Real life has suddenly pushed aside my regular blogging! Recovering from jetlag and preparing for back to school kind of threw me off schedule... but I have a few thoughts on Spain (and how it compares to life here in Canada/North America) that I will share for now. Sometime in the near future I still plan on posting my city by city synopsis and thoughts.
Warning - these are my personal observations and although they may sound negative please don't interpret them as complaints. I understand that different cultures do things differently, and by travelling and experiencing new things I am often lead to acknowledge that what we have here is pretty darn good! This, however, does not make me want to stop going out and seeing the world (scabs and all), because that is what makes things interesting!
Thoughts on Spain;
Smoking – it was everywhere. You couldn’t escape the smell and the cigarette butts were everywhere – even on Greek monuments from 1 BC! It annoyed us to no end how a person smoking at a dinner table would hold their arm away from their table which put it right next to ours. If you don’t want it at your own table, please don’t give it to us! The obvious effect of it was all over many faces as well – dark bags under the eyes and that distinctive smoker’s pallor that was especially apparent on people over the age of 45.
Garbage – again, it was everywhere. The streets were cleaned nightly with little zamboni looking machines and there was also a nightly garbage pick-up. If this hadn’t occurred it would’ve been a giant mess because culturally most of the people tend to just toss their stuff on the ground when they’re finished with it. Not everyone, of course, but we saw it happen over and over again. The streets of San Sebastian’s old town were absolutely disgusting late at night, but in the morning they were fresh and clean. Begs the question – do they clean the streets nightly because the people are gross, or are the people gross because they know the streets will be cleaned every night? There definitely needs to be some kind of education campaign about litter – yuck.
Siesta time – the idea sounds nice but the implications are annoying. To have most businesses shut down for 3 hours every afternoon is weird! It’s not like they are starting that early anyway, so you go to work for a few hours, go home for a few hours, head back in the early evening for a few more hours… no wonder their economy stinks! How can you accomplish anything when you never get to really put the time in? Very strange, and I always wondered what they did at home every afternoon for 2 or 3 hours in the middle of the day – I know that personally I would prefer that time in the evening when I know I don’t need to go back to work and have to think again.
Late, late dinners – ugh. For the first week I went to bed each night feeling heavy and full – definitely not spritely! Eventually my body got used to it, but eating a large, heavy meal before bed just seems hard on your digestion. It definitely cut down on the need for a big breakfast, but if left no time for an evening walk before bed. Then again, no chips on the couch before bed either!
Kids up late – this is a very interesting cultural thing and I can’t decide if I’m for it or against it. It’s really nice (in a family sense) to be able to take your kids anywhere at any time. If you want to go out for dinner (which means after 9 pm there) the kids simply come along. We saw kids of all ages out until midnight on many occasions. However, the lack of the evening ‘adult quiet time’ was missed… you know, that blissful time after the kids are in bed and you’re able to sit in a quiet, calm house. We missed that. It made us wonder, when do the adults get to have that time? In the morning? During that ‘siesta’ time when the kids are at school? We couldn’t figure it out. Most kids were very well behaved in the restaurants so that was really nice to see and it’s obviously just expected of them. Although the lack of time to recharge and re-connect as adults was manageable for a 3 week trip, it wouldn’t be nice for eternity. I prefer the ‘early to bed for children’ custom!
We had a very enjoyable and unforgettable vacation and the positives far outweighed the negatives. For instance, the prevalance of fresh, delicious, and cheap gelato was definitely a highlight, the coffee is so, so good, the beaches were clean and beautiful, the wine was cheap (!), eating is such a relaxed affair that coming home and eating in a restaurant feels rushed, the metro systems were fast, easy, and reliable, and we felt safe everywhere we went. Oh, and the Europcar rental office in the Barcelona Sants train station was the quickest, cleanest, and most pleasurable car rental experience we've ever had anywhere in the world!
So, to sum it up, things are always different when you leave your comfort zone. I know that if people travel here from other countries they must get very annoyed by some of our customs that we feel are perfectly reasonable. But I like it that way. If the entire world was the same what fun would that be?
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