10 surprising facts about Spain (peculiar customs)

There shall be no long introductions this time. Let me present to you:

10 surprising facts about Spain:

1) The Spanish don't use kettles to boil water

They just don't have them, neither traditional stovetop kettles nor electric ones. I myself, a great tea lover (especially green tea), found it really annoying at first. Take the electric kettle for example, you fill it with water, switch it on and after a few moments, and a familiar click, you can brew pots of tea. In Spain having a kettle as part of the kitchen equipment seems like too much of the modern convenience so whenever you need boiling water you need to boil it in a pot.

2) Windows and doors- everything in reverse

There are no windowsills from the outside in Spanish houses and flats. The majority of them don't have windowsills at all so you can forget about growing pots of flowers or herbs on there. Also windows don't have a handle. They open neither outwards nor inwards. You need to press a special button located on the window and move the window sideways, right-left.

As for the doors, they too don't have handles from the outside (doors and windows without handles - does that remind you of anything? ) and they work on some sort of latch lock mechanism. This means that you can easily lock yourself out after forgetting not to slam the door when taking bins out or having a little chit-chat with your neighbour. Unless there is someone inside to open the door for you or luckily you remembered to bring your keys with you you'd better make yourself comfy on your doormat.

3) Spanish driving culture

In my personal ranking of the worst driving cultures (which includes Turkey, Spain and Poland. I don't count Great Britian because they have been driving on the wrong side for decades now) Turkey comes first. The Turkish drive like madmen and the pedestrian crossing has a purely decorative function. Even if a pedestrian happens to walk across a zebra crossing it doesn't necessarily mean that drivers will bother to stop.

(Yes I know it does sound nuts. Once when I was crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing right by my place I came very close to being hit by a car, and I was right in the middle of the pedestrian crossing. The driver didn't even look back twice. He screeched away. Did he mean to apologise? Highly doubtful and I didn't dare to insist. Probably all I could have got from him is a few nasty names in Turkish).

Spain comes second in my ranking. I have to admit that the Spanish drivers stop at the pedestrian crossing in exemplary fashion. After my traumatic experiences with drivers in Turkey I would exercise great care whenever approaching a zebra crossing in Spain: "Is he going to stop or not? " I can truly say you don't have to worry about that. Even buses stop just fine. However, when I was in Barcelona I've noticed that drivers themselves are fed up with driving... they squeeze in here, slide by there, blow their horns here, shout insults there. That seems to be their "driving style". I warn you, you've got to have nerves of steel to survive.

Poland ranks low in my list. Of course you always come across some lunatics who think the road is a Formula One circuit, or Kowalskis who will call you names for crossing their way, and other weird types. Either way Poland seems to be the most pedestrian-friendly country on my list.

4) Children play outside until late night hours

And that happens not only during fiestas when the majority of townspeople hang out on streets but also on regular days, day in and day out children play and run around in parks and playgrounds, even pubs where often their parents are.

When I was a child there was one rule: "first evening TV cartoon for children, which was always at 7 pm., and then sleep time! " If I grew up in Spain I would be running outside for at least 4 more hours... and it wouldn't matter that tomorrow is a school day.

Something else also stuck in my mind. I remember one couple who came to "Fiesta Mayor" in our town with their one and half month old baby. It must have been around 11 pm., but never mind the late hour, it was the level of noise that the baby had to endure without any ear protection that was shocking to me. And the noise level was certainly exceeding safe decibel limit for babies... Oh well, at least the parents had fun. "Livin' la vida loca", stress-free parenting and the like (or in this case it was more like stressful parenting).

5) Those shops are open weird times...

I am sure many people know what I mean by the Spanish word "siesta". It's even become part of Polish colloquial language. And yet siesta doesn't mean a nap or sleep but simply a little rest time. Siesta is inviolable and during siesta shops are closed. If the truth be told siesta is not one of those things that surprised me about Spain because I'd heard about it long before I actually went there. However, it does show something interesting about their attitude towards work and rest times. Now then nobody is going to open their shop just for us so all we can do is to accept it and adjust our shopping habits a little bit.

Source

6) Strangers kiss each other!

Source

In Poland when you meet a new person, for example at a party, you greet each other with a handshake, sometimes it is just a quick nod or a smile and that's it as far as greetings are concerned. In Spain when people first meet they kiss each other... Easy though, it is just one kiss on each cheek (just or maybe so many).

Kissing is a proper way to greet anyone-regardless of the fact whether you know the person well or just by sight, or maybe you see him or her for the first time in your life because somebody's just introduced her or him to you.

Personally, I really like this custom. It is an effective icebreaker. Sometimes when I meet the Catalan speaking friends I find it hard to join in their conversation (which is a topic for another post) so I always joke that I'm there just to collect kisses from everyone, both greeting and goodbye kisses. It's nice to be showered with kisses for no reason, isn't it? It is certainly not something to complain about.

7) You get beer in 0, 33l

Why is that? I don't understand... It is very rare to get bottled beer in 0, 5l (personally I've never been served with a 0, 5l beer, it would always be 0, 33l whether a bottled beer or a keg beer).

I imagine the Spanish and Bavarians wouldn't agree on that note... (if you don't know what I'm talking about click here to read about my trip to Munich).

Source Very popular Spanish beer Estrella

8) Litter is everywhere

Streets are dirty, especially those poorer neighbourhoods suffer great deal. Inasmuch as the streets in the centre are well maintained, those further away from the centre seem to have been forgotten by street sweepers. What is more, many people use public bins for treasure hunt and in the process they leave part of their content scattered around the bins: run-down clothes, food scraps, papers, cans, everything that ends in a bin. To top it all, bins are not hidden somewhere behind the buildings in a secluded place but right on the pavements. You can imagine the smell those bins would give off, especially on hot days. It would be impossible to walk pass them without covering your nose or holding your breath.

9)The Spanish are mad about ham...

The Spanish word Jamón has a special place in the Spanish culinary alphabet. Jamón translates into pork ham, to be more precise jamón curado is ripening ham, it rose to the rank of national pride. . Many Spanish shops which sell jamón curado have whole pig legs hanging on every single wall. There are quite a few pubs which serve ham-based meals only (! ) I am sorry for vegetarians. You can even visit museums devoted to jamón curado! In simple terms, Spain's gone nuts for ham. And if for some reason you dare to admit you are not a ham lover (it's best not to admit this)... you will escape with life and limp only because one cannot kill just by staring at somebody.

All those smoked pig legs remind me of a silly Polish song which starts like that: "I want to see your legs, legs, legs, legs... "

Two types of ham are particularly popular, that is Jamón Serrano and Jamón Ibérico. The latter type, Iberian ham, is known for its superior quality.

The Spanish add jamón to everything. You can choose from a wide array of tapas with ham (Spanish snacks), bocadillos (sandwiches), salads and hot meals. It is also common to serve plain jamón in pubs, restaurants and private houses. There is nothing like a pint of beer in a pub with a plate of good ham.

Bocadillos are very popular during lunchtime

Something else

Continuing with what suprised me about Spain, I would like to describe in a nutshell:

10) The Spanish wedding

Firstly, I would like to stress that the wedding I had a chance to attend was not a typical, traditional Spanish wedding. Both the wedding ceremony and wedding reception were conducted in the Catalan language and they didn't contain many elements of the traditional Spanish wedding about which I'd read so much before the wedding.

So let's start from the very beginning...

The wedding took place in beautiful Argentona, a little village surrounded by hilly forests and situated around 40-50 minutes away from Barcelona. The scenery was breathtaking.

Have I told you how stunning the scenery was?

In Spain it is popular to get married in places other than a church or registry office. The happy couple can choose any place to exchange vows: the woods, park, garden, beach...

Back to the wedding I attended, the guests gathered in the woods where folding chairs and little altar were set for the occasion. The priest kept making jokes (apparently not very funny ones). Friends and family came. The parents of the bride and groom gave speeches. It reminded me of those seen in American movies when after the best man's speech everybody raises a glass to the happy couple). Similar to the Polish tradition, there is a custom of sprinkling the newlywed couple with rice right after the wedding ceremony (no coins though). Nevertheless, no rice or coins were used at the wedding I was invited to, just dried-up flowers and herbs.

Unlike in Poland, guests don't give flowers to the newlyweds after the ceremony. And they don't queue to congratulate and pass on their best wishes to the couple. Instead, the newlyweds approach the guests separately.

What might seem of importance, especially to the hungry ones, hot meal will not be served after the wedding ceremony but you can count on cold snacks and a glass of champagne or wine. Ladies in high-heels, you'd better prepare yourself for a standing banquet as there was not much space reserved for sitting down. Children were a bit better off as they had a table assigned. They were served with crisps (how healthy) and crunchy-like snacks.

Food

Since I've started talking about food (purely by accident of course) I will continue as I've got more to say... Not surprisingly, the wedding menu included some typical Spanish and Catalan dishes.

Some of the typical Spanish snack foods were: Pan tomaca (tomato bread), bread with jamón (of course, cf. Point 9), mini-sandwiches with egg and sprouts, olives, and prawns with strawberry and orange.

After the banquet, the guests were invited to the garden where we found round tables for 8 people each. The waiters were serving various types of crocquetas (with ham, chicken, or vegetarian), tempura asparagus, so as before, finger food, without plates and cutlery. What is more, the guests could enjoy watching live cooking as the waiters were preparing marinesco rice (with seafood) and barbecue chicken, pork and butifarra (white Catalan sausage), as well as salmon.

Around midnight, instead of a traditional wedding cake the guests were presented with praline table . Among other flavours you could taste chocolate, marzipan, fruity pralines, all with a coctailstick for easier consumption.

Cake in the photo.

There is no eating without... drinking

Do I have to say that there was no vodka? Of course when you say a Polish wedding you mean lots of vodka. It is as obvious as two plus two equals four. A Spanish wedding means wine and beer. Beer of course in 0, 33l (as I explained earlier). As far as wine is concerned, the guests could choose from rosé and black wine. Neither soft nor alcoholic drinks were available on the tables so if you wanted a beverage you had to approach the bar and ask a bartender to be served.

I don't remember how many little trips between my table and the bar I made... many. I would always use two magic words: „VI NEGRE”. The bartender finally started to laugh at me (he could tell I couldn't say much in Catalan) and as soon as he would notice me walk towards the bar he would pour me another glass of black wine.

What's funny is that non-alcoholic beverages included water and various fizzy drinks such as Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite or Schweppes. There was no juice so unless you are a pop lover you were pretty much stuck for the night with water.

Do you feel like I've been complaining a lot? I might as well complain a bit more on how people who work in customer service are treated in Spain, especially those in catering. You are not meant to talk with waters or bartenders. Of course you can make a joke or comment on the quality of food or drinks but nothing more. The bartender who was serving me with black wine was only smiling at my attempts to talk with him (my Spanish wasn't that bad), and I was nearly stoned for talking to another bartender.

The Spanish got used to having immigrants working in bars/restuarants or other customer related services (also immigrants from Poland) and they are rather reluctant to take jobs of that sort, they don't want to, don't need to...It is even harder to find a Spanish cleaner... )

Dress code

No dress code to be more precise. Of course the bridegroom, his father and brother were wearing smart suits. However, the variety of outfits among the rest of the guests was noticeable. The majority of male guests were wearing suits but there were also those in casual t-shirts. There was even one man wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

As for the women, the diversity was even more conspicuous. Starting from the bride who was wearing a traditional white wedding dress (similar to Poland) to women in smart dresses, some of them revealing a significant chunk of their body, to women in... trousers.

Dancing up all night

In Poland yes of course. I'm always up for dancing up all night :)

After the evening meal the guests were invited to a hall in the nearby building where dancing was to take place. Expecting a DJ, orchestra or maybe a little band...? Don't, music was being played from a laptop. And as for the music itself, there were some popular disco singles, songs from the 80's, radio hits, a little bit of latino. The wedding party didn't last all night but ended rather quickly around 2-3 in the morning.

To sum up, if you asked me whether I prefer the Spanish wedding (or Catalan although it's rather difficult to say what is a typical Catalan wedding) or the Polish one, I would certainly say the latter.

The wedding I was invited to was definitely more hmm... formal? I'm not sure which word would describe it accurately. Especially the banquet after the wedding ceremony seemed a bit stiff, as well as the lack of shared fun among the guests.

In Poland after the wedding ceremony guests gathered in a wedding venue where they wait for the newlyweds. the first hot meal is served. The meal is usually comprised of a soup (obligatorily chicken soup) and the second dish (potatoes, meat and salad). That's when some start to pour vodka, the bottles of which already stand on each table. When the guests finish eating the dances start and those usually don't finish earlier than 5-6 in the morning. Traditionally around midnight the fun games part of the wedding starts (sometimes the games are slightly bawdy. When I was a child I would always be surprised and abashed at the bawdy overtones of those games. Nothing can surprise me anymore) All those traditions and little rituals create a lovely and unique atmosphere, peculiar Polish climate which is coherent, colourful, interesting, our own.

Polish weddings certainly have more traditions. There is the bread and salt welcoming, the newlyweds tossing shots of vodka behind so that they break on the floor, or tossing the bride's veil and flowers behind herself and many more.

The Spanish wedding was lacking in atmosphere. I felt there more like at a business banquet rather than a proper cheerful wedding reception.

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