I have recently added a new country to my list: Korea. For business reasons, I spent 60 hours in Seoul, and had the chance to get a first impression on this city, which I want to share with you.
After my departure from Tokyo, this was my return to Far East, and could not avoid making comparisons. In fact, Seoul and Tokyo are very similar cities. Both are highly populated, and hence full of skyscrapers, and they also lack of town planning laws like we have in Europe, so that you can find in between two skyscrapers, a small one-floor shop. In this part of the world, life is continous: in many areas of the city, business do not close as people stay until really late in the office, and of course, they must have their chance to spend their money…
I also had the opportunity to enjoy the Korean food, and here I did encounter some differences. Korean food in general is more spicey, and there is a dish always present on the table, kimchi, and which is quite unique. Some other things reminded me to Japanese cuisine, but they were different. For example, noodles are quite common too, but they are not exactly as in Japan. I know at this point you are expecting me to mention dog meat. Well, I did not try it this time, maybe next time…
More pictures from Seoul in this slideshow.
I have written a couple of times about Spotify, the music service over the Internet that has been a revolution in Europe in the last years. Spotify offers almost all kind of music though the Internet and with a great quality. Furthermore, the offering is totally legal, as they have reached agreements with many record companies. These companies are paid thanks to the advertisement that were played to the free users, and from the fees paid by the premium users, who got the advantage of getting rid of the ads, as well as being able to use Spotify on their phones.
This was working pretty well, or at least that was Spotify’s statements, and the income obtained from premium users and advertisers was covering the expenses. That was really fine for people like me, who do not listen to music too often, and some ads from time to time was worth if that allowed us to keep saving the fee (10 euro per month). I liked the idea of having access to most of the music I normally listen to, as well as being completely legal. I do believe people who create things need to get money for their work, but this should have reasonable prices. Furthermore, Spotify had managed to get a good amount of premium users who together with the advertisements were supossed to be generating income and covering the expenses.
Now, they have changed the policy for the free users, and created an intermediate category to pay. The free users can only listen to several hours of music, cannot repeat more than a certain time each song, and cannot be social. The new unlimited users have no restrictions on what they listen to, as long as they are in a connected computer (no mobile phone or offline play). And they want to charge us 5 euro per month for that, 60 euro per year. Is it worth it? They are a company and are offering us a service which we can pay, or just keep on downloading music from other sources. For me, Spotify is a wonderful service that has kept me away of any downloading website for months, as it is really convenient. 5 euro per month, even not listening much to music, is not a big amount of money: not many more than 3 soft drinks or coffees in the city where I live.
If you think it is not fair, and you do not want to pay… perfect, don’t do it. Nobody obliges you, but Spotify is using the wonderful service they have to get what they need: money.
Spring is finally here, and time for hiking and other outdoor activities has come. Some pictures from the first hiking day in Navacerrada area and the coffee break at La Granja.
Hoy están terminando en Castellón las fiestas de la Magdalena 2011. La semana pasada me invitaron a participar del inicio de las mismas y no supe ni quise negarme. Castellón y sus fiestas eran territorio desconocido para mí, así que maté dos pájaros de un tiro. Además, ir a cualquier sitio con alguien que vive allí, le añade un plus de acierto… y si encima son castellonenses de toda la vida, el fin de semana, además de ser de diversión, pasa a ser un taller intensivo de historia de Castellón y sus fiestas.
De los actos festeros a los que pude atender, destaco la Enfarolà del Campanar el sábado por la noche (bastante espectacular), el reencuentro con una mascletà (no sé por qué, pero en Madrid no aprecian este tipo de eventos), y la romería dominical hasta la ermita de la Magdalena.
Tampoco faltó el típico desfile, que aquí toma el nombre de Pregón, pero que en este caso no me pareció espectacular. Principalmente, porque la gente parecía no vivirlo todo lo que podría. Aún así, hubo muchos grupos de baile tradicional (gran influencia aragonesa por estos lares) amenizando la tarde, y los guerreros de la Todolella con su danza guerrera.
Castellón es una ciudad que está en una planicie (de ahí su nombre oficial: Castellón de la Plana) y capital de una rica provincia (al menos hasta la crisis) de la Comunidad Valenciana. Las fiestas, de hecho, conmemoran la bajada desde la “montaña” hasta la planicie en tiempos del rey Jaume I.
Como ese origen les parece demasiado reciente, los castellonenses no dudan en explicarte (con alguna que otra variante) el origen mitológico de la ciudad… o mejor dicho, el origen mitológico de la planicie que acoge a la ciudad hoy en día. Un Rey, el Rei Barbut, ordena a sus huestes que preparen la zona para ser habitada y cultivada, y Tombatossals, Arrancapins, Bufanúvols y Tragapinyols se ponen manos a la obra, y cada uno con su superpoder dejan la zona en su punto. Además, también anda por allí Cageme que, aunque asustado, ayuda en lo que puede.
Y es que, ya se sabe, no se puede culpar a quien, como Cageme, “hace lo que puede”.
