I have been busy with other things of late, haven’t taken time to post, and admit I write today mostly to keep this URL from oxidizing, or sprouting green fungi. I may have more to hold forth about later in the year. In the meantime: another installment of favorite words and sayings in español: Mas…
All posts by Tim Adams
Tarragona via a Renfe Competitor
Tarragona is a Catalan port city near the high-speed rail route linking Barcelona and Madrid. The ancient Romans called it Tarraco, built a shore side amphitheatre and a circus for chariot races. Tarragona has beaches, a touristy old town and a cathedral, one of Catalonia’s largest. I hankered for a visit, and also craved a…
Lithuania: Tourist Impressions
I visited the capital city Vilnius and Kaunas, about ninety kilometers northwest. While there, I thought: LITHUANIA IS STRONGLY PRO-UKRAINE Expect to see the Ukraine bicolour on stickers, buttons, donation boxes, even on a mini-flag worn like a cape around a resident’s shoulders. Vilnius ❤ Ukraina declare the head signs of Vilnius buses. Putin, the…
Bus Transit in Madrid: an Overdue Post
About Madrid buses I have remained mostly silent, despite this blog’s fetishistic name and despite many past gushes about Madrid’s rail network. Why? Blogger bias! Blogger emotional bias. I lived without wheels for over a decade in car-centric Los Angeles, may suffer a straphanger’s PTSD from so many occasionally torturous slogs in buses there, as…
So Should You Go Expat?
I did, almost seven years ago. My personal knowledge is limited to my 2016 move from the U.S. to Spain, but I’ll dare to parlay that experience into guesses about expatriatism elsewhere. My opinion feels stable. This post is slanted toward those contemplating long-term or lifetime moves, and not toward those who intend only to…
(Three Underappreciated) Madrid Museums
I’m free to write an ‘Ode to the Prado‘ post — and eventually might, as I’m now a card-carrying Amigo¹, visit often — but Spain’s flagship art museum hardly needs publicity. Three and a half million visited the Prado in pre-pandemic 2019; a million more descended on the nearby Reina Sofía. These are world-famous bucket…
Adiós, Alphabet
As in Alphabet, Inc., the Nasdaq-100 corporate parent of Google. I bought my first shares a month after the Hadron Collider opened (just to help you place the date), never thought when CERN started zinging particles in there that I’d one day regret my status as a fractional Google corporate owner. But, I did. My…
Madrid Impressions: Round Eight
As photographed at the Príncipe Pío mall on December 26. I was surprised, too. Spain’s little ones see Santa on TV, explained one Madrileña, clamor pitilessly to lobby the Bearded One for merch east of the Atlantic, too. Still a relative novelty in Spain, and not uncontroversial. What was so terrible about waiting for gifts…
(More) Spanish Film for Spanish Students
My stint as a voracious consumer of Spanish cinema has drawn to a close. I now own more than two hundred DVDs and Blu-Rays, have seen many more films through RTVE and Spain’s library system. The stint served me well. Listening is the language skill that matters most in my day-to-day expat life: understanding the…
Los Angeles Transit: a History
Or my interpretation of the history, at least, as shall be presented tomorrow at a meeting of Andén 1, a transit enthusiast group in Madrid. President Eduardo Gallego suggested the talk. I combed through my collection of transit-related books, articles and bookmarks, wrote up the remarks that follow. If I post now, I’ll have a…