I have been a little pre-occupied over the past few days as my great friend and Internet guru, Mark van Jaarsveld, and I have been putting up a sister site to Culture Spain. This is Spain Football and should be of interest to any of you (or your partners!) if you are interested in Spanish football. Of course, I can [...]
Well, I am curious. Very curious… Why are there constant strikes in France and untold civil disruption – and nothing even vaguely similar happening in Spain? Truly, I would welcome someone’s opinion? For the past few months there have been seemingly endless strikes in France, along with frequent images of furious protesters. The French streets seem to have been filled [...]
“So, having asked him for his Escritura (property deeds), he handed me,” my Spanish lawyer friend said, despairingly, “a receipt for 140,000 Euros…” “A receipt?” I queried. “Yes. The type of numbered receipt that you would get from your plumber for fixing your washing machine. The sort which has a carbonated copy within the invoice book.” “And that was all [...]
One of the truly wonderful aspects to living here are the terrific festivals in Spain that happen periodically throughout the year. These, of course, are known as fiestas – which means ‘party’. However, the word ‘party’ does no justice whatsoever to a village or town fiesta in Spain! Far from it! A fiesta in Spain is, in reality, what most [...]
So, the registered jobless total in Spain is over the 4 million mark (4.02m)! Indeed, over 20% of the Spanish working population is now unemployed, which is over twice the Eurozone average. This is dreadful news and heralds an increasingly hard time for anyone working in Spain conventionally. Indeed, the outlook for the Spanish economy looks nothing if not gloomy [...]
It is funny how it can take a long time to understand what is happening around you when you are in a foreign country. Once you do then, of course, you tend to think ‘Oh my Goodness – I can’t believe that I have been so stupid!’ I am afraid that this was my reaction to a little known part [...]
Holiday Spain
I am sure that most Spaniards would think (probably correctly) that few people outside Spain have the faintest clue about bullfighting. Most non-Spaniards instinctively dislike it – and are shocked by the bloodletting and apparent savagery. And yet, bullfighting in Spain remains popular and is considered by many Spaniards to be a fundamental part of the very culture of Spain. [...]
Last weekend was the wonderful, annual Fira y Festes in Gandia and so it seemed only fitting for me to do a Blog mentioning the infamous Spanish Borgias – who came from Gandia. Well, strictly speaking, the Bogias came from nearby Xativa but the eldest son of Pope Alexander vi was Duke of Gandia and it is Gandia that seems [...]
As anyone reading this Blog will know, I have been pessimistic about the Spanish property market for years now. Indeed, I was writing about the on-coming property crash in Spain and the UK back in 2005 – when it was blatantly obvious to me that the property market in both countries was overheating. Since then, I am afraid that I [...]
In Spain, immigration is a contentious subject amongst the Spanish. This is not surprising given the staggering numbers of immigrants who have come to Spain over the past ten years. In fact, the raw statistics about Spanish immigration make stunning reading (see Controversies of Spanish Culture, above). In 2000 there were 923,879 immigrants in Spain – in 2009, 5,658,671. [...]