barca
2nd August 2006, 10:40 AM
Here is my second entry for the Top 5 - Having been visiting Spain for 20 years, first as an A Level student, now as a Spanish teacher and Hispanofile, I'd like to share the 5 things that always make me smile when I go to Spain.
1) In order to get out of a traffic jam/chaos/gridlocked crossroads, Spanish drivers will toot their horn in unison until someone is shamed into moving their vehicle. It always starts with a few intermittent toots, then little by little the crescendo grows until even cars 30 or 40th in the jam will be tooting. What a noise! Best place to see this - Rambla Catalunya/Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona.
2) If you have ever tried to buy shoes you'll know this one - the shop assistant will only ever bring you ONE shoe to try on and if you dare to ask for the other one, they think you're weird and don't know what to do.
If you ask for, say, a 42 shoe, they'll often come back and say that that size has sold out but here is one 2 or 3 sizes bigger, as if some how it will still be OK. Do Spanish people generally only have one foot? It's great!
3) The idea of a lunch hour is stretched to extremes - which I think is great. Try fininshing work at 1:30 and going back at 5:00. Time to wind down, time to have a full meal, time for a snooze, time to NOT get indigestion, time to see your family, time to chat. What are we doing wrong in Northern Europe? Support the siesta for all movement!
4) NOISE - NOISE - NOISE - the louder the better, to hell with the neighbours. Spain is a noisy country, especially at fiesta time. Fireworks, fire crackers, bands, trumpets, bulls, macrobotellon, mucha marcha......
No time for sleep - everyone from babies in pushchairs to 90 year olds are out and about. Don't think about going to bed before at least midnight, in some cases at all!
5) The best vignette of Spanish life is this - the Spanish are the best exponents of the theory that life is for living and that family is the most important thing above all else. Children are welcomed into bars with their parents, not forced out into some dodgy beer garden, the most important meal of the day is sacred and there is time for family's to meet and talk. Food is prepared fresh, sole-traders still exist for each type of foodstuff, markets still run, people still cook! The microwave is not king! Maybe rose-tinted spectacles here, but not completely. If you haven't visited Spain, do it! Us Northern Europeans have a lot to learn from Spain.
Feel free to add to this list of 5 if you wish.
1) In order to get out of a traffic jam/chaos/gridlocked crossroads, Spanish drivers will toot their horn in unison until someone is shamed into moving their vehicle. It always starts with a few intermittent toots, then little by little the crescendo grows until even cars 30 or 40th in the jam will be tooting. What a noise! Best place to see this - Rambla Catalunya/Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona.
2) If you have ever tried to buy shoes you'll know this one - the shop assistant will only ever bring you ONE shoe to try on and if you dare to ask for the other one, they think you're weird and don't know what to do.
If you ask for, say, a 42 shoe, they'll often come back and say that that size has sold out but here is one 2 or 3 sizes bigger, as if some how it will still be OK. Do Spanish people generally only have one foot? It's great!
3) The idea of a lunch hour is stretched to extremes - which I think is great. Try fininshing work at 1:30 and going back at 5:00. Time to wind down, time to have a full meal, time for a snooze, time to NOT get indigestion, time to see your family, time to chat. What are we doing wrong in Northern Europe? Support the siesta for all movement!
4) NOISE - NOISE - NOISE - the louder the better, to hell with the neighbours. Spain is a noisy country, especially at fiesta time. Fireworks, fire crackers, bands, trumpets, bulls, macrobotellon, mucha marcha......
No time for sleep - everyone from babies in pushchairs to 90 year olds are out and about. Don't think about going to bed before at least midnight, in some cases at all!
5) The best vignette of Spanish life is this - the Spanish are the best exponents of the theory that life is for living and that family is the most important thing above all else. Children are welcomed into bars with their parents, not forced out into some dodgy beer garden, the most important meal of the day is sacred and there is time for family's to meet and talk. Food is prepared fresh, sole-traders still exist for each type of foodstuff, markets still run, people still cook! The microwave is not king! Maybe rose-tinted spectacles here, but not completely. If you haven't visited Spain, do it! Us Northern Europeans have a lot to learn from Spain.
Feel free to add to this list of 5 if you wish.