Just returned from Spain, where I visited the metropolitan Madrid, the removed resort area of Bilboa and Boston’s sister city Barcelona. Since I was working, I didn’t have time for many tourist sites. Instead, most of what I noticed was the daily life.
Two observations. Iced Tea is not popular. I met a marketing person who works for a major tea company who has tried to introduce it there. With the warm weather and cafe culture, it should make an impact, but it hasn’t. On the other hand, I noticed that non-alcoholic beer, cerveza sin alochol, is very popular. You see people having it everywhere, at bars and restaurants (it’s always served with the bottle, whereas the other beer mostly from tap, so you notice it). It’s as normal a thing to order as coke or, well, beer. Am I wrong this isn’t the case in the US, despite what I remember as a big marketing push?
Oh, you hardly ever see a pregnant woman on the streets. Is it odd that I noticed this (I mean, noticed the absence of something)? I timidly raised the topic to my hosts, and they explained, indeed, Spain has an alarmingly low birth rate, one of the lowest in the world. The theories range from flimsy health care coverage for pregnancies to rebellion against the large families of previous, more Catholic generations. Or maybe it’s because nobody’s getting drunk because of the cerveza sin alcohol.
According to some, Boston can learn from Barcelona’s city planning. It does seem like an amazing walking city, and the people I met who live there rave about its ease.
Welcome back!
Funny you should notice the unpregnant. Too much time spent in Park Slope, perhaps?
Definitely too much time here. It makes me feel very observant that I noticed it though.