Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “spain”

31 Jan 2015

World Food Photos. Like food, like photographs of food

Just a various eclectic mix of food photos taken in various locations. Nothing special. Just enjoy and be hungry.

Coconut Tart

Sliders and Beef Wellingtons

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged ADHD, airport, art, aviation, BA, barcelona, beach, beer, bees, benalmadena costa, birds, birds of prey, breakfast, brentford, brentford fc, british airways, burger, cake, cars, carshalton, carshalton fc, catalan food, cayman islands, charity, chelsea, cobham, combined counties league, cricket, death, dinner, dinner kebab, FA, FA Cup, farne islands, fast food, food, food photo, football, gaming, garden, grand cayman, griffin park, hake, Heathrow, hedgehog, hedgepig, holiday, hotel, iceland, imber court, indianapolis, italy, kingston, league 1, london, london city airport, lucinda belle orchestra, marriott, marriott hotels, Met Police, met police fc, model, motspur park, murder, music, nature, new malden, nonleague, nonleague football, northumberland, painshill, painshill park, paintings, photography, photos, police, rain, ryman, ryman league, ryman league crowds, ryman premier, ryman south, school, scotland, snow, soccer, spain, spider, sports, Sri Lanka, sun, surrey, sweden, terminal 5, tooting, transportation, travel, UK, USA, uwe rosler, vacation, vincent van B, walton, walton and hersham, walton and hersham football club, walton casuals, weather, winter | Leave a comment

23 Jan 2015

2 Comments

Reflections on Barcelona and Catalan Food. A nice surprise

A visit to Barcelona is never without surprises. And in many ways this time it was the food. There are some basic facts about eating out in Spain in general that need understanding. Mainly that food is never served as hot as it is for example in UK. Lets run through my three meals. Breakfast is the same as anywhere, but the fruit quality is the best. fresh Kiwi tasting like it had been picked a few minutes ago and Oranges that tasted like …Oranges.

Lunch was an interesting affair too. The lunch kitchens do not open until 1pm. So realistically eating till 1.30 pm is fairly complex. The Catalan specials include great meats of course but also Catalan sausage served with white beans. For dinner curiously I had a Spanish omelette which was served with bread covered in a thin layer of tomato, not tomato sauce. The story is something like this that the Catalan dishes are basically the food for the poor from 100 years ago when vegetables like tomatoes were cheap. dishes are also renowned for mixing sweet and savoury foods.

Catalan dishes rely heavily on ingredients popular along the Mediterranean coast, including fresh vegetables (especially tomato, garlic, eggplant (aubergine), capsicum, and artichoke), wheat products (bread, pasta), Arbequina olive oils, wines, legumes (beans, chickpeas).

The traditional Catalan cuisine is quite diverse, ranging from pork dishes cooked in the inland part of the region to fish recipes along the coast.

The cuisine includes many preparations that mix sweet and savoury

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged barcelona, breakfast choices, breakfast spain, catalan food, catalan sausage, catalonia, cod, diet, dishes for the poor, eating barcelona, eating spain, fresh fruit, fruit, hairy bikers, holiday, kiwi, location, mary berry, orange, poor people, pork dishes, spain, spanish cooking, spanish omelette, tuna, white beans

02 Nov 2014

Painshill Park Cobham – Paintings by Vincent Van B

Posted in bridge, painshill bridge and tagged cobham, english painters, english painters 21st century, painshill, painshill park, paintings, ruined abbey, spain, surrey, vincent, vincent van B | Leave a comment

22 Jul 2014

1 Comment

Spain is not an average country. Few examples of total madness. Enjoy

Anyone who has travelled to Spain knows that “mañana” culture is the norm giving a happy relaxed feel to the place. Wherever you go there are examples however of quirkiness, oddness or even madness/stupidity. Lets take the Miracle Bar in Benalmadena Costa where you can drink Paint. Vehicle registrations that consist of the number 0000. The most eveil appalling food in the so called ” VIP” lounge at Malaga airport. Enough, I thought so. The try some Rocked salad…….

arcticterntalk.org
Miracle Bar Benalmadena Costa

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged andalucia, awful food, bar, Bar Benalmadena Costa, benalmadena, benalmadena costa, drinking paint, funny photos, malaga airport, manana, miracle, miracle bar, paint, playa, spain, spanish football, spanish vehicle registrations, VIP lounge, VIP lounge malaga airport

01 Jun 2014

2 Comments

Spain in 2014. What sort of a place is it now? Benalmadena Costa

Having been coming to Spain for almost 50 years there have been a number of clear changes that are visible to the naked eye. It is clear that with unemployment rates being 50% in the under 24 year olds and 26% in all, things are not good. There are however islands for hope. Firstly many of the British have left and areas like Benalmadena Costa have been at least partially reclaimed by the Spanish. Resultingly there are fewer dreadful ” English Cuisine” restaurants on offer and far more traditional Spanish restaurants. Secondly prices have fallen dramatically. A pint of beer in a decent beachfront bar is rarely more than 1.95 euros. Three course meals tend to be anything from 10-15 euros and often throw in half a bottle of wine. Thirdly, the ecology is changing. Far more birds and far fewer cats. Parakeets abound as do pigeons. This has become a decent holiday destination, flights to malaga are less than 3 hours from London and cheap. Crime is not visible, surely it happens but safety seems better than say in London. This is a place to re-visit. Lastly, the Spanish do things in different ways. Only the Spanish could have equipement outside their bansk that potentially could be used to break in.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged beer, benalmadena, benalmadena costa, cost beer spain, cost of spain, costa, english restaurants, euro, franco, lizard, lizards tail, malaga, malaga airport, mullarkeys, spain, spain holiday, strange mascot, tales of lizards, traditional Spanish restaurants, unemployment rate in spain, unemployment rates, unemployment spain, youth

01 Jun 2014

Tale of the Dead Lizard

Lizards are commonplace in Spain. All over the wlls, ceilings and plants. This one seemed rather brave allowing me close with my I Phone 4 camera. In fact so brave he stayed there all day and the next day. sadly not an immortal lizard.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged benalmaden, benalmadena costa, dead lizard, death, holiday, holiday death, holiday photos, i phone, i phone camera, lizard, murder, nude lizard, spain, sun, the lizard | Leave a comment

23 Jul 2013

Aqualand Torremolinos- A Place to avoid in the summer

Aqualand is a great water park, make no mistake. However before yesterday we had only visited in May/June time. Yesterday it was an awful experience and really ought to consider a few aspects of its functioning.

Firstly, car park was small and full meaning that most cars had to park on an odd dusty verge. cost 1 euro
Cost to get in is high 26 euros and one becomes at adult at 10 years of age here!
Pay extra for security locker. 5 euros
Pay extra if you want your own ring ( if you can get one that is), 12 euros
Pay extra for sunbed ( if you can get one). 7 euros for a pair
Pay hideous amounts for ice creams, like 3.30 for a Magnum equivalent
Then queue continuosly for 4 hours for 4 rides! Something like 20 euros per ride!!

Facilities are good but go there out of season next time. We are. Last comment would be that on a positive side places like this are great for employment. Spain has youth unemployment rates of around 57%, and most of the staff here were not only nice but certaintly under 25 years.

Aqualand. Torremolinos

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged andalucia, aqualand torremolinos, aviation, continuosly, expensive waterpark, holiday, ice cream, london, magnum, malaga, mijas, rain, spain, sunbed, sunbeds, torremolinos, transportation, vacation, water park, waterpark, youth unemployment rates | Leave a comment

09 Jun 2013

Benalmadena Costa. No signs of unemployment here in Spain.

Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish conservative prime minister, is duly announcing to those who will listen that despite unemployment rates of 27%, that rise to 57% amongst the youth, that the worst is over. What this translates to is that unemployment will fall to 25% by 2016. Not overly encouraging. Although not an expert on the economic aspects of Andalucia I have to report based on a week in Benalmadena that there was no evidence of massive unemployment. That observation has to be caveated by the fact that I was hardly looking for unemployed Spanish youth whilst lounging on the beach. There was a single eastern european beggar outside Mercadona ( the Spanish Tesco equivalent). What was obvious though was that there were far fewer British expats and tourists there than before, a linear annual decline. Fewer English type restaurants and bars, and where these had closed down they were replaced by Spanish bars. As a consequence presumably of all this, less tourists and more indigenous Spainish, prices have fallen considerably. A beer would cost 1-2 euros. In the best bar along the beach side Palm 5, a beer cost less than 2 euros. Glass of wine, and thats of a proper size, was 1-2 euros.

The only clear evidence of economic recession was the absence of building of flats and apartments. But frankly the rate they were building 5 years ago was ridiculous. Benalmadena costa may be a nice place but not that nice. But it is not Monaco! Outside our apartment there is a crane towering over a half finished block of apartments. This in itself is not exciting but when put into context that I have taken the same photograph now for 5 years. That crane has not moved in 5 years. The half finished block remains unfinished and I imagine will look just like that next year.

Benalmar Playa

Benalmadena Costa

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged andalucia, aviation, beach, beer, benalmadena costa, benalmar playa, building, cars, cerveza, climate, crane, east europe, euro, holiday, mariono rajoy, mercadona, palm 5 bear benalmadena, prime minister, science, spain, spain prime minister, spanish building, tesco, transportation, travel, unemployed, unemployment, unemployment rate, unemployment spain, vacation, videogames, wine, youth | Leave a comment

05 Jun 2013

1 Comment

Fossilised Bird from Spain

An unusual finding while walking around a swimming pool in Southern Spain. At first I thought it was leaves and twigs in an odd pattern but then when I picked it up realised that it was a fossilised dead bird, totally preserved and totally dried out. I have a number of photos and will post a few more later this week but one to keep you going.

Fossilised Dead Bird

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged andalucia, benalmadena, benalmadena costa, bird, dead bird, fossilised bird, fossilised dead bird, holiday, leaves, malaga, mjas, odd bird, old bird, old bird from spain, photos, southern spain, spain, spain bird, swimming pool, terminal 5, travel, twigs, unusual bird, vacation

04 Jun 2013

Reflections on Milan

View from Bedroom window. Sheets or large underwear?

This post I have to admit is a little unfair as being there for 2 days spent most of it underground in a conference room, cut off from the world seemingly. Awful telephone reception and little better wifi connection ( which at least was free). And then when one factors in a 12 hour sleep, to recover from missing a night, you can agree that my views of Milan are not exactly complete.

On balance I was not enthused about the city. The trip from Linate airport to the hotel did not inspire me and neither did the driving ability of the taxi driver, who gave a decent rendition of having ADHD. Those who are not familiar with ADHD just need to understand that the key symptoms of impulsive behaviours and/or inattention are not ideal qualities in a taxi driver in a busy city centre. The first learning was that pedestrians who step onto a crossing should consider a few things. Making a will would be obligatory and consideration to not crossing would also be a good judgement to make.

The streets were not full of colourful fashionistas nor shops and the restaurants did not make me want to jump out of the taxi. The same process was repeated on the return journey. The positives? Well certainly not the costs. Lets talk cocktails, not that I was offered any. In Spain where I was sunday night, a Pina Colada would cost 3.50 euros, and in the hotel here 11.50. The fact that they were advertising their drinks and prices in the elevator suggests they considered these prices reasonable.

On a positive note the food was good. A large lunch buffet and a meal of Salmon in breadcrumbs with aubergine that got me thinking it might make a good dinner party dish.

Rooms are always small in Italian hotels but this one really was. The view from the bedroom window was not exotic but did make my mind question whether what was hanging out was sheets or rather large underwear.

So I make my biased and unfair decision that Milan is off my holiday destination list. But lets give it a second chance as I am returning on friday and hopefully may see a little more. I may even take my camera.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged ADHD, benalmadena, benalmadena costa, bread, cocktails, dinner, euro, expensive drinks italy, heathrow airport, impulsive behaviours, inattention, italy, limate airport, mafia, milan, milano, pina colada, room service, salmon, salmon in breadcrumbs, spain, taxi, terminal 5, tiramasu, travel, vacation | Leave a comment

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Archive for the tag “spain”

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