Christmas Eve in a Foreign Land
As years go, 2020 has been an unusual one, to say the least. Whether globally or individually, we have all been touched in some way by the Covid pandemic. I had plans to spend Christmas and probably New Year with my family now living in the UK, and if that weren’t possible, a quick trip up to Germany or Poland to bother family or friends was definitely a plan B. Unfortunately, the rise in Covid cases in Spain and around the world, also known as wave 2 or 3 or whatever it was, definitely nixed that. I wasn’t the only one whose plans were stalled, either. Ewa had planned to go home for the two weeks she has off school but, instead, she has moved in with me so it looks like Christmas will be even more Polish than it usually is.
First, of course, there were some preparations to do. I made another visit to the beautiful Correus building to send off a card to Canada. Not knowing the normal cost of an oversize envelope, I spent over 45 minutes inside waiting to get a stamp all while enjoying the glorious interior so, in all honesty, the time wasn’t at all wasted. A few days before Christmas Eve I went to see a couple of different movies at the local CinesBabel where you can watch all movies in their original versions (i.e. not dubbed but subtitled, a rarity here). One of these movie trips was on a day I had booked an online meeting with my work buddies and because the theatre isn’t super close I was worried I wouldn’t make it home on time. Now, I’m not really showing off but I do have to say it was rather cool to be able to download Microsoft Teams onto my phone while I was walking, make it all work (no small feat if you’ve ever worked with any Microsoft product and Teams in particular), and still be early for the meeting. This allowed me to take my friends on a little virtual tour of my neighbourhood … I quite enjoyed one question: why is the ground so shiny? It’s shiny because the sidewalks and plazas here are covered in marble … and the festive lights everywhere make it quite startlingly bright, even in the dark of winter, also making them great for skaters and rollerbladers. Oh, I almost forgot … the walk home from the theatre also included meeting the world’s cutes Dachshund puppy ever (sorry Leroy, I met you when you were no longer a puppy), and in my giddiness I took the world’s worst videos of him, never mind photos. I’m sure the poor pup will have life-long trauma from all the squealing I did but meh, I loved him. His name is Rocky.
There was much shopping to be done before the feast of Christmas Eve, of course, so Ewa and I made a number of trips to the Mercat Central and the two larger supermarkets, Mercadona and Consum, both located on opposite ends of Ciutat Vella. I was quite happy to find the Consum as it is much closer than the Mercadona which means I don’t have to carry my shopping quite so far, though our pre-Xmas groceries needed to be carried in one of those wheeled shopping trolleys that are so popular here. While walking back from the Consum one day we took a little detour through some street close to home but which remained until now unexplored only to find a beautiful plaza with various buildings under renovation. A building that clearly needed nothing of that was this one … please note the trompe-l’œil on the sides. I just love small touches like these that make the buildings in València so beautiful.
I’m also quite impressed with the flower shops at the Plaça de l’Ajuntament … there are a lot of very interesting plants and decorations one can purchase at this time, and not just poinsettias which, apparently, do quite well in the cool weather of December and can be kept outside. Totally not like the ones we have in Canada which require very specific conditions (not too cold and not too warm) to thrive and still look like crap in no time.
Finally! Christmas Eve was upon us and we could commence the preparations … though, to be brutally honest, this was the most relaxed CE I’ve ever had, with, perhaps, the exception of that one time my ex and I took off for Tofino back in the early ’80s. The reason for it being so relaxed was the fact that there was so little to do. It was going to be just the two of us (Sagrario was still in Burriana spending the days with her family) and the menu was pretty basic. That said, we had fun making it all and just hanging out. She made the traditional Polish vegetable salad, we had a typical Polish red barszcz (borscht) made out of a packet with the mushroom pierogi replaced by Chinese dumplings, some cauliflower with butter and breadcrumbs, rice, and lovely cod from the Mercat in pockets (with veggies and pesto). This was still more food than we expected but at least it tasted great. It was also all gone in no time. Thanks to my Mom we also had some opłatek, the traditional Polish wafer that is shared before the meal as best wishes are exchanged. I missed my family on this day more than any other, of course, so calls were made, wishes sent, and all was right in the world, at least for a few hours.
Merry Christmas! Wesołych Świąt! Feliz Navidad!
