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| F.A.Q. |
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General Information |
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Do |
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Spain has a lot of local festivals that are worth going to.
* Córdoba en Mayo. Cordoba in May, great month to visit the Southern city.
* Las Cruces: big flower-made crosses embellishing public squares in the city center, where you will also find at night music and drinking and lot of people having fun! 1st week in May.
* Festival de Patios One of the most interesting cultural exhibitions, 2 weeks when some people open doors of their houses to show their old Patios full of flowers. A must see!
* Cata del Vino Montilla-Moriles Great wine tasting in a big tent in the city center during one week in May.
* Fallas Valencia´s festival in march. Burning the "fallas" is a must.
* Seville´s april fair Flamenco dancing, drinking sherry, bullfights.
* Holy week. Best in Seville and the rest of Andalusia. Also interesting in Valladolid.
* Carnival. Best in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Cádiz.
* Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos. Three wise men parade. On the eve of epyphany, 5th of january, the night before spanish kids get their Christmas presents. In every single town or city. It rains sweets and toys.
* La Tomatina. A giant tomato fight.
* Moros y Cristianos. Moors and christians. Parades and "battles" remembering the fights of medieval ages. Mostly found in Southeastern Spain during spring time.
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Eat |
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| The Spanish are very passionate about their food and wine and Spanish cuisine. Spanish food can be described as quite light with a lot of vegetables and a huge variety of meat and fish. The Spanish cuisine does not use many spices; it relies only on the use of high quality ingredients to give a good taste. |
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Respect |
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* Spaniards in general are very patriotic about both their country and the region in which they live. Try to avoid arguments about whether people from Catalonia or the Basque Country are Spaniards or not.
* It is customary to kiss friends, family, and acquaintances on both cheeks (without the lips actually making contact with the cheek) upon seeing each other and saying goodbye. Male-to-male kisses of this sort are limited to family members.
* During lunch or dinner, Spaniards do not begin eating until everyone is seated and ready to eat. Likewise, they do not leave the table until everyone is finished eating.
* When Spaniards receive a gift or are offered a drink or a meal, they usually refuse for a bit, so as not to seem greedy. This sometimes sparks arguments among especially reluctant people, but it is seen as polite. Remember to offer more than once (on the third try it must be fairly clear if they will accept it or not). On the other hand, if you are interested in the offer, politely smile and decline it, saying that you don't want to be a nuisance, etc. but relent and accept when they insist.
* When in a car, the elderly and pregnant always ride in the passenger's seat, unless they request not to.
* Appearing drunk in public is generally frowned upon.
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Drink |
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Probably one of the best places to meet people in Spain is in bars. Everyone visits them and they are always busy and sometimes bursting with people. There is no age restriction imposed to enter these premises. They are mainly to have drink or a small tapa. Usually Spaniards can control their drink better than their northern European fellows and drunk people are rarely seen here or on the streets. |
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| Capital : |
Madrid |
| Government : |
Parliamentary Monarchy |
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| Area : |
Total: 504,782 km2 |
| Population : |
44,708,964 (January 2006) |
| Language : |
Castilian Spanish (official) 100%, Catalan (also official in Catalonia) 17%, Galician (also official in Galicia)7%, Basque (also official in Basque Country) 2% |
| Religion : |
Roman Catholic 72%, none 20% other 8% |
| Electricity : |
230V/50Hz (European plug) |
| Calling Code : |
34 |
| Internet TLD : |
.es |
| Time Zone : |
UTC + 1 |
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Spain |
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Among many places, Spain is the home of the thriving capital Madrid, the vibrant coastal city of Barcelona, the famous running with the bulls at Pamplona, and the city where flamenco was born: Sevilla. |
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Location |
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| Spain, is a country located in Southern Europe, with two small exclaves in North Africa (both bordering Morocco). The mainland of Spain is bounded on the south and east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), on the north by the Cantabrian Sea and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean (containing the Canary Islands off the African coast). Spain shares land borders with Portugal, France, Andorra, Gibraltar and Morocco. |
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Understand |
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With great beaches, fun nightlife, many cultural regions and historic cities, Spain makes a great destination for any kind of trip.
A country of large geographical and cultural diversity, Spain is sometimes a surprise to people who know its reputation for great beach holidays. There is everything from lush meadows , snowy mountains, huge marsh and salines, and some desert zones in east Andalusia. |
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Buy |
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| Spain is part of the European Union and the Eurozone; as such it replaced Spanish pesetas with the Euro (symbol: €) in the year 2002. Since it has been only a few years since the introduction of Euro cash, a few people will still use the old national currency names. For example, it is entirely possible that a Spaniard would still refer to peseta. They mean Euros and Cents, so just mentally substitute the two. |
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Talk |
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| Unsurprisingly, the primary language used in Spain is Spanish (español), but it's more complicated than that. It differs in pronunciation and other details from the Spanish spoken in Latin America and taught as a foreign language in the United States. It is part of the Romance family of languages (along with Portuguese, Italian, and French), and is more properly called Castilian . It is consistently pronounced and almost universally understood throughout Spain, and is the day-to-day language of the majority of Spaniards. |
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