Why you shouldn't move to sPAIN

Yes Spain has great beaches, cheap alcohol, lots of art museums, historical cities, beautiful mountains, can offer a warm weather. These pros can make a place great to live. But are these things enough to make Spain great place to live? For me Spain was very much like a pain. Here i would like to point out what i didn't like about living in Spain after spending a year or, in other words, wasting a year there. 

I can start from that the state institutions of Spain is very indifferent to people living there. They simply do not care what happens to people.  Every day a lot of theft cases happen and the police  do not do anything about it. They don't track the cases down even though they can easily look through cameras. So people who commit such actions of theft get no deterrent punishment. Your stuff can get stolen in a place with security cameras but yet you will do nothing but expect that maybe someone will find your documents near a trash can and give them to the police. It is not just  about the police. In general, if you need something to do with official paperwork, it is likely to get some problems with them. They don't provide much easiness for people. You deal with some bureaucratic and unimportant problems. The bureaucracy is terrible. 

Another thing is quality has been replaced by practicality which is not good for getting the right nutrition. Maybe fast food was not born in Spain but it seems like it is fully embraced there.  To give an example: if you are used to eat bread a lot in your diet, you won't find a good one. The supermarkets use frozen breads which will start becoming like stone in a very short time. you better find a good bakery and if there is no bakery where you live, you are bound to eat frozen breads.  Another example is that you won't be able to find good tea. All of them that are sold in the markets are quick tea bags that has bad taste.

It is not all about food but also other goods as well that prove quality has been replaced by practicality.  You don't easily find something that  is made in Spain. Most of the products are imported and you can't really find genuine Spanish products. Imagine you are going to buy a gift about Spain which is made in China. Cheap gets more attraction yet offers less quality, authenticity.

The last is that i am going to mention about Spain is that youth. I found them in general as poser, inauthentic, very selfish, not understanding unlike older generations. I most of time encountered with bunch of jerks. I personally don't think of spending much time in Spain again. I would go for holiday only.

Pablo Picasso's Best Friend

     In Sierra Norte of Madrid, there is a small town but when it is compared to its neighbours, a big one, called Buitrago Del Lozoya. It is surrounded by a river which makes the look a bit magical from some points outside and still keeps its medieaval castle and walls. This is the town where Picasso's barber Eugenio Arias is from. Even though not many people even from Madrid don't know, there is a museum of Picasso in this little big town which is one of the main attractions. In the museum, a collection of  Picasso is exhibited but the works are the ones that are not known and were given by Picasso's himself as gift to Eugenio Arias. 

Picasso's wife Jacqueline Roque, Picasso and Arias

    The collection consists of some posters, paintings, ceramics and paintings on ceramics,books and some decorations on boxes with the theme of bullfighting, Don Quijote. When compared to Picasso's famous works, these works do not grab much attention and seem rather simple and one can say that these were made with a little care. But one can also say that these works include intimacy. The works invite the viewer to take a look at more personal side of Pablo Picasso. He signed his works by writing ''para mi amigo Arias'' in english ''For my friend, Arias.'' And there is a quotation from Arias that defines their friendship: ''Nothing is more valuable in this world than that which cannot be bought: respect, friendship, trust and loyalty.'' 

    According to the flyer I got from the museum, two friends met first in Toulouse, France in 1945 through a left wing freedom fighter, Dolores Ibarrui who is called as La Pasionari, and they kept their friendship for so many years. They shared the common political ideas, love for Spain. Arias, who was the only person that cut Picasso's hair maybe because of Picasso's supersititous nature, called Picasso as ''his second father.'' Today the gifts that Arias received would cost million dollars yet he preferred them to be exhibited in that little big town. They attract tourists, art lovers and contribute to the town's economy. And the townhall immortalized him by naming the library after him.

Here are  some of his works.

There are of course a lot of more photos in my folder. But maybe not seeing them here is a reason to visit the museum. And to make the post shorter... 

The End.