Blogs

Some interesting and as always funny facts about flamenco's home country - Spain: http://tours-tv.com/ru/spain

• They have funny looking sandals – especially in Barcelona
• They say joder, coño, madre mia, vaya putada, ostia, gilipollo, esta de puta madre, hijoputa every few words. They all mean pretty much the same – damn, f…,  Jesus Christ, wtf (these are all palabrotas)
• They eat very VERY late – lunch from 2 to 4pm and dinner beginning with 10pm
• Having breakfast at home is not common
• Madrid’s tap water is one of the best ever, it’s actually drinkable
• The older population reminds me of the one in Romania
• Surprisingly, the same population goes out very often, and are always extremely elegant
• Older women love their long expensive natural fur coats
• Madrid has the smallest metro cards I’ve ever seen (the ones in Paris are almost the same)
• Football is their second religion
• Playing the lottery is a national hobby
• They respect their free time – many of the tiendas close for 3hrs after lunch time
• Spaniards like to party (no shit?!)
• Spaniards do botellon before they go to a club (drinking much cheaper drinks in someone’s house or in a park rather than paying triple inside a club; warming up)
• Only Cyprus surpasses Spain in the highest number of bars per inhabitants !!! (1 bar for 129 people; Romania has 1 bar for 1295 people - quite a difference, isn’t it?)
• Spain has the highest number of bars, restaurants and coffee shops, in the European Union, more exactly 344.426 !!!
• Presenting oneself at a party at 12 or 1 am is ridiculously early; Spaniards start the night around 2 am and finish at 6-7am, after which they go to eat churros
• On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, at 6-7am, the subway is one of the most crowded spots in Madrid – everyone is going home and they are still very much alive – it’s the best metro atmosphere I’ve ever witnessed, for once you feel happy to be where you areTo demonstrate just how much tobacco is part of their culture, you can only get subway passes for a month in an estanco, which is where they sell tobacco
• • Alcohol and tobacco are part of their culture – they almost never ask, while with a group of people, if they can smoke
  • Spaniards smoke a lot and a bit of everything
  • Not only that, but, strangely enough, even if it’s only a country of 4o something million people, Spain is number 1 in the world in consuming cocaine
  • Smoking is also perceived as a family activity
  • Two years ago, you could practically smoke anywhere and everywhere in Spain: in class, on the plane, on the subway, in hospitals, etc. Now you can only smoke in bars
  • The Canary Islands are a fiscal Paradise, they only pay around 5% taxes - they are closer to Africa than Spain and their main resource of living is tourism
  • Spaniards are always complaining
  • Spaniards talk a lot and very fast
  • However, Spaniards are some of the nicest kindest people you will ever see – when asking for directions in the street, EVERYONE helps you by thouroughly explaining the way, regardless of how busy or upset they might be
  • Most Spaniards are dark haired with dark eyes, peludos(hairy), not very tall
  • Spaniards, men and women, have the most excentric, bold, funny looking haircuts I’ve ever seen
  • The waiters are generally very rude
  • Mahou  is the no 1 best selling beer in Spain, however I thinkAlhambra is the best beer I’ve ever had, it has a sweet taste to it, hard to explain
  • Seat is the only Spanish car brand
  • You don’t have to leave any tip in Spain – this is a common mistake of the americans, being used to the traditional 15% tip in the US
  • When you buy a coffee, the waiter always brings something that looks like an expresso, and then they ad, in front of you, a ton of milk
  • Spaniards also kiss once on each cheek when meeting someone or when greeting and saying hello, such as Romanians
  • The Spanish hymn has no lyrics – did you notice the winner of the Euro Cup mumbling when listening to their national hymn?
  • Each regional country of Spain – Pais Vasco, Cataluña, Galicia – has its own language, hymn and flag
  • El Castellano is the main language
  • Spaniards are not very good at learning other languages
  • Every English word is made into a Spanish one (freak turns into friqui/friki, iphone turns into ifon, CD turns into cede, DVD turns into deuvede, etc)
  • For 40 years, between 1936 and 1975, Franco ruled Spain in the form of a dictatorship
  • Spain transformed itself from a very traditional poor society to a very modern rich one, reaching second place in the most visited countries in the world, with 59.2 million visitors a year (France is on first place with 81.9 million visitors, while the US is on third place, with 56 millions), as well as the second fastest growing population regarding immigration
  • Barcelona has 15 million visitors per year, while Madrid has only 6 or 7
  • The Madrid-Barcelona route has the highest number of flights per week in the world
  • The Madrid subway system is the third in the world, by number of kilometres covered, after London and New York, even if Madrid is barely the 50th metropolis
  • Spain has been the biggest doner of organs in the world, for 15 consecutive years !!!
  • Spain is the third country in the world, after the US and Brazil, adherent to plastic surgery!!!