Spain, history and the Romans
Spain has had a varied history with both conquests and invasions being a regular part of its evolution. Most visitors to this country are however unaware of all but the hot sun, inviting beaches and cheap alcohol, but there is another side to Spain and perhaps the best place to see it is in the country's more northern cities.
Like many parts of Europe, Spain was invaded and conquered by the Romans and many cities still have structures dating back to these times. In Britain a famous Roman wall encircles the historic (and once capitol) city of York, but Galicia also has a similar wall in the provincial capitol of Lugo.
Lugo is situated in Spain's north western corner in one of the country's autonomous regions known as Galicia. The wall in question is 1700 years old and remains a complete example of the invader's efforts to enclose and fortify the original town. At over 2 km in length, 12 metres thick at its widest point and a maximum of 12 metres in height, the wall is one of the best remaining examples of its kind. Even today it surrounds the original settlement and visitors can walk on top of it and appreciate the security that it must once have offered to its inhabitants. The wall is interspersed with turrets and gates, some of which are later alterations, but the greater part of the structure remains Roman in origin.
If you would like further information about Lugo, visit www.galiciaguide.com/Lugo-index where you will find 15 pages about this Galician province.
Lugo is not alone in having a Roman wall, although the completeness of its example makes it especially important. Still staying in Spain's north, another of Galicia's cities, this time la Coruna, also has sections of a once great wall.
La Coruna, unlike Lugo, is a port town and faces the sea making it even more susceptible to past invasions and attack. The history of this city includes battles against the French and British and its neighbour, Ferrol, was the launching point for the Spanish Armada. The wall at la Coruna is not complete in the same way as that of Lugo, but some large sections of it still remain and those facing the harbour are particularly impressive. Also in la Coruna is the coast side castle of Saint Anton and the walls of the former fort of Saint Carlos, both from a post Roman period.
To find out more about the city and province of A Coruna, take a look at www.galiciaguide.com/A-Coruna-index and see our 17 page guide to all that this area has to offer.
Walls are not the only remaining Roman structures that can be found in the Iberian Peninsula. Bridges also exist that, in part at least, date back to this era. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of this is the massive bridge that spans the river Mino, again in the country's north. This bridge can be found on the edge of the city of Ourense and although rebuilt and repaired many times, still possesses some of the original Roman footings and abutments.
Many smaller Roman bridges are scattered throughout Spain's towns and villages and, with the appreciation of heritage being a relatively new concept, many are often taken for granted and their history ignored or undiscovered. Regrettably this can still result in ancient remains being left to decay or even being destroyed. In the historic port town of Noia, a bridge with a Roman ancestry is currently being considered for demolition in order to make way for a wider replacement. Hopefully this bridge, along with others facing similar threats, will escape to become staple parts of Spain's historic heritage.
Hello from Cuba (11) - Inside A Cuban Home
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Hello from Cuba (11) - Inside A Cuban Home
Etecsa Telecommunications Building, Downtown Havana
Wednesday, April 13, 2005, 3:06 pm
So I am sitting here in a new place and I gotta hurry since I bought a $6 CUC Internet access card and I only have 53 minutes left.
At any rate, the dinner at Pedro´s family on Sunday was amazing. We took the GuaGua (Public Transit System) and after about 1 hour we arrived in the area of Marinao. From there we had to walk another 30 minutes or so to get to his house.
There I was received by an entire Cuban family, Pedro´s wife and daughter, his sister in law and their two female cousins who had come in from out of town. It was amazing being in a Cuban home, after having spent a whole week in an impersonal hotel. It was immediately obvious that the Cuban concept of family is very different from what I have experienced in Austria or Canada. Family members live in very tight living quarters since housing is scarce in Havana and often 2 or 3 generations live under one roof.
My friend told me that in his father´s house 3 of his brothers live in one bedroom (and they sometimes receive visits from their girlfriends who end up sleeping in the same room), his sister and mother sleep in one room (as his mother is divorced), and the father and another sibling sleep in another room. It´s very difficult to imagine this type of crammed living environment, there is definitely not much privacy....
By Canadian standards, the home is very basic, located in a complex with about 6 apartments, this apartment contains 2 bedrooms which are shared by my friend, his wife and daughter (who together have one bedroom), his wife´s sister (who has the other bedroom) and the father of the 2 ladies sleeps in the living room.
Furniture and decor are very basic and instead of upholstered sofas the furniture consists of traditional wooden chairs that have a colonial appearance. One of the cousins who was in from out of town got married last year to a friend of mine in Toronto, so she came to Havana to go to the Canadian Consulate to get her visa to finally go to Canada. Getting to go to Canada is not an easy thing at all for Cubans, since it is very difficult to obtain a Cuban passport.
We talked a lot about Canada and about the fact that life is very different, the climate, the environment, the concept of family. This discussion was particularly relevant since Pedro´s wife´s female cousin is hoping to come to Canada in the next 6 weeks as she is currently pregnant.
At any rate, the hospitality was great. I was received like a long-lost friend and the ladies had really taken great care to prepare an outstanding dinner. The table was full of dishes: fried chicken, white rice with bean sauce, fried sweet plaintains (one of my favourite foods) and a tasty bean salad. We had flan for dessert and it was one of the best meals I have had in Cuba so far.
I had brought a little souvenir for the family: 2 sets of coloured pens for the little girl which she absolutely loved and some beautiful flowers for the ladies of the house. The atmosphere was a little shy at first, but after a while we started chatting, asking each other questions about our respective lives in these 2 very different countries. All the while I was there I felt very special and I felt truly honoured to have had an opportunity to be introduced to a Cuban family and to experience Cuban hospitality first hand.
Hello from Cuba (10) - A Country Excursion
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Hello from Cuba (10) - A Country Excursion
Hotel Havana Libre, Sunday, April 10, 2005, 12:45 pm
After my walk through the Vedado neighbourhood, my friend Pedro came to pick me up since I had suggested a little excursion with a rental car to get to know the countryside. His wife and sister-in-law unfortunately coulnd't make it since their cousin was coming to town. La Habana can feel a little claustrophobic since the transportation options are limited and even a basic taxi ride to the Eastern Beaches (Playas del Este) is quite costly.
And it's also nice to get away from the city, which can get rather congested and contaminated with car exhaust fumes from all the old vehicles. I can't imagine what the air must be like here in the summer when it is 35, 40 degrees Celsius with 80, 90 percent humidity. All the locals talk about the extreme heat in the summer and it's better to visit outside of the months of June to September, even October.
In addition, August and September are very prone to hurricanes which are an additional complication, that's why many buildings have crosses of thick adhesive tape attached to the glass. The tape prevents the glass from shattering when the hurricanes hit town.
Renting a car is always an interesting experience. I rented a small skoda at the Hotel Havana Libre for about $46CUC for 24 hours. If there were no damages and the gas tank was full upon return, there would be an additional $30CUC for the insurance and an additional driver. Being in the rental car felt strangly liberating because all of a sudden it was possible to overcome all the limitations of Havana's public transport and you could go where you wanted.
My friend Pedro is an experienced driver and loves driving, so he drove and off we went eastwards along the coast. We passed by Cojimar, Playas de Este, Playa Guanabo and stopped at the Puente Bacunayagua bridge which forms the border between the provinces of La Habana and Matanzas. The bridge is more than 100 m high and the view extends through forests to the ocean in the north and inland there is a valley with lush vegetation (Valle de Yumuri) with a chain of medium-size mountains in the background. At the bridge there is a little basic restaurant and a shop for tourists and we stopped for an hour or so. We also saw a really oversized iguana, apparently it was the offspring of the mother iguana which apparently is twice the size. The animal must have been almost 10, 15 inches long, including tail.
We then proceeded eastwards, past Santa Cruz del Mar, where there is a big rum factory, to Matanzas, the capital of the province of the same name. We just took a little drive around town and didn't stop, but the town has a couple of nice squares with monuments and statues. The architecture is definitely much less stunning than in La Habana. After Matanzas we drove inland to a small mountaineous area called "Escaleras de Jaruco", from where we had a beautiful view inland and towards the sea.
On the way back we briefly stopped at Playas del Este to capture the sunset and then we headed off towards Cojimar, a town famous for its connection to Ernest Hemingway. The town apparently still houses a very old man who was the inspiration for the novel "The Old Man and the Sea". Apparently the old man is still alive, probably around 100 years old or so and he used to receive visitors (for a small fee), but his health has deteriorated over the last few years and he no longer receives visitors. We wanted to have a nice dinner in a Paladar in Cojimar, but one was completely full, and the other one so expensive that we decided to continue on.
After our arrival back in La Havana we decided to go to a pizzeria near the Parque Central since I had a real craving for pasta. The food here can get a bit monotonous and I love Italian food, so we headed into a freezing, over-air-conditioned pizza parlour, where they had just run out of spagetthi. We tried another upscale Italian restaurant on the other side of the square, but it had prices that were higher than in some of Toronto's fine restaurants and we decided to head back to the Barrio Chino since they also serve pasta.
There we tried to park the rental car, but in doing so, we had a little encounter with the local traffic police. They alleged that my friend was not wearing his seatbelt (although he was) and they ended up giving him a fine of 10 local pesos (about 40 Cents or so). Apparently it can happen very easily that a local Cuban gets stopped and the police impose a fine and there are not too many things you can do.
After a very filling pasta dinner (for less than $7 for 2 people) we headed back to the hotel which is very close to the University. There was a big concert on in front of the university's steps and there were thousands and thousands of young people singing and chanting to the sound of a pretty famous Cuban pop group ("Moneda Dura") which plays very popular music for young people with sociocritical undertones. The atmosphere among the people, singing and dancing in the street, was amazing. I ended up heading to bed at about 12 or so and the music from the concert stopped at about 12:20 am and the huge crowd dispersed.
Early this morning I awoke to the smell of exhaust fumes from some of the buses and old cars passing through. Since I had to take the rental car back at 11 am today, my friend came to the hotel early and we decided to visit the area of Miramar, also called "Playas" on the western side of Havana, past the Rio Almendares. Miramar is a very upscale area with many foreign embassies, upscale hotels and congress centres. "Marina Hemingway", a nautical centre with canals, boats slips for yachts and private residences, is also located in Miramar.
It is so strange, but Miramar actually reminded me a bit of Fort Lauderdale. In general, Miramar, due to its more modern architecture, some of which is in very good condition, reminded me quite a bit of Florida. We visited a public sandy beach in Miramar which is surrounded by a range of public recreational buildings, most of which have been abandoned and are in dire condition due to the lack of public funds for upkeep. It is a real shame to see so much of the beautiful architecture around here collapsing and my professor said that in the future it may be cheaper to tear down a lot of the old architecture and rebuild from scratch than to try to preserve the old architecture, particularly in Habana Vieja.
As I had to return the rental car at 11 am today, we filled up the tank and although we had only gone about 250 km, the cost of the gasoline was $36 CUC (which is equivalent to about Can$45 or so), which was quite a bit more than I had expected. We took a brief tour through Nuevo Vedado, then past the Centro de Deporte Nacional, past the Comite Central (the Cuban government) and punctually returned the car at 11 am without any problems.
This afternoon I have been invited by my friend to come and meet his family at a private dinner. I am really looking forward to the experience of spending time with a Cuban family and from what I have experienced so far, Cuban hospitality is truly amazing. I'll try to pick up a few flowers from the market and bring along some of the Canadian souvenirs that I brought from Toronto to reciprocate the favour. It'll be interesting to see Cuban life from inside a Cuban home....
