Olemiswebs

Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos 2012

Nacho — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:30:49 +0000

Yet another year of the Alcoy’s Moros y Cristianos festivities. Just a gift for your senses.

Istanbul

Nacho — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:55:04 +0000

Istanbul came up as the destination for our Easter Holidays almost by chance. Close enough to make it a 5-day long one, but too far for a weekend… and for that reason an unknown destination for such a big group as ours (8 people). A good decision, as it did not disappoint us at all.

Istanbul location (right between Europe and Asia, and next to Middle East) is translated into the city’s culture and architecture: mosques, modern Western buildings, and Western clothes mixed in the streets with traditional Muslim burkas.

The city grows around the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus strait, one of the most important cargo paths in the World, and which has always been a key strategic location, and home of many battles. Even nowadays, the strait is heavily surveilled by radars both to control the intense vessel traffic, and for security reasons.

The Bosphorus strait and the Golden Horn divide the city in three main areas.

The southernmost one is the Old Area. There is where most of the tourist spots can be found, and where certain taste of the old Istanbul flavour can still be enjoyed. To mention a few of these spots: Santa Sofia temple (first a church, then a mosque, now a museum), Sultanahmet Mosque (aka Blue Mosque), the Basilica Cistern (not enough highlighted in most of the travelguides), or the Süleymaniye Mosque.

Istanbul is also known for their bazars, which are found in this area: the Grand Bazar (which did not impress me much, as I am not into bargaining and I was not looking for any specific object) and the Egyptian Bazar or Spice Bazar, which will capture you with the mix of smells and the ability of the sellers.

To the East, you can reach the Asian part by taking one of the many boats that cross the strait in just 10-20 minutes. We did not enjoy this part so much due to the horrible weather of that day, but the views of the old part are great.

To the North, crossing the Galata bridge, you get to the Galata and Besiktas neighbourhoods. The more western, modern and expensive areas of the city, look like any other city in Europe, with restaurants and live-music pubs flooding the streets.

By the way, restaurants… Food. Who doesn’t know kebaps? They have become popular all over the world thanks to the Turkish population in Germany who have make it international. If you are used to the great mixes you can try in Germany, the first thing you will realize in Turkey is that most of the ingredients are missing, and each kebap is lighter in a way, but with a more delicious meat and a great bread. But Turkish cuisine is not only about meat: fish, milk products (ayran, cheese), bread, pistacio and sweets are also worth to try.

You can find “some” more pictures in this link.

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Falsos mitos sobre las llamadas desde el extranjero

Nacho — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:56:18 +0000

Por suerte y por desgracia, pertenezco a esa parte de la población que por placer y por trabajo, viajo mucho al extranjero, desde hace muchos años, pero siempre con un móvil (como mínimo) en el bolsillo. La posibilidad de comunicarte con la gente de casa o con los locales, hace que al final acabes usando el teléfono en mayor o menos medida, y antes de eso, qué menos que informarte bien de cuanto cuesta ese mensaje de “ya he llegado”, o esa llamada para aclarar las indicaciones que te han dado, ¿no?

Bueno, parece que esto no es muy evidente, y últimamente he oído muchas conversaciones de gente hablando sobre los costes de las llamadas en su destino de vacaciones, y quiero colaborar en la erradicación de algunos de estos mitos, sin entrar en detalles de costes.

Si me llamas al extranjero, te van a sacar los ojos en la factura del teléfono

Mito que, afortunadamente, por mucho que se repita no se torna realidad. Cuando tú llamas a un teléfono español desde España, te aplican la misma tarifa tanto si el móvil destino está en la puerta del Sol de Madrid como si está en mitad de la selva amazónica. Tú (el llamante) no tienes la culpa de que el destinatario se haya ido de aventura por Brasil o de escapada romántica a París, y por tanto, NO vas a pagar más. Repito: NO vas a pagar más. Otra vez: NO vas a pagar más.

Ahora bien, como esa llamada “tiene que viajar” algo más, estamos en una situación de roaming, y por tanto hay un sobrecoste. ¿Quién lo paga? Pues el que está en el extranjero, que en este caso es el receptor de la llamada, que es el único que sabe a ciencia cierta donde está y el que toma la decisión de descolgar el teléfono aún sabiendo que va a tener que pagar la llamada (o al menos si ha leído este post, ahora sí que sabe que es él quien paga el tramo Brasil-España, o París-España). Por cierto, que este sobrecoste, aunque excesivo (parece que es una de las pocas fuentes de beneficios de las operadoras actuales) está justificado, ya que la operadora de turno de origen (a la que pagas la factura) tiene que pedirle a la operadora local (la brasileña, la francesa) que le ceda parte de su red para que su cliente (el aventurero o el romántico), pueda sentirse como en casa y estar comunicado.

Si te llamo desde el extranjero, te van a sacar los ojos en la factura del teléfono

Aplicando la lógica del mito anterior. Si tú estás en tu casa en La Coruña, y recibes una llamada, obviamente no vas a pagar nada, independientemente de si te llaman desde la habitación de al lado, o desde un safari en África. Será en este caso el llamante el que pague el tramo internacional de la llamada, que por lo general, es el mismo tanto para recibir como para emitir llamadas.

Este mito que también es muy común, más bien parece una forma de cierta gente de liberarse de ciertas llamadas de compromiso/seguimiento, escudándose en el empobrecimiento de la otra persona, en lugar de en el propio. Muy astuto.

Generalmente, los que creen este mito, también creen que el tramo internacional de esa llamada se cobra dos veces (una al emisor y otra al receptor), lo cual no es cierto, salvo en un caso: cuando ambos usuarios están en el extranjero. Siguiendo la lógica ya explicada, el que llama desde el extranjero, paga la parte internacional desde su teléfono hasta los servidores centrales de su operadora, y lo mismo el que recibe. Si hay dos personas en dos habitaciones contiguas de un hotel en París y se llaman una a otra usando sus teléfonos españoles: al emisor le cobran la emisión de una llamada internacional, y al receptor, la recepción de una llamada internacional. Negociazo para las operadores… y podrían haber usado el teléfono de la habitación!

No me envíes mensajes al extranjero, que me sale carísimo recibirlos

Esta también es buena. El que enuncia esta frase parece que tiene un buen nivel y ya no apela al empobrecimiento de la otra persona, sino al propio. Parece que sabe que recibir comunicaciones en su móvil en el extranjero le toca el bolsillo, y quiere evitarlo a toda costa. Pues se pasa de celoso con su economía, puesto que la recepción de mensajes en el extranjero es totalmente gratuita. De hecho es lo único que puedes hacer gratis con el móvil en el extranjero, aparte de usarlo para ver la hora y jugar al Angry Birds.

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Hiking in Madrid surroundings

Nacho — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:35:55 +0000

Great saturday or sunday plan: get out of the city, do some exercise and breath fresh air… In the last weeks, I have been twice to the area of Manzanares (nice castle!) and La Pedriza, in the northwest of Madrid, and here I post a couple of pictures for the record.

Bonnet Party

Nacho — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:31:57 +0000

Last weekend I was invited to an Easter Bonnet party. The hostess wanted to organize a party to enjoy the good weather, and thought this could be a good topic for it, even though it was a bit early for any Easter celebration.

So, she fixed the expectations: everybody wearing an Easter bonnet, as per the the Wikipedia explanation, i.e. a hat with flowers, self-made. The outcome of the party can be seen in the pictures included in this post. Most people made a quick reading and retained the idea of to “wearing some sort of hat, with things ‘decorating’ it”…

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Air Exhibition

Nacho — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:40:10 +0000

Every first Sunday of each month, in an airfield in the South of Madrid called Cuatro Vientos, there is a special air exhibition. There is a foundation named Infante de Orleans devoted to restore and maintain classic aircrafts from the old times. It is quite a good way to spend a Sunday morning.

It starts with a static exhibition of the different aircrafts that the foundation owns (ranging from aircrafts from different airforces to a training plane from Iberia, apart from the plane for the best Spanish acrobatics pilot from history)…

… and concludes with the air exhibition where every single plane has its show time. It is great to see how these old planes still fly, and how different things are from today.

Moreover, the Spanish acrobatics team is based in the same airfield, and they also have their time of playing with their planes like kids play with their toys.

All in all, an unmissable event (at least, once) if you like planes at any degree.

More pictures from these exhibitions in this slideshow.

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Fallas 2012 in four pictures

Nacho — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:55:27 +0000

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Beijing

Nacho — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:54:51 +0000

The great thing of travelling comes with the “revisits”. Once you have already visited the basics, and you can just take it easy, choose a couple of goals for the available time and just enjoy in a relaxed way.

I was in Beijing as part of my trip to China in 2008 (see the corresponding posts), and last week I had a day after a business trip to wander around with my friend Jin.

I chose the Temple of Heaven as the main sight for the morning, which I did not visit in my previous visit. Quite impressive spot, and very interesting atmosphere in the park around it, as it was Saturday, and people were dancing traditional Chinese dances, singing patriotic songs, preparing choreographies. doing some sport, or practicing Tai Chi.

We devoted the afternoon to walk around one of the characteristic hutongs (old neighbourhoods), which is now a busy area during weekends, where locals go to get some entertainment by getting some shopping done, or enjoying any of the bars on it. In one of the corners of the hutong, there is a lake which due to the “nice” temperature of Beijing’s winter was frozen and tons of people were skating on it. We mixed with them, and also did some seat-skating (a sort of a sledge-tandem).

Chinese food in China is much better and with a broader offer than in other parts of the World. The local dish, Beijing Duck, is an absolutely delicious meal that will from now on be always on my wishlist when going to Beijing. I also enjoyed the Tanghulu, the typical Beijing sweet, made of Chinese hawthorn with hardened sugar around.

Apart from this proper food, I could also enjoy some other rare tastes, like insects. Scorpions, silkworm eggs, and cicadas are pretty tasty. It does not really taste different from other snacks… they just “look” different.

And just before departing to the airport, I had some time for do a quick check on Tianan’men square.

You can see all pictures from Beijing in this slideshow.

Petronas Towers

Nacho — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:29:56 +0000

One day in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and a couple of free hours were more than enough to do the two things I had in mind: meeting my friend Martin who lives in KL since a couple of years ago, and taking the subway to spot the Petronas Towers… and something extra I did not plan for: getting a couple of bites in my leg which remained on my skin as a souvenir for a couple of days.

Petronas Towers started the century being the highest building in the World, and it is still now the 5th highest one. It is the most interesting spot in the city, but we could not climb to its sky bridge, as it is called to enjoy the views from there.

Anyway, as I say very often: “Petronas Towers: checked”. Next one.

Chrysler Building

Saturday Hike

Nacho — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:06:38 +0000

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