Things to buy (and not)

So almost a year into this adventure known as Spanish living, I thought I would use an entry to talk about shopping and what it is like here. In some ways Zaragoza looks like a typical city, but in some ways it is VERY Spain. Here are some thoughts on spending money in our fair city:

Like any population center Zaragoza is full of stores of all kinds. the only type of store that is truly American and therefore challenging if not impossible to find is that magestic über-store of EVERYTHING that we like to call a pharmacy. Not that there aren't pharmacies in Spain; on the contrary, I've never SEEN a place with so many pharmacies. But pharmacies in Spain (always marked with a green cross) only sell pharmaceuticals. No candy, no toothbrushes, no greeting cards, and no aisles full of things like sewing kits, glue, and holiday tchochkes. Pharmacies sell cough drops, pills, and creams for your health. That's it.

What Zaragoza DOES have is an absurd number of shoe stores, banks, and laser hair-removal centers. If aliens landed on Earth and came to Zaragoza first, they would assume that they had just made contact with a planet full of rich, hairless natives with dozens of pairs of feet.

Shoes are a pretty good buy here, at least good shoes. Beautiful leather boots for 60 Euros, sk8r sneakers for 29 Euros, and if you go shopping in "Boutiqueland" (my name for our neighborhood) you can even find house slippers for 150 Euros. What a bargain! Between the four of us we have bought 9 pairs of shoes this year (including Chaia's very-specific rhythmic gymnastics shoes).

Museums are pretty inexpensive, and because this is

• a: A big city, and
  
• 2: a city that has been here since before the Romans,

there are many different museums worth visiting. I'm going to try and visit several more before the year is up. Evey one seems to have a special gem worth the admission.

Other things that are inexpensive here are things that you eat. Right now artichokes are going for 99 cents per kilo. In US measures and prices, that would be about 60 cents a pound. Fresh vegetables are all pretty cheap, as are fruits. We can't figure out how US customers continue to spend what we spend on spices, as a big container of garlic powder here costs about 85 cents. In Spain salt is pretty much given away, and not the ordinary salt. I'm talking about coarse sea-salt (that I have learned to love to use for cooking). An average cup of coffee (meaning incredibly good espresso) sells in every bar and café for about 1.20 Euros. You can eat a huge meal at an average restaurant (there are zillions of these too) for about 12 Euros (15 bucks). Olive oil is 2 Euros a liter, and bottled water (the water in Zaragoza tastes pretty bad) costs us a whopping 60 cents for 5 liters. Oh yeah, and pretty darn good bottles of wine cost between 4 and 6 Euros. The 10-Euro bottles would cost 25 bucks at home.

So what costs a lot? Anything that plugs in. Technology costs a fortune to buy (computers, tvs, digital anything). Cleaning supplies are pretty pricey too. Fresh milk (meaning milk that you have to drink within, say, six months of buying it; milk that has to be refrigerated) costs about the same as in the US, but it's hard to find. Gasoline costs about 6 dollars a gallon. In most cases clothes are outrageously priced, and you can't buy a CD for less than $20.

I'll stick with coffee, wine, and fresh artichokes steamed and dipped in sauce.

Want to know the price of something specific? Ask me! In fact, I would love to hear some of you questions about the year, or about Spain, or just about us. You can either post a question to the blog, or send me an email (alfordd@gouldacademy.org). I'll answer you as soon as I get back from shopping. I hear the mercado central has fresh shrimp tails for 4 Euros a KILO!