Hot! (¡Que calor!)...

It's hot. Really hot. Unusually hot. Not that Spain isn’t used to the heat, it’s just that it's started really early this year. Since the end of June, it's been one ola de calor (heatwave) after the other. And there was also a heatwave back in May that saw 40°C temperatures in many parts of the country. This really shouldn’t really be happening until August.

In Madrid, the temperatures have got the hosteleros (bar owners) worried. Their terrazas (outside areas) have been deserted during the day, meaning they’re losing a tonne of money – although I suspect they’d be doing a roaring trade once the sun goes down. 

More worrying is the damage to agriculture. The Galician potato crop has been decimated, as has the corn. The sea temperature in the Mediterranean has already hit 30°C in some places along the coast, which has sent the Lubina (sea-bass - a favourite here in Spain) scurrying for colder waters.

Back in Galicia, in some parts they haven’t even been able to drink tap water as the high temperatures have led to a increase in a certain sort of toxin. 

It’s the effects of cambio climático (climate change), the government has admitted.

I'm writing this post sitting in the shaded terraza of a bar with a cerveza bien fria (nice cold beer). It's a favourite way to beat the heat for me.

Writing this post with a cerveza bien fria. That's some interesting balcony furnishings in front of me

Here in BCN we've also got the beach for that - although if you're a local you'll most likely head slightly out of town for a dip. Barcelona's city beaches (like the Barceloneta) are great for a walk, jog or cycle along their wonderful, palm-lined broad walks, but swimming is mainly for the tourists.

Las Platja de la Barceloneta (Barceloneta Beach)

A good hint that there might be a lot of tourists here: the information signs are in English.
Oh and yes, you can still smoke on the beaches here

You will find some locals at Bogadell or Mar Bella beaches, but most will head out of town if they can - just a little north to places like Ocata or south to Gavá or Sitges (all of which are really easy to reach by the local trains).

La Platja de Gavá (Gavá Beach). If you're looking for a wide, kms long, sandy beach, this is a great choice

We popped down to a place not far from Gavá called Garraf the other day – it’s a gorgeous little beach lined with little wooden holiday shacks. There’s a great beach-side restaurant there too called El Chiringuito de Garraf that does a sensational paella. 

Just a bit on from Gavá is Garraf. Much smaller but very cute. Check out those little wooden holiday shacks lining the beach.

My favourite beach though is Balmins Beach in Sitges. Balmins is just a little north of Sitges’ main beaches and much more natural and relaxed - although that doesn’t mean there’s not a chiringuito (beach-side bar) right there on the sand for that cerveza bien fria when you need it.

Balmins at sunset. That's Sitges' stunning old-quarter in the background. 

Balmins is officially a nudist beach, but in reality it’s very mixed and a favourite with all sorts – young, old, gay, straight - swimsuited or not.

In Madrid, reaching the beach is somewhat more complicated, but not impossible as in the AVE (the high speed train), it's only 90 minutes to Valencia. Still, that takes a bit of planning (and it’s not exactly a cheap day at the beach), so a lot of people head to the municipal pools or the pantano (dam) for a swim.

I made the trip to the Pantano de San Juan just once. It's a beautiful spot to the south-west of Madrid - a huge expanse of water surrounded by lovely bushland. But - and it's a big but - it's dirty. Not enough bins and too much of a propensity for the punters to dump their picnic and BBQ leftovers in the bushland ruined it for me.

What I used to do most when it was hot in Madrid was head to El Retiro, Madrid’s fantastic city park. I’d lie in the shade of a gum tree (surprisingly the park is full of them) or to really knock two or three degrees off the air temperature, take a wonder through the park’s forested grottos. You’d be amazed at how much cooler it is there.

There's a surprising number of gum trees in Retiro, especially down on the lawns at the Atocha end.

Retiro has stunning woodlands right in the centre of town. 

Despite all this talk about keeping cool, I’d much rather be hot than cold. I’ve always been that way, although 8 years in London did confirm it.

Still, being so hot from so early in the year is a bit of a concern. Even more of a worry is that while one government department here is acknowledging that this heat is a result of global warming, another of that same government is cutting subsidies for renewables and even worse, is planning to introduce new taxes to penalise those who have bothered to install rooftop solar with storage capacity!

It’s enough to make you wonder if the government is suffering a bout of heatstroke from this ola de calor…

Ten years of equality in Spain (10 años de igualdad en españa)

America should be very proud. #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/qH1OA1BV2j

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 27, 2015

There’s been a lot of excitement this past week to do with the US Supreme Court’s finding in favour of marriage equality in that country. And quite rightly too, as the finding means that the West’s most influential country has made same-sex marriage legal across the length and breadth of its land. It is a big deal.

But let’s not forget that 37 states of the Union already enjoyed marriage equality and, more importantly, the United States is country number 21 to legalise same-sex marriage.

My adopted home, Spain, celebrated 10 years of marriage equality this week. During this past decade 31,610 same-sex couples have married here (and I’m proud to say that G and I are included in that statistic).

The voting board in Spain's congreso (Parliament) showing the historic win for marriage equality on June 30, 2005

And Spain wasn’t even the first county to embrace marriage equality: Holland (in 2001) and Belgium (in 2003) beat it to it and Canada was pipped to the 4^th position by Spain by just a few days.

Of course with America’s decision the sad-old predictions have been trotted out: the erosion of family values, the devaluation of the institution of marriage, the "slippery slope" towards state-sanctioned incest, bestiality or polygamy – the latter, embarrassingly, was just repeated by a senior member of my own Australia’s government. 

But let’s be serious for a moment. Have any of these things actually happened in the 14 years since marriage equality has been a fact in our world? Of course not.

In Spain, the 31-odd thousand same sex marriages that have been performed in the last decade, in my eyes, can only strengthen marriage as an institution - that's 62-odd thousand extra people embracing marriage who never would have had the opportunity without marriage equality.

Recent polls here suggest that between 68 and a whopping 85 percent of Spaniards are in agreement with the right to marry having been extended to same-sex couples. It was around 58% ten years ago when the law was introduced.

Perhaps even more telling is that almost 60% of conservative voters, whose political party of choice voted against marriage equality and even took the law to the Constitutional Court (Spain’s version of the US’s Supreme Court) – and lost – now support marriage equality.

I would imagine that if the institution of marriage had been damaged here over the past decade, these numbers would not be nearly so positive.

With my own marriage, not once in the whole process – from filing the paperwork and picking up our marriage licence in the registro civil (Births, Deaths and Marriages) to the wonderful service in the ajuntamiento (town hall) - were G and I made to feel by anyone that this was somehow an inappropriate or unusual thing that we were doing. At our little reception afterwards, other diners at the restaurant went out of their way to come over and congratulate us.

Oh, and just to be clear, Spaniards are still not allowed (and not asking) to marry their brothers and sisters, dogs, cats, ferrets or more than one person at a time either.

So on this 10^th anniversary of marriage equality in my adopted home I want to raise a glass to Spain, the USA and to the 19 other nations of the Earth that have embraced equality and, sadly, waggle my index finger at my birth country who, in the face of an unstoppable tide, seems determined to hold out for as long as it possibly, petulantly can (despite the wishes of its own people).

Here's a little snippet from (rather fittingly) the movie version of Hairspray, that sums up quite nicely where I think we are today...