Spain inside out

Alright now, a thing we have to agree on from the beginning is that every country has its special culture and customs. And if on top of that you add the regional specificity, it sure gets interesting. Now I don’t know what is typical for Spain or what is just for Murcia, but let’s check out what my list has.

Let’s go for a coffee vs. let’s go out for a drink

The difference it’s not necessary in the drink you have as you’d think, but rather the purpose of the meeting. It’s totally fine to go for a coffee and have a beer, but the discussion you want to have is in fact about something serious. They’ll listen to you and (try) to be sober for a while. If you say directly to go out for a drink or so and you want to have a serious conversation, forget it, I tell you. The drinking will be heavy and involves laughter, having fun and doing silly things.

Beer vs. wine

If we still talk about drinking, here the beer is like water. In fact, I think a big majority of Spaniards do not know the taste of water. Unless it’s mixed with hop and just a bit fermented. You’ll often see people drinking beer every time, everywhere. The quantities are something that are often unimportant or even quite irrelevant. With the wine though, it’s different as it is perceived as a rather sophisticated, charming drink, often accompanying a good dinner. You are to see less people going out for a glass of whine without the food.

Work vs. siesta

Alright, now this was definitely weird for me. There is a period that varies from 1-2 PM up to 4-5 PM when the world stops here. Certain shops, pharmacies and even offices get closed for the siesta time. The city dies during the siesta and starts reliving in the evening. It was rather difficult for me to process the fact that the food shops are the majority closed on Sundays, yet having just a small time when the office is closed to find other things closed was quite a hard thing to get used to.

Going out at night in Spain vs. Romania

Spaniards have the tendency to go out for the dinner at 11 PM. The earliest I mean. Having a coffee at 12-1 AM after dinner is totally fine and normal. The difference that struck me was that of course, we also go out to eat, but not every day, sorry not every night. It’s rather in the weekends or on special occasions.

Oldies, but fun diggers

I totally love the elder generation here. They go out for dinner, to theater or movies, coffees or whatever you want in the evenings. They do know how to enjoy their days and nights. There are karaoke bars that have regular customers the seniors and even special dance halls for them. Before your imagination goes wild let me calm you down. No, I wasn’t there because I wanted to sing, just accompanying a friend.

Carnivals and dressing up

It seems that every time is the perfect time to have a carnival with dressing up, not just for Halloween: before fasting for Easter, for celebrating the city, for celebrating the 3 wizards (after Christmas), for celebrating the agriculture and the list can go on forever. They love to dress up and invest quite a lot of time and effort in it. Parades, dances, costumes, music, paralysed traffic to have plenty of space in the city – everything for it.

Caliente weather and not only

This was something I was kind of expecting, so here it is: very warm people, ready to party and sing with you or dance whatever the time, whatever the place. Up for a drink and you don’t have with whom to go out? No problem. Just join any table’s conversation and they’ll just absorb you in like you know each other for centuries. Ask for a Spaniard for fun things and as silly as they might be, you will enjoy it for sure.

I don’t like putting labels on people or countries, yet this I have to say. Whoever says Spanish people are fun to have around, they’re not mistaken. The good atmosphere is a guarantee and no need for refunds!

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