Mucho se ha escrito sobre las Cabalgatas de Reyes Magos, y más en concreto sobre la de Alcoy. Aparte de ser la cabalgata más antigua de España es probablemente una de las más mágicas de cuantas hay.
Después de ver en la tele y en directo alguna otra, y comentarlo, parece que el hecho de que no haya nada de publicidad en la misma ya la hace bastante “especial”, pero eso no es lo mejor.
Lo mejor es que la noche anterior, los niños han visto como sus Majestades acampan en las montañas de alrededor de la ciudad, mientras leen las cartas que llenos de ilusión han echado en los buzones reales el día de antes.
Lo mejor es que a lo largo del recorrido de la cabalgata, los niños se acercan a estos magos que vienen de Oriente (ahora parece que de camino de vuelta a su Andalucía natal) para besarles.
Lo mejor es que los pajes reales, els “negres” hacen entrega de los regalos durante la Cabalgata misma a los niños.
Lo mejor es que esos pajes, si pueden (si no está muy alto, que son pajes, no pájaros), entran por el balcón con los regalos de los niños.
Lo mejor es que esto pasa sin apenas variaciones (si funciona, para qué tocarlo) desde antes de que yo naciera, y aún así encandila a niños y mayores.
If you have been to China or you have some Chinese friends, you may have noticed that, among other significant culture differences and particular behaviours, they are also different in such a common activity as drinking water. The first time I realized of this was during my stay in Sweden, as my friend Ziyi drank a glass of hot water (directly from the kettle) before heading to the office. In my later visits to China I could realize it was a common thing in China, even in summer. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered water with my dinner in a restaurant in Beijing and I got a glass of hot water.
Why do they do it? If you ask them, you will get different explanations for it. Some of them are related to the health (they say hot water is healthier for the body, and also for the soul), and some others are a consequence of other practices they have (as they drink plenty of tea, they get used to hot drinks, and that includes the plain water).
I don’t buy any of those explanations, even though they make sense and could also be true. This type of special behaviours must have a simple and ancient reason, as many others explained in Marvin Harris’ “Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches“.
My idea is that they originally started to drink hot water because they learned about sterilization, and realized they had to apply high temperatures to the tap water to make it drinkable (i.e. without further health compications). When you are thirsty waiting for the water to be cold is a luxurious decision, and you probably opt for drinking it right away.
This is still valid and needed nowadays. The hostel where I stayed a couple of years ago in Beijing made it clear for the ignorant visitor that we should drink boiled water if we did not want to have a “bad time”. Nowadays, even in higher quality hotels, adapted to Western standards, they make it clear that the tap water is impotable, with an alarming sign next to the sink.
Two weekends ago, I attended the Toastmasters Division Conference in Alicante. Apart from a terrific organization for the whole day (amazing work from our friends from Toastmasters Alicante Speakers Club), and a high level in both Humorous Speeches and Table Topics contests (national level, respect!), these conferences add even some more extra value with a couple of seminars. One of them was provided by Tobias Rodrigues about Conflict Management.
It was just a 30 minutes speech with a couple of take-away pills to deal with daily conflicts in any aspect of our lives, either professional or personal, but where we became more aware of easy steps we can take to avoid, or reduce the conflict when it comes.
His recommendation can be summarized in the following motto: be Positive in beliefs, Proactive with your body and Practical with your words.
Orense province was not part of our Rias Baixas main goals, but as its location is perfect to “break” the long trip from Madrid, we did stop both in the way to Galicia, and also in our way back.
On the way out, the break was done in the Verin area. The town itself is not really impressive but a nearby hill dominating the whole area hosts a Parador and a castle (owned by the Casa de Alba, famous noble family in Spain) which did interest us.
Moreover, we learned that many of the water brands that we drink in Spain originate in that area (for instance, Cabreiroa), and that one of the top designers also take even the name from there (Roberto Verino)
On our way back, we stopped in Orense, which is the province capital. It did surprise us for two main reasons: first, we arrived on an August friday night, and it had lots of activity in terms of restaurants and people having fun; and second, the way they have taken advantage of the thermal waters underneath, by creating both public and private thermal baths which have been incorporated as a habit by many locals, and also attract tourists (us, for example) to the city.
The last day in Rias Baixas was time for Combarro and Pontevedra.
Combarro is a quiet fishing village, which still keeps the charming atmosphere of the old times, with the small (and not that small) stone fishermen houses, and many horreos near the sea.
Before heading to Pontevedra, we also visited Cabo Home. The views from there are stunning, although we could not enjoy them at their best due to the bad weather (windy, rainy, foggy)
Pontevedra happened to be a really nice big city. The city centre is worth a visit, with tens of nice churches, and the arcades in most of the streets make it nice to visit, especially with rain, as you can find protection under it. The visit to Pontevedra was also amazing in terms of food, as we had a good local recommendation (Casa Soto) which was our goodbye to seafood for a while.
