¡Feliz Navidad!

¡Feliz Navidad!

by | Dec 22, 2017 | Culture and traditions

What is Christmas like on the Camino? Can you walk during Christmas time?

The winter months are typically a quieter period on the Camino de Santiago. There are few pilgrims walking and many albergues are closed. However, some people prefer to walk around this time of the year. For them, and for those who would like to know how we celebrate la Navidad (Christmas) in Spain, I wrote this post. ¡Feliz Navidad!

First of all, you should be aware that there are a few festivos (public holidays). Shops will be closed those days; you should keep it in mind, in case you need to buy something. I’ll list the important dates and explain a bit about them:

 

In December

  • 22 de diciembre – La lotería de Navidad (Christmas lottery) also known as “el gordo” (the fat one!). This is the unofficial start of Christmas celebrations. Almost everyone in Spain plays this lottery and it’s a huge event: TV, radio, people on the street… all you’ll hear about is lotería!

 

  • 24 de diciembre – Nochebuena (Christmas Eve; literally “the good night”). It’s not festivo, although shops will close earlier than usual in the evening. This is because families get together for a big, special dinner. Traditionally, this is the time to be with family, at home, so make sure you plan your dinner ahead: expect everything, including restaurants, to be closed from 7.00pm.

 

  • 25 de diciembre – Navidad (Christmas Day). It’s festivo and everything will be closed. Family will gather again, for lunch on this occasion. Both Nochebuena and Navidad are days spent mostly with family, at home. People don’t go out much, although things are changing a bit. Again, you’ll need to plan ahead what you’re going to eat throughout the day, as it will be hard to find anything open.

 

We don’t have just one typical Christmas dish for these days. What people eat for Nochebuena and Navidad differs a lot from one region to another. But we have sweets in common: it doesn’t matter where you are, you can expect to find turrón (almond nougat), mazapán (marzipan) and polvorón (some sort of crumbly shortbread), the three main Christmas treats.

Turrón

Mazapanes

Polvorones

  • 28 de diciembre – día de los Inocentes. It’s the Spanish version of April Fools’ Day. So watch out for pranks and funny news. Otherwise, a regular day.

 

New Year’s Eve

  • 31 de diciembre – Nochevieja (New Year’s Eve; literally, “the old night”). Similarly to Nochebuena, this is not festivo, but shops will close early again. There’s another big, special dinner. But Nochevieja is more about partying and celebrating. It’s common for people to go out for dinner, with family or friends and then party into the next day.

 

At midnight, you can go to the town main square and eat 12 uvas (grapes), one with each campanada (stroke) of the clock. You can also do this at home, as all TV channels will show a clock striking 12 (traditionally, they show Puerta del Sol in Madrid). If you manage it, you will have good luck in the new year.

 

Another widespread tradition to bring you luck in the new year is to wear red underwear. That’s why you will see a lot of it displayed in shops for a couple of weeks before the New Year.

 

The New Year

  • 1 de enero – día de Año Nuevo (New year). If you went out partying after your uvas, chances are you won’t go to sleep until the morning (9.00am at least). Año Nuevo is usually a very quiet day, because many people will be sleeping most of the day and it’s also festivo, so everything is closed.

 

  • 6 de enero – día de Reyes (Epiphany or the day of the Wise Men). Traditionally, Spanish children get their presents from the three Wise Men. They arrive on January 5, when they parade around Spanish towns. Then, during the night, they leave their presents. So, January 5 is not festivo, but there will be parades in most towns. January 6 is festivo and shops will be closed. A typical treat for this day is roscón, a special cake.

 

You can watch some short clips of the lottery draw, the campanadas and the Wise Men parade in this presentation: https://prezi.com/9yp5onzyacly/feliz-navidad-y-prospero-ano-nuevo/

And that’s it! What do you think?

For other traditions, specific to certain regions, check Other Christmas traditions.

 

Today’s Spanish words

Diciembre

Enero

Festivo

Lotería

Nochebuena

Navidad

Turrón

Mazapán

Polvorón

Nochevieja

Año Nuevo

Campanadas

Uvas

Reyes Magos

Roscón

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¡Buen Camino & Feliz Navidad!

En el aeropuerto

En el aeropuerto

by | Dec 15, 2017 | Camino de Santiago

En el aeropuerto |

And finally… we take a trip to el aeropuerto (airport).

You are very likely to travel by avión (plane) either to get to Spain and start your Camino or to go back home after you have finished your pilgrimage.

So, what do you need to know about airports and air travel in Spanish? If you have been following my weekly posts, I’m sure you already know a few words, those we can also use when travelling by tren or autobús (in case you missed them, here are the links: En la estación de tren, En autobús).

In those two posts you can find words like billete -de ida, de vuelta or de ida y vuelta; asiento, pasillo and ventanilla, which are common to all three means of transport. There are some other common words, but there are also words that are specific to air travel.

 

En el aeropuerto

  • When you land on a Spanish aeropuerto, you will be in the llegadas (arrivals) area. You should easily find your way out. The good thing about aeropuertos is that all the signage is in English too.

 

  • If you are starting your journey from a Spanish aeropuerto, you should go to the salidas (departures) area first. You can find both words, salidas and llegadas, in train and bus stations also, on the screens listing all the departures and arrivals.

 

  • Once in the salidas area, you might need to go to the facturación (check-in) counters, but only if you have luggage to check-in or if you need a tarjeta de embarque (boarding pass).

 

  • You have your tarjeta de embarque and your luggage has been checked-in (or you have equipaje de mano (hand luggage) only). Then you can go through security and look for your puerta de embarque (boarding gate).

 

Are you ready to fly?

 

Today’s Spanish words

Aeropuerto

Avión

Salidas

Llegadas

Facturación

Tarjeta de embarque

Equipaje de mano

Puerta de embarque

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¡Buen Camino!

En autobús

En autobús

by | Dec 8, 2017 | Camino de Santiago

En el autobús |

Last week we travelled by tren. This week we’re going en autobús or bus. You can use both words: the full name is autobús, but we call it bus for short.

The good news is that a lot of the vocabulary is the same, but not all. So let’s have a look at the differences and similarities:

  • The estación de tren becomes estación de autobuses. However, buses don’t stop at estaciones only. In fact, there are no estaciones in most villages and smaller towns. In those cases, buses stop at paradas (de autobús), also known as bus stops in English.

 

  • You won’t need andén, vía and vagón when talking about buses. These words refer to trains specifically. If you are in a estación de autobuses and you are trying to find your bus, you need to look for the right dársena (dock).

 

  • If you go to an estación, you can get your billete from the taquilla, just like when we visited the estación de tren. Your billete can be de ida (one way), de vuelta (return only) or de ida y vuelta (return). Same words apply to billetes de tren, by the way.

 

  • If there is no estación, or the taquilla is closed, you can buy your billete directly from the conductor (false friend alert! conductor is the driver, not the English conductor).

 

  • If you need to check the bus or tren schedule, you will ask for the horario.

 

  • And once you get on the bus, the seats are also called asientos, just like the ones in trains. Asientos can be by the ventanilla (window) or the pasillo (aisle). Which one do you prefer?

Today’s Spanish words 

Bus

Autobús

Parada

Conductor

De ida

De vuelta

De ida y vuelta

Horario

Ventanilla

Pasillo

 

Remember that you can check the pronunciation of the rest of the words in the post about trains. 

 

¡Buen Camino!

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En la estación de tren

En la estación de tren

by | Dec 1, 2017 | Camino de Santiago

En la estación de tren |

You’re probably wondering… what are we doing en la estación de tren? When we think about the Camino de Santiago we think walking, maybe cycling or even horse-riding. Trains, buses and planes do not come to mind. But we will need them…

 

Why are we discussing transport?

  • First, you have to get in and out of Spain and that will most likely happen by plane.

 

  • Once you are in Spain, you need to get to your starting point, the town where you will start your pilgrimage. And you have to get out of Santiago, once your Camino is done.

 

  • Even after you have started your Camino, you might sometimes skip a stage or two, for a number of reasons such as time constraints or health issues.

 

In the latter cases, you will probably use tren (train) or bus (or the occasional taxi, which is also conveniently called taxi in Spanish!).

 

En la estación de tren

Some of you suggested that I should cover this topic in my mini lessons, so that is the plan for the next couple of weeks. This week we’ll navigate our way around the estación de tren (you might find it also referred to as estación de ferrocarril, but estación de tren is more common).

  • Whether you are travelling by tren, bus or plane, your ticket is called billete (by the way, we use the same word for banknotes, so you get two Spanish words for the price of one!).

 

  • Where do you buy your billetes de tren (train tickets)? En la taquilla (in the ticket office). Well, you can also buy them online, but if you are already at the station and you don’t have your billetes yet, then you should look for the taquilla.

 

  • On the information screens you will see in which vía (platform), your train can be found.

 

  • Vía can be translated as platform, but it literally means track. La vía is for the tren, but people stand on the andén (platform). So, let’s say that your tren is leaving from vía 3: you wait for it on the andén (waiting on the vía would be illegal, not to mention too dangerous!). Does that make sense? Please, let me know if it’s not clear enough.

 

  • Before you get on the tren, you need to look for some information on your billete: first of all, the number of your vagón (your billete will say coche, but we don’t call it like that when we are talking).

 

  • And finally, you’ve made it to your vagón. Your billete will also tell you what number your asiento (seat) is. You can now get comfortable and enjoy!

 

  • Oh! I almost forgot! The person who walks up and down the tren checking that we all have billetes is the revisor.

Are you over 60?

If you are travelling by train and you are over 60, you can get a Tarjeta Dorada (golden card). You can buy it (€6) at the taquilla and it will entitle you to discounts of up to 40% on the price of your billetes. You will need to show your passport in order to purchase it. Here’s the link to RENFE’s website with all the information about it (it’s in Spanish): http://www.renfe.com/viajeros/tarifas/tarjeta_dorada.html

 

 

Today’s Spanish words

Estación de tren

Billete

Taquilla

Tren

Andén

Vía

Vagón

Asiento

Revisor

Tarjeta Dorada

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 ¡Buen Camino!

El botiquín

El botiquín

by | Nov 24, 2017 | backpack, health

El botiquín |

When you are packing your mochila you should leave some space for a small botiquín (first-aid kit). But what should it include? Of course, if you normally take any medications, make sure you pack enough of it, or find out if you can get it in Spain.

As I mentioned in previous posts, it’s important to keep your mochila as light as possible. As one experienced pilgrim advised us last week:

No “just in case” stuff. You can buy what you need in Spain.

And where can you buy health related items? The most obvious answer is a farmacia. Here you can get medicines, with or without prescription, as well as a long list of other items for your personal care.

The pharmacy sector is very regulated in Spain, which means you can’t just open a new farmacia anywhere you like. As a result, a few years ago a new type of business was created: the parafarmacia.

Basically, in a parafarmacia you can find the same stuff as in a farmacia, except for medicines: they sell tiritas and Compeed, creams (sun protection and others), personal hygiene products: from jabón (soap), to shampoo, to pasta de dientes (toothpaste)…

At times when shops are usually closed, such as late evenings and Sundays, there is always a farmacia de guardia (pharmacy on-call). All farmacias have to display a list of the farmacias de guardia in the area. The problem is that if you are in a small town, the nearest farmacia de guardia will probably be in the next town. Not very convenient!

That’s why it is a good idea to always carry a few basic items with you.

So, what should you carry in el botiquín?

 

Pilgrim foot care

 

Your pies (feet) are the most important part of your body when you are doing the Camino de Santiago and not looking after them properly can put an early end to your walk.

Ampollas (blisters) are the most common problem that pilgrims face. We should do whatever we can to prevent them, but sometimes they are inevitable. In previous posts I discussed calzado (shoes) and calcetines (socks), as well as vaselina and tennis balls. I have also read an article recently saying that paper tape could be an effective and cheap way to prevent blisters.

 

  • If all of the above fails and you get ampollas, you will need aguja (needle) to drain the fluid (but don’t remove the skin!). Make sure your aguja is disinfected before you use it and that you also disinfect the area afterwards. Then you can cover it with tiritas or something similar.

 

  • Depending on the time of the year when you do your Camino de Santiago, you might also need protector solar or crema solar (sun protection cream).

 

  • Ibuprofeno is a Camino favourite is everyone’s botiquín. It works as an anti-inflammatory if you have any swelling, and as pain relief, too. And you can get it in different formats (gel, tablets and even powder to mix with water). As with any other drug, just make sure you check what the right dose is as well as the possible side effects and contraindications.

 

So, what are you planning to include in el botiquín? Or, if you already have Camino experience, what did you take? Did you have to buy anything?

 

Today’s words

Farmacia

Farmacia de guardia

Parafarmacia

Jabón

Pasta de dientes

Crema solar

Pies

Ampolla

Aguja

Ibuprofeno

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¡Buen Camino!