery store , la Mercadona, twice. On Monday I bought the main ingredients for a couple of meals and some snacks and what not, but did not buy extra of anything. Because you only buy what you can carry. The mercado is a 5-10 minute walk from our house across a busy street and through the park. Two reusable grocery bags is really my limit for that distance. Tuesday I hit the fruitaria (Fruit and Veggie store) because the quality of the produce is better than in the grocery stores and is less expensive. Then I headed back to la Mercadona to grab a few other necessities since we are still setting up our house. 

Another blog mentioned when we bought the TV and how it rode in the taxi on our laps. If we are buying anything too large to carry then we have to calculate the taxi or delivery into the price. Thankfully, taxi's are relatively inexpensive here as we have needed them a few times recently. Although last weekend we took the bus out to IKEA and carted our purchases home via bus and a 15-20 minute walk. Not one person gave us a strange look for hoofing a shelf and other assorted items down the street.

Side note: I love love love how google maps gives us options of how to get places including: walking, busses, bikes, patinete, and train. And it is amazing how frequently the patinete and bike times are 1/2 anything else. Walking and bike are often the same.

Casual observations:

This pedestrian lifestyle means we are out and about quite a bit. Carlos has mentioned that we have not seem much wildlife in the way of animals. I did finally see a cicada. We have heard them since we got here but have not seen any shells or seen any flying around. But I finally saw a dead one in the park by our house. We essentially live in a desert but the plant life here is incredible. Most pisos  (apartments) have balcony gardens in numerous pots. This makes the building fronts look like vertical gardens. I noticed a 3rd floor piso with a magnolia tree growing on is balcony today. Plants are cheap here as are the pots and soil. But a bouquet of flowers are wicked expensive. The $5.00 bunch of daisies or carnations that you can pick up in the grocery store in the US will cost you 18 euros. Where as the large basil plant, a pot and dirt cost 3 Euros total.

Walking to and from the Spanish school everyday I noticed a section of sidewalk that was really dirty and almost sticky. This is really rare as they street sweep the streets and sidewalks every night. Upon further observation, I noticed it was ripe figs falling from an enormous tree near the sidewalk. The birds are having a heyday.  This got me paying more attention to the trees near our piso. The park has pines, alders and tons of olive trees. They are heavy with fruit. I have no idea when they will be ripe but the birds are already snacking away. The historic Islamic palace here in town had a citrus garden surrounding reflecting pools in the heart of the building. Those were the only other fruit trees that I have seen so far, but we can tell you that they are growing watermelons and peaches nearby because their quality is amazing.

Everyone tells us that Zaragoza is known for it tomatoes and I can honestly say that I have been eating huge quantities of them. Every bar/café has a tomato salad right now. Some have fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinegar, others tomatoes and onion and balsamic vinegar. I do not care....I am in. We also discovered eggplant fries the other night. Delicious. Fresh eggplant in a light beer batter drizzled with a balsamic glaze. I am also a fan of the Flor de artachofa (Artichoke flower/heart) again the light batter served with garlic aioli and crispy ham. Little bites but so fresh and flavorful.

NPR had a story that kind of summed up my experience thus far as a pedestrian and the relationship with food here in Spain. It is a about Japan but the similarities were great.

NPR Article

Unexpected Paseo (evening walk)

The paseo is the evening walk in Spain. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE and of course their dog, goes for a paseo in the evenings. Mostly we stick to our apartment block and the park inside the block but on the weekend we like to venture into the tourist area of the town and see what is going one. There is often live music in the plazas and lots of dining on the terazas (patios often on the sidewalks). A couple of weeks ago we stumbled upon a herd of rhinos in the Plaza de Pilar ( the main plaza here in Zaragoza). I think they are molded from some sort of plastic and are painted mostly grey, tan and black with one extra large individual facing the opposite direction of the others painted red. There was no sign or anything. There was definitely a crowd milling about. 

We encountered them a week later in the same area. This time there were signs saying "do not touch" The first night people were climbing on their backs for fotos. I did covered yesterday that it is an art installation by a Cuban artist. and it is called: Be a leader. The Wall Street Journal even had a snippet in there travel section about the rhinos. See link to spanish article below.

https://www.enjoyzaragoza.es/wall-street-journal-exposicion-liderazgo/