I’m back! Paradaseca, #Galicia, Housing and other things.

Hi all:

As you know, I’ve been away, somewhere where I didn’t have regular access to internet, for the last few weeks. It was time to go back to the hamlet in Northwest Spain (a region called Galicia. Those of you familiar with the Camino de Santiago will be familiar with it) where my Dad was born, Paradaseca, to lay his ashes to rest next to his parents.

I hadn’t been there for 25 years or so, and as you can imagine it was a bit of an experience. Part a trip back in time, part a feeling that everything had changed only for everything (or nearly) to remain the same.

The place where my Dad was born is very rural and has seen a lot of emigration, where plenty of the inhabitants moved to big cities, within Spain or elsewhere. As a result there are places where only older people are left and places totally empty. Plenty of very cheap property although sometimes the local facilities are somewhat limited.

I found this article discussing the phenomenon, that I thought was interesting.

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/08/23/433228503/in-spain-entire-villages-are-up-for-sale-and-theyre-going-cheap?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

I plan on a series of posts (and possibly even some videos, once I’m back home and have a better connection) but in the meantime, I thought I’d share some pictures.

We went for many walks and that evening I took a camera

The panorama from Cabeza de Manzaneda, a a nearby sky resort

This chestnut tree is supposed to be over a thousand years old

One of the houses of the hamlet

The church

The view from the back of my parents’ place

Helping my uncle Eloy extract honey

La plaza del Hierro (Iron Square) in Ourense

As I’ve told you, I hope more posts will follow. Ah, and although I didn’t have as much time as I anticipated (meeting relatives you haven’t seen in many years makes for long conversations) I did manage to read quite a few books, so there will be plenty of reviews to come.

Thanks for your patience, for reading, and you I’m sure you still remember what to do: like, share, comment, and if you fancy reading the article, CLICK!

Every Time I Say Goodbye. Goodbye Dad.

Hi all:

I had another post prepared for today but I’ve decided to leave it for next week.

As some of you might remember, my post last Tuesday was about prostate cancer and trying to impress on everybody (men and their partners, loved ones) the importance of regular check-ups, particularly at a certain age. I mentioned my Dad’s case. Thanks to everybody for the support and comments. Some people who might have visited the post later on during the week will already know that unfortunately my father (Ubaldo) died last Thursday.

My parent’s wedding picture

I don’t have a scanner here so the picture is not very good (and also, like my father, I’ve never been any good at pictures), but just wanted to share something.

I might tell you more things about him at some point (he liked to tell stories and wherever he went he’d always be the one people would father around listening to his stories). He wanted to be a pilot but ended up driving coaches most of his life. He loved cycling and football, and he was a fan of Celta de Vigo first and Football Club Barcelona, second. He hated hospitals and could never understand how I became a doctor (although he was proud of it). And he was from Paradaseca, Ourense (in Galicia, North of Spain) although he spent most of his adult life in Barcelona.

Here one of the loves of his life (together with my mother):

My father’s bicycle

Bye. Here thinking of you.