"You Don't Know Shakira? What, You Lived Under A Rock?"

"You don't know Shakira? What, you lived under a rock?"

"Well actually..."

Here’s another one from my archives. It’s the town under a rock, Setenil de las Bodegas, Spain, where around 3,000 inhabitants are living quite literally, under a rock.

The small white washed town has a unique setting along a narrow river gorge eroded by the Rio Trejo river, with many of the houses being built into and under the walls of the gorge itself.

There was a practical reason for living here.  The natural caves are ideal living quarters because they didn’t need to build whole houses to keep out the heat and cold- the cave did that. All they had to build were the façades. 

The bars, restaurants and food shops are ranked as the best in the region.

In summer, the town is vibrant.

The town used to be large store rooms for local produce, b/c of the cool environment in the rock. 

It’s fascinating to think of them building this town. 

Look at this little house.

Even though a lot of the town is under the rock, a lot of it still gets the sun. It’s like going in and out of tunnels.

https://www.messynessychic.com/

YES EXCACTLY YOU CAN PRY MY CDS FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS

HOLD THE LINE!! KEEP PUSHING!!!!!

I love word lore

do u ppl say ‘etic’ or ‘eee tee sea’ when u read this?-> etc.

Gotta read those books

More on my journey into Scandinavian folk magic.

The idea of luck as a tangible thing was a fundamental part of Scandinavian magical beliefs. It was like good soil or water. A thing that just existed in nature and some areas had more of it than others. You could give your share of luck to others or take it. So if a person suddenly seemed more lucky than the rest of the village it had to be because they were stealing it from everyone else and they were viewed with suspicion. That explains why even today Scandinavians don’t take kindly to people flaunting their wealth. Now it has more to do with our countries having high taxes and a general idea that that’s okay because we’re trying to help each other so if you’re super rich you’re hogging the wealth. It’s easy to compare it to the idea of hogging luck. Suspicion of well todo people was already there.

Because a lot of people wanted to know, I’ve been reading “Djævletro og Folkemagi” “Heksens Håndbog” “Folk og Fæ” and just generally talked to older people who remember their parents or grandparents doing folk magic. No idea if any of those books exists in your language unfortunately.

Whaaat really?? I'm Danish and living in Denmark and I've always been scared to go into the fields!! NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOWWWW

Just read a perfectly fine fanfiction that took place in Germany but something that stood out to me was a chapter where the characters walk across a field and is approached by the farmer yelling at them to get off his land.

I’ve come across this plot point a few times and I feel like it’s worth telling writers that most of Europe has some version of Right To Roam. The laws aren’t the same in every country but generally you’re allowed to walk and rest on private property like fields and forests so long as you don’t destroy crops or leave trash, but not gardens or fenced in areas. Depending on the country you also have the right to pick mushrooms, berries, nuts and other edible things in forests but without chopping trees down or breaking branches. The owner of the land might put up a sign asking you to follow certain guidelines like no horses or keeping your dog on a leash but but there’s no real repercussions to not following the rules besides the owner eventually fencing the area off so people can’t enjoy it anymore.

I’ve personally walked around on a field while the farmer was harvesting potatoes with his big ass machine and collected the leftovers while my dog was trotting calmly besides me and he looked straight at me and didn’t care one bit because Denmark also has an old tradition of letting people collect what’s left as a form of charity (for my fellow Danes, that’s what “rev vi marken let, det er gammel ret, fuglen og den fattige skal også være mæt” means in the song Marken Er Mejet) This is just a tradition and not a law however so it depends on the farmer.

The very north of Europe like Norway and Sweden even give people the right to put up tents and camp on other people’s private land (except gardens and such). Again, the laws vary from country to country but as a rule of thumb you have more right to roam the further north you go and less the further south but if you want to write in a specific country look up the laws there.

YOU KNOW IT HAIKU BOT