There are many great blogs about Spain out there but this week at The Local we're putting the spotlight on six of the very best. Enjoy!
Writing under the nom de plume Hamatha, Madrid-based Nicole Jewell brilliantly depicts the comic side of life in Spain, giving us the low-down on grumpy grandmothers and strange saints days and all points in between.
"I started writing Pass the Ham in the summer of 2011, about five years after I moved to Madrid," Nicole tells The Local.
"When I began my new expat life in Madrid, I wrote a personal journal. At the time, I had no interest in starting a blog. However, a few years later, when I went back and read those stories, I realized that some of them were pretty funny and I wanted to share them online so I started Pass the Ham."
We're very grateful that she did. Nicole's blog is a must-read mix of "personal expat stories as well as a few tips on living the Madrileño life to the fullest".
Lobstersquad
Ximena says her most popular recipe is the one for spinach and chickpeas, which you can find here.
As the name suggests Moving2Madrid is all about setting up in the nation's capital, but it's useful for anyone looking to make their way through the bureaucratic minefield that is life in Spain .
In his ultra-useful blog, relocation agent Pierre-Alban Waters informs readers how to do things like apply for a national insurance number, open a bank account and hook up to international television in Madrid. There are cultural tips as well, and ideas on weekend jaunts in close range of the capital.
"I believe in helping international people follow their dreams in Madrid," Pierrre tells The Local.
New Life in Spain
This blog, which focuses on travel around Spain, is written by a Norwegian long-term resident of Spain. The author is based in Las Palmas and the blog has a definite Canarian slant, but has lots of pictures and tidbits of advice from around the country – particularly Barcelona and Malaga, where she has lived in the past.
The blog also has lots of great cultural observations, such as a recent post detailing how German tourists' insistence on baring all in the spa earns the disapproval of the locals (and the mild discomfort of at least one visiting Scandinavian).
A previous resident of Barcelona, she also has some interesting thoughts on learning Spanish in this bilingual Catalan-Spanish city, as well as observations about attitudes to independence in the various Spanish regions.
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