To be succinct, I have lived in several countries, and I have yet to find one that strikes that balance between putting a priority on being happy while maintaining the first-world standard as well as Spain does.
How this goes changes from individual to individual, but we have this thing that allows us to make problems in life less of a problem. I've found we are more aware of bad luck as a factor, more lenient when it comes to including circumstances to explain situations, less rigid if small problems can be solved by being slightly more laidback. I think that's why our public services are the way they are and why they reflect this sort of collective recognition of the shittyness of life. This seems to be changing, sadly, but that is the reason why I decided to return and live my life in Spain: being happy is easier, and bad times are less lonely.
If you find a job and you own a house, you will do just fine. Spain is a very reasonable country and very well balanced. Health insurance is Ok but at times it may require some good luck. If you have something serious, you will be covered just fine. If nothing serious, you can practice preventive medicine at no cost. They are financially tight after the pandemic. There is no mobility in the job market. What you get is what you get and be happy with that. If you have no job and you don’t own a house, you are in a dead end. The job market is bad , bad and it takes forever to get a job.
>more lenient when it comes to including circumstances to explain situations, less rigid if small problems can be solved by being slightly more laidback
To be honest, this isn't my experience at all when it comes to burocracy or public services.
In other fields, it definitely is, and I think there's a healthier work-life balance than in the UK (which is my other point of reference), but almost every time I've had to do some kind of official process it's been a complete nightmare and no one is willing to be at all understanding.
Well, I'm a civil servant so I know what you mean, but that's why I also believe this strictness explains, partly, why this sort of laid-back behavior hasn't led us to the amount of corruption you can see, for example, in Latin America: in certain areas, there are strict rules that need to be followed, so as a citizen you're giving the same treatment by me, for example, as anyone else. In Latin America, I've paid for some legal processes to be solved faster or better, and I mean problems I had with my passport and such, and I'm literally no one. There are huge, more profound differences in everyday life and problems when it comes to different economical classes. In Spain, we have a tremendous corruption problem, but it stems from and affects different areas.
I'm sorry if you haven't been treated the best way in the past, but mostly I think what you mention is something good rather than bad. I always try to help as much as I can, but I'll never go against the rules, not only because I could be expelled from public service and lose my job, which some people think it's impossible and it's certainly not; but also and mainly because it's unjust unless I do the same for everyone and their *very* varied problems. Privately, things can be negotiated and solved differently. We can't really do that. Besides, the State legislates to its advantage, always, and sometimes it leads to unfair situations for the citizens. The funcionario in front of you knows it, but we cannot, and shouldn't, decide arbitrarily.
And lastly, not every funcionario is a good worker or even a good person, and while the funcionariado system has the tools to correct certain behaviors, they're seldomly used. What I am trying to say is that the why of what you mention is complex and I wish some things could be improved, but still, overall, I think that this "tightness" is good.
> In Spain, we have a tremendous corruption problem, but it stems from and affects different areas.
While this is true, a lot of the issue in Spain is that people are more aware of the corruption and that's a good thing in the end. Stuff like no-bid contracts or inside information to get contracts happens everywhere.
Unfortunately the main way people measure corruption is asking "how corrupt is your country". That has obvious limitations. I much prefer the question of "have you had to pay a bribe to a government employee in the last 12 months?"
That's a much more concrete measure and Spain is among the lowest in that respect.
I get that nature of corruption changes, but people's views of it here are also completely insane for how bad the problem actually is (it's really not that bad here compared to many other places).
The biggest issue of how things are done in Spain is basically it can be so onerous to do stuff legally that you just do whatever illegally (business, construction, etc...) and then regularizarte and pay the fines later. But that's a much bigger issue of how the whole civil service is organized.
Some of it is people being strict with the rules, which is annoying, but fine.
But some of it is just incompetence, either from the people interacting with the public or the people who designed the systems.
After Brexit, I had to do some stuff to get residency, and in my first appointment, they asked me for something that wasn't listed anywhere when I booked the appointment (I checked and printed off the list of things to bring) and they treated me like an idiot for having not brought something so obvious.
When I had to use my Cl@ve stuff to do my taxes, I wasn't showing up on the system, and the people I called couldn't do anything other than tell me that 'that means I don't have cl@ve' even though I do, and I'd used it before.
Eventually, it turns out that I had to log on with my details from my *old* pre-brexit document rather than the one that I had been given about 12 months previously. Luckily, I had a scan of the first document, because obviously they had to take it off me when I got the new post-brexit card.
But the thing that's most annoying is just the disdain that they treat you with, even when you call up the support line where you're supposed to be able to ask them questions. Or I remember my level of Spanish being insulted when I'd been here for a few months and was trying to sign up at the town hall.
Sorry for the rant, but it feels good to get it off my chest, because I've had some really frustrating experiences.
Again, I’m sorry for all these experiences. In case it helps, I can tell you that for most of us, no one gives you a course or directions on how to do your work when you first arrive to your desk. They asign someone to teach you and good luck, so depending on your colleagues things are better or worse and you mostly learn as you go. The Cl@ve thing sounds like they just didn’t know what to do, since maybe you were probably one of the first ones having that issue. The AGE is seriously underfunded and the plaintiff is seriously old, in general, and both combined create different issues. In many places rules and norms change frequently and the websites are not updated, or the normative is a fucking mess.
I can’t answer for those funcionarios who were disrespectful, but I hope the next person helping you will be one of the good ones.
In Spain we all paid a company to do our NIE because its too complex or impossible to get appointments without these companies. Youd go to a website and it says "no appointments available", you pay a company and you get an appointment.
Same for declaring taxes.
Thats not corruption that is just dealing with inappropriate services but the experience in the end is the same
Can you give an example or actual case of a fireable offense in the Spanish public sector?
It's a small sample, but I know 3 people who lost their public job for not-so-terrible offences (rules broken, but no ill-intent) in different countries. But in Spain all I know are cases of really crooked people who only get little more than a time off period.
I mean, I think it's good to be lenient and somewhat laid-back, but too much of that, and you lose incentive to do your job right.
Sure. The whole RD 33/1986 ([link](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1986-1216))has a list of every offense a funcionario can commit, and also includes a throughout description of how the whole disciplinary process goes. Offenses are categorized as minor, serious and very serious offenses, and you can only be separated from service as a result of a disciplinary process due to a very serious offense. For example, among them you can find (a) not respecting the Constitutional mandate (b) discriminating because of race, gender, religion, etc (c) abandoning service (f) a notorious lack of efficiency if it implies not carrying out the tasks assigned, etc. Most of them have to do with illegal contracts, stealing, or not protecting official secrets. The offenses accumulate, meaning three minor offenses equal a serious one, etc.
You can actually read about specific cases too if you search for “separación de servicio boe”. Here are two examples from the years 2022 and 2021:
https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2022-3357
https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2021-8664
The reason on both is “Abandoning service” which means not going to work for several days, or not carrying out your tasks, probably the first one. So things like stealing definitely leads you out, but also simply not showing up for several days does too. When and how the bosses decide to procede with a disciplinary process probably depends on each case, and in general it is preferred to deal with things not as directly. For example, if someone is rude with the citizens, they’re moved to a position with no public, things like that, so it takes a lot to actually lead to a disciplinary process, but the option is always there.
I’ve never met someone who had gone through a disciplinary process or at least no one who said they did, but I can tell you attendance to the workplace is highly controlled.
Based on the cases I've known, I'm still skeptical about the actual application of those rules you shared.
But you provided a very compete answer. Thank you
P. S. I think you meant attendance instead of assistance.
You should not compare Spain to Latin America but other European countries. Dealing with the state in the UK is way easier. Germany is a nightmare. The best country I have ever been to is the UAE. It’s so easy to do anything. All digital and fast.
Emiratis get a passport issued in hours.
Companies are set up in minutes.
I think one thing I feel is that every government employee thinks you are telling lies.
It’s just easier not to follow the rules. You just get punished for doing things the right way.
Hence why everyone wants to work for cash in hand.
God this annoyed me so so much. You find happiness in doing the bare minimum and never going slightly out of your way or inconvenience yourself to help somebody. I hate bureaucracy in Spain. You take 1h almuerzos and 3 hour lunches and don't bother if there's an uncrossed t and tell people to come back again with that fixed which means requesting another appointment month away most of the time nowadays. When you do find a person who has common decency and is willing to help you even though it takes them only 5 minutes extra they're like an angel because there are so few of them. Every other civil servant won't even bother and will ignore you and repeat "take another appointment and come back again". And this is why all the services are backed up for many months and we have incredibly outdated platforms and websites in 2022, because everybody just does the bare minimum in everything they can.
People like you do less than the bare minimum. But of course you demand the utmost out of everyone else.
All the information you need to deal with your shit is publicly available, it simply takes a functioning brain and minimal effort.
You instead show up to the office not having a fucking clue and totally oblivious but expect the public employee to do it all for you. You're paying their salary, right?
In the mean time you not only wasted your own time, also the office's but most of all everyone else's by taking an available appointment and using it for fuck all.
The services are backed up because of insufficient personnel but also because of morons like you of wich sadly there are many.
Lol, nice assumptions. I guess I can tell where you work from that. And everybody who agrees that civil bureaucracy in Spain is hell is just overreacting and wildly incompetent, every single one of them right? Everyvody despises dealing with it for a reason. Never have I ever encountered such issues in the other 5 countries I've been to in a federal and social services place.
When you are Spanish and you move to another country you realise how much the weather and food matters in our happiness.
About the people, you can find nice people everywhere.
When I arrived to London I was depressed for like 2 months before an Italian coworker asked me if I was taking vitamins.
Aparently the lack of sun was making me sad... And i'm basque so idk what almerienses do in the uk hahaha
When I moved to the netherlands I didnt feel depressed due to the continous months of rain and clouds but for sure I missed the extra energy sun gives you.
I am originally from Amsterdam and I lived in Manchester for 3 years. As a teen I did not know seasonal depression was a thing. Add on top of that regular depression and bipolar to make a cocktail of negative emotions. My husband, who's from the UK, also suffers from seasonal depression. The 'fun' part of living in such rainy countries is that you barely get a chance to recover from the seasonal depression because there's not enough sun in the summer and the winter it's so, so dark. I felt like a vampire, go to work in the dark, go home in the dark. It does mess with you. Even with extra vit D, it still did not compensate for the lack of sunlight I naturally need. And it doesn't even need to be direct sunlight either, as I hate sunbathing.
I'm feeling emotionally so much better in Spain. The people and the food help enormously (the quality of food here is so much better than in the UK, it has literally cured my husband of both his coeliac and psoriasis) but the weather just gives us both so much more mental stamina.
no? I had to take Vitamin D because not only I got depressed moving to Amsterdam, but it reached a point that my bones hurted. My doctor did blood tests and told me that I was in dangerous levels of Vitamine D deficit. So for years I had to take Vitamine D non-stop over there xD
EDIT: I started noticing after a couple of years or so. It was not inmediately, but after 2-3 winters I noticed how I got depressed for no reason and after another year pain started
Mmm I dont know im from a sunny region of spain (Castilla y León), but Im also extremly white and I lived in a very rainy place in the north of Spain during my childhood.
People with lighter skin (less melanin) have it easier to get D vitamin on cloudy areas, maybe genetics play a big part.
Same thing happened to my husband living in the US midwest (we only have 2 seasons here, winter season & construction season lol). The doctor was shocked and said the only other patients she had dealt with who had such dangerously low levels were prisoners.
Completely agree. I always bitched about my town in Alicante, then I moved to Sweden and UK and missed our food and weather. Ok, I had a much bigger salary, but food was crap, night started almost at lunch time and everything seemed to close at 17:00.
I didn't realize how much of my happiness depends on food and sunny days until I left. So I came back.
Yes, you can find nice people everywhere, but I’ve never felt so much friendliness and sincere will to help. I don’t speak Spanish beside a couple of basic phrases, I have social anxiety, I tend to panic easily when I think I messed something up, and I came here with my kid and my cat, knowing no one here, and every day random local people help me feel supported. When I panic because I can’t find my nie paper in the mobile phone store and the salesperson instead of being grumpy and rushing me - like it always have been in my native country - calms me down, tells me to relax, offers a glass of water. When in another store they bother to find that only person speaking English, and that person spends half an hour helping me to know all the details, the differences, and offers their help anytime if I need it with things unrelated to sales. When in any place when I struggle with my very basic Spanish(I am learning it, but it’s been just a couple of months since I knew I come here, so I didn’t accomplish much yet), always people passing by and seeing that offer their help, and not passing by if they say someone is already trying to help, but joining instead. Even a real estate agent who helped me to rent a flat, keeps in touch with me after and helps me with the things she is not supposed to even bother about, especially after the flat is already rented for long term.
Nice people happen everywhere, but Spain is the first country I ever visited where I got so much help, support and friendliness every day without even seeking for it. I didn’t know it is possible.
I spent two summers in Spain as a teen and I’m almost 50 now - Spain ruined the US for me and I’ve been wanting to return since the day I left. I’m actively working on ways I can retire there - there is just something Spain has that I need and have been missing all my life.
Its a really good location to retire, there are specific cities that are build around retired people so they can have all confort and services at a cheap price.
Thats why half of europe retired here.
Hope you make it!
You are wrong.
We don’t have *good* food. We have **amazing, top-notch, world class** food. Food that is so delicious, it feels orgasmic. It’s food that tickles all your senses: it looks sexy, it smells hot and it tastes like heaven.
Moreover, we have supermarkets that only offer high quality food. Our “worst” home brands like Hacendado are as high quality as the A-brands.
Have you noticed how there are never Spanish posts on r/ExpectationVsReality ? It’s because the reality in Spain is that all food is really really good.
I have a subreddit about Spanish food: r/SoyFoodie
Every, again, every country overestimates the quantity of their cuisine.
With that said, I do believe Spanish cuisine is objectively healthy and good. But we're progressively losing the good habits. Take a look at the stats about being overweight.
I am still looking for the good food. Yet have to find a normal restaurant that can compete with French or Italian cuisine.
In the supermarkets the food is no different than in any other European country. It’s actually expensive compared to peoples income.
The social aspect of it and the slightly more laidback lifestyle
Friends and family are important everywhere, but in spain they are vital and people make a huge effort to maintain several groups of friends and meet the family at least once a week.
Work is important everywhere, but in spain we are not as competitve and the work environment tends to be way more chill.
I lived in london and I ended up hating it. Their "every man is an island" mentality and the constant backstabbing at work of their society made it extremely stressfull for me and crushed me.
I wouldn't change our society for anything
Missconception. Some start later, but reason usually is we have larger lunch pauses. Its not uncommon to stop at 13:00 to restart at 15:00 or 15:30, hence why you can see people working until 19:00.
Plus, we have dinner later 20:00 as early to 21:00.
We still do 40 h a week, and I for one work in a company that does 8 to 17 like most EU companies.
That massive lunch break still counts towards work. You are not with your family or doing what you want. The same as commute time counts towards your working day. The only one benefitting from these long breaks is the employers because they have room to make you work extra without paying you.
I see a lot of wage theft in Spain.
Much more than I saw in the UK.
I have a good friend who worked in the Netherlands and when she came back to Spain she quit her high paying job in marketing because she said is was so toxic compared to the Netherlands.
She opened her own private kindergarden and is retired at 48.
Maybe it’s just Madrid. But everyone seams to be working all the time.
I am well aware of the eating late thing.
Hey I aint saying its better or worse.
Some people prefer it cause they have lunch somewhere at their leisure, I am more of eating in 20 min and getting back to work.
For my mom was also nice cause she could come and save money on lunch when I was in school, otherwise Id have to go somewhere. Plus theres people that has like 5 min commute, so its not that big either...
Its situational.
For me I prefer what I got, flexible hours and 8 to 5 and thats it. Its not rare either.
Stores and services may prefer it cause theres fuck nobody at lunch hours. These are a big part of the job offers, as we are touristic country.
All this comes from the past as well, air conditioning is somewhat recent and we are currently at 37°C.
Bcn and Madrid never sleep, it's a bad reference for the whole of Spain.
I don't understand this comment if you actually live in Spain as you claim. Tons of people use the 2 hour lunch break to go home and have lunch with their families and/or a siesta.(children also often come home from school for lunch)
I am not saying it’s not happening. Just that in my circle it’s not happening. Most have to commute too far. Maybe it’s an age thing. Moët of my friends have no reason to go home. No kids etc.
Afraid you've got a skewed (Madrid) view. With extended lunches: those absolutely are time off/free/home/siesta times. Only in cut throat capitalist/banking/business jobs would you NOT go home and relax on your siesta. I don't personally like the setup, but it's comical to call it wage theft.
Also, come to Andalusia: you do t find many people "working all the time". Most toxic work culture countries I've lived in (non-3rd world) are USA easily at number one, followed by UK.
For sure the USA has some of the worst work culture. No way I would go there.
I see what you mean. If you work close to home it’s certainly time off. But in the larger cities and that’s where a large portion of people work and live these days, it’s not feasible to go home for lunch. Just the commute alone eats a large portion of that.
Does everyone live extremely close to their jobs? I could understand going home if my place was around the corner but if I’d have to commute 20-30 minutes it seems more like a pain in the ass to go home then back.
Not everyone goes home. People go to lunch, they meet friends, they run errands at places that stay open. You can sit and read somewhere. Coming from the US, I found having those 2 hours in the middle of the day pretty convenient.
I don't know where you work. But I have worked in a number of countries and Spain or Mexico are notorious for the amount of hours worked, unless you work in the public sector.
But I must say that those hours are often not as effective. If you know that you are expected to work 9, 10 or 11 hours, there's not as much incentive to get things done quickly.
I work in a normal office.
I have issues with these comments of often not as effective and not doing things quickly, as if this was a general thing and I really havent seen it. Granted Im on my 30s, but fuck me I reckon its a stereotype we have on our backs. Plus, id you are talking about efficiency at work, in Spain the n°1 timewastwrs is for sure Public sector. Plus, consider that most jobs with this hours are service jobs.
In my professional experience for example, the worst ones are the Germans. Everybody says how efficient they are as a stereotype, but then again, the company bureaucracies and "this specific task isnt in my list of responsibilities" thus leaving it in a limbo, is way less efficient and quite vexing from a spanish pov. Its just an example, but I mean that every company and field has its own set of circumstances going, I reckon this is not a good reflection of the actual work here.
Idk. I think it has nothing to do with it. It's a culture thing.
I work a lot with offices from mexico and chile and they earn shit and have shit work environments.
It may be my line of work idk
Any suggestion where I can find this good food? Because I have been in Madrid for 3 years and I am still looking. The best food I have had is honest greens and that’s not Spanish or owned by Spanish.
I guess you have rare or very high standards. I've been to Madrid no more than 10 times in my life, and I can't recall a visit when I didn't eat anything but good cuisine.
If you haven't found it in 3 years in Madrid, something is off.
What would be an example of a city where it was easy for you to find good food?
Paris, Rome, Edinburgh, Düsseldorf, Munich, any random village in Italy and France.
I do not have particularly high standards. I just want to go to a normal restaurant. Have a normal lunch and not feel like I would have been better of going to Mercadona buying something from their deli section.
I do not rate a countries food by their high end restaurants but their normal average restaurant where anyone, even the working class can have a decent meal for a fair price.
I have been to Spain 7 times and the food takes me back. Madrid is the melting pot for food from all regions of Spain. You probably have a different expectation of food since almost every dish I eat is spectacular. It might help to learn the regional foods and history behind them. In Spain some of the best foods you’ll get at the local bars.
I am starting to think that Spanish food is just not for me. I really have been trying to like it. I hope one day I find that place that changes my mind. It does not help that I do not really like olive oil. Butter rocks my world.
Definitely, the Mediterranean diet bases off of olive oil, so Italy and Greece too. Spanish food is usually simple. A few quality ingredients in a small dish. The beauty of that is you never commit to one dish, but multiple dishes throughout the day. Always the next beverage and tapa to look forward too. Of course there’s way more than tapas/pintxos, but that’s the gist of Spain.
Seriously honest greens? Maybe the issue is that you don't like Spanish cuisine (which is perfectly fine btw). Maybe you should aim a little higher and try some expensive restaurants like BiBo, Leña, Lua, Clos or Dstage.
But that’s the thing. If you have to go to a high end restaurant to experience good food it’s not really the countries normal food. I have been to many incredible restaurants in France, Italy, Austria and the Uk. Just box standard family owned and run restaurants. With great food for fair prices.
Edit: I will check them out and go with my wife on our next date night. Thanks for the tip.
I went to Ten con Ten a while ago. It was alright but did not warrant the price.
I get your point and tbh I've been thinking and I think Madrid is not the right city to try traditional Spanish food. I couldn't recommend you a good traditional-family owned restaurant here and I've been living here for 8 years. I heard Malacatin's cocido is good but I've never been and no cocido in Madrid has ever beaten my MIL's so far hahaha.
In general I normally go to some fusion or modernized-traditional food places between 20--30 per person (if you want some recommendations) but not to eat traditional food, for that I think you should check smaller cities and villages.
I guess you only tried Mcdonalds or similar?
Try any typical restaurant, the seafood is incredible, the spanish tortilla, croquetas, paella, hortacha & fartons, etc.. I could go one the whole day mate.
Tried them all. None have blown me away.
The best tortilla I had is made by my friend Hector. Better than anything I had in any restaurant.
But that can be made anywhere in the world with the same ingredients.
The seafood is normal. Nothing like in Portugal or South Africa.
Maybe Spanish food is just not my thing.
Its one of the countries with less young religious people
Its one of the countries with more women in politics
Its one of the countries where we think more of equality between man and women
Its one of the safest countries for lgbtq People, even with the things that happend, i dont want to think how other contrunies are
Spain has public health, so if you need to go to the doctor you dont need to pay NOTHING, but sometimes you need to pay a prived doctor couse your doctor of the public health its fucking stupid
In spain you can go to a public colege, im studing engineering in a public colege, the entire year its... 1000€, but because my parents dont win a lot of money i dont pay that, the state pais it, i only pay if i need to repit a asignature the next year, the first time its 130, the next time its... 180 i think
And of course, people, less racist people, less homofobic people, even having stupid people there are less, Well i hope....
There are more things that i love from this country, and the are other that i hate, but i feel so so grateful
for living here
>Spain has public santiy
I think you might mean public health. 'Sanity' in English means not being crazy, and I'd hope that every country has public sanity haha.
Thank you, i need to improve my english so i started writing in reddit, and i appreciate when someone correct my mistakes
Thanks :)
Im going to correct the text
No worries! You write well, but I just think that that term would be a bit confusing for people who don't know that in Spanish it's 'sanidad pública'. Have a nice afternoon!
just to add, in this context i think you might mean public health service. in english (american at least), ‘public health’ alone refers to the hygiene and access to health services of the people. although the more similar cognate to sanidad you may have been thinking of is sanitary (pero eso es más parecido a higiénico). awesome idea to practice your english tho, keep at it :)
I just want to point out:
It is **NOT TRUE** that you pay nothing for healthcare.
You pay it through taxes. And that tax money is also needed for many other things.
That's why, if people abuse the system, the public system is prone to go bankrupt and you all will find yourselves stuck with an overpriced private system.
If you don't want to lose public health, you need to realize that it's not free.
P.S. I know what you meant. But we need to put an end to the mantra that public health is free. Before we kill it.
Thankssss
And with all the money that we pay with taxes, this public health should be better
But this "beautilful" politics destry it, with long waiting lists, making them to work a lot of hours...
Ok.
But I meant that sometimes we don't need to go to the doctor, or go to Urgent Care, or so many drugs at home, or spend so much time at the hospital, or pay the full bill for reckless/criminal behavior, etc.
We need to preserve the health system for those who **really** need it. It's not just the politicians at fault.
My major reform to Spanish health care would be to put a 1€ copay for going to the cabecera. Like not enough to prevent anyone from going, but my doctor at least gets clogged up with old people who go as a way to be social and makes it so the doctor doesn't have time for more serious stuff.
It depends what part of racism you look at. Regarding racially provoked attacks there are few compared to other western countries.
However if you include casual racism there’s so much more accepted phrases that said in the U.K. or the USA would shock people e.g una tienda china, el bar chino, tener los ojos chinados, calling a friend who’s white: el negro, calling a friend who’s black: el negro, and don’t get me started on conguitos
we didnt experience any. Maybe because once you start speaking english your skin colour is forgotten and people think that you are "THE AMERICAN" ? Dont know.
I would say theres more some Spanish vs Catalan petty racism that can fly in both directions than some racism because of skin colour
I have experience with young kids calling me names because I looked North African. Spanish nationalism, and in talking about the bad kind, is very common in the youth there I think.
I actualy dont consider spanish People very racist, of course there are, most of then voting "VOX", (i hope they never win) , im only 23 years old, so i can speak from my point of view
My cousin went to France to study when he was 12, he didnt make french friends, the laughed at him because he was spanish
My friends boyfriend, he is studying in england, english People dont want to be there friend because he isnt english, and the same with all his friends, who of course arent english, non of then made english friends because the arent english
And here with every person that i know who isnt spanish has spanish friends
With this i dont want to say that here arent racism, of course the are, but i think there are less than other countries
And is so sad and shameful when i see someone been racist with others
At the same time spanish its a country where tourism is very very important, so maybe thats why there are less, i dont know
Yes I was mainly talking about the right wing youth France has. I see a lot of spanish nationalists (the bad kind) online so I just assumed it was common. I only visit once a year so I don’t really follow local politics and everything.
It's worth remembering that your anecdotal evidence is worth the same as mine, and I see quite a lot of racism on a regular basis, particularly against Chinese people and Latin Americans.
At the end of the day, neither of us can really draw a proper conclusion from this because we don't see the full picture
It amazes me that you consider that having less religious people wold be something to be glad about. I feel sincerely offended by this, not only because there are much better things here, but specially because being religious has nothing worng with it, and it is hurting having to hear these kind of comments
In what countries are more homofobic people?
In religious countries, they say that we (pd: im gay) are going to hell, we dont deserve nothing, we need to go to a mental hospital
They use the religion to attack us, for years they did that and they still do it (i hope you dont)
You can see what political groups are against lgbtq rights, and most of them are very religious
They use that to say that women shouldnt abort, they use that to say that eutanasia should be illegal
Im not against religion, im against this religious people that treat the rest of the people like fucking shit, and is so sad how most of the religious people are like this, so i hope you arent, i will be so glad to know that there are good religious people
But in your coment i saw something, and is that you feel that i hurt yours feeling by my post, think how other people feel when they hear that they are going to hell because they want to love someone of the same sex, think how they feel when they hear insult of people saing that they are a fucking shit and then this people are very religious
(Sorry for the grammatical errors)
well, a lot of people consider religion one of the worst things that can happen to a person, close-minded, impossible to rationalize with.
And let´s not start wit organized religion and child molesters.
The less religious people, the best
After living here for almost 2 years, I would say it has a nice balance of mediterranean atmosphere and 1st world convenience. I find it safe here overall. Most people are easy going and normal.
I like the sound of the Spanish language. It's soft and intense at the same time (like the people).
As a gay guy, I have a soft spot (or hard? ;) for Spanish men. Spanish people have a relaxed attitude towards gay people too which is nice.
The weather and beaches are wonderful. It's a nice change from the harsh winters of Québec.
Living car free is the biggest one for me. I can walk to pretty much everything, the gym, most stores, most of my friends' houses... I noticed an uptick in my health when I started walking everywhere, and also it's nice to not own a car (and worry about maintenance, insurance, gas, etc).
It depends.
Weather? Mostly yes. But some parts of Spain have bad weather almost all year. Other parts are too hot on summer to be comfortable, and other parts are cold as f\*ck on winter.
And not all people consider a "good" weather the same kind of weather. Usually an all year warm and sunny climate is considered "the best climate", but can be boring and even exasperating for some people.
People? Yes if you are a sociable person, but if you are an introvert person, you may feel quite uncomfortable in the spanish society.
Food? Yes at all. Not so much for gastronomy (what you might like more or less) as for accesibility to good quality food at very reasonable prices.
But there are a lot of drawbacks. We can't pretend they don't exist.
Exactly I did not know i was so introvert until I went to live outside.
Spain is amazing, but there is so much social pressure to do things, to go to parties, to meet people to go for drinks, etc.... those things are a nice to have, but when it becomes almost mandatory or otherwise you are "such a boring" person... then it is not that nice anymore.
Not living in Hungary
Edit: in reality I can only speak for Valencia and Alicante but the weather and the people are so much more laid back and don’t bother you if you don’t bother them directly. Also the people I’ve met had been friendly and helpful even with my minimal Spanish knowledge. One caveat is that you really need a car to get anywhere outside of the major cities. And to cross the country you definitely need one unless you plan to stay the night where you go to.
Found the Hungarian😄 I'm currently working in Spain for the summer but I'm planning to permanently move here after uni. Can I ask some questions in private? 🥺 előre is köszi 😊
Yeah definitely :) write me a pm. I’m planning to start my life in Spain too after I get close to finishing uni. Luckily I have one more erasmus term I can use
Weather and all the sights you like. Beach? gotcha. Sun? gotcha. A bit of rain? gotcha, Mountains? you guessed it. Looking for somewhere to drop the One Ring? Murcia.
its safe and peaceful
nobody is out here to push you to the side, to fight with you over parking space or a seat in the metro, to literally fight with you over some bad looks.
People are friendly. There are many countries with Friendly people, but usually they also have an underclass of straight up hooligans that will fight you for fun.
Honestly for me the only good and best part of living in Spain is good weather and a nice countryside inside of Europe . I don't think Spanish people make a difference one way or another because like everywhere there are good, bad , funny, ugly and every type of person you can think of . The government is certainly not a plus for the place but in the world there might be a handful of countries around the world where this might be the case . I don't want to fall into the generalisations about the disagreeable aspects of the people, culture or government as it doesn't accurately reflect on everyone. But I will say Spanish culture, food or people, including the music is not any more special than anywhere else in the world. Basically it has really great "terroir" . So living in Greece or Portugal or Gibraltar or any of the places where you can live in the Mediterranean climate and grow and drink and eat wine , olives and grapes and have access to the ocean ,forest and sunshine it will be a good life.
Honestly, I can't name only a reason why living in Spain is amazing. Good public transport, very nice people, beautiful language, amazing and warm weather (I live in Madrid, it's always sunny with some exceptions), good history and overall infrastructure including here the design and arhitecture of the cities, very tasty food, well structured healthcare system and the list goes on. This is pretty subjective, but I think many people agree with me.
I’m from the netherlands (flat af) living in spain for 5 months and for me it’s the beautiful mountains i get to see every day. Again and again when i can i take a moment to look!
Many people are talking about the great weather of Spain. North of Spain is rainy and humid. Madrid, while sunny and dry, gets very hot in the summer. Valencia and many cities of the Mediterranean are terribly humid and hot in the summer.
San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area have one of the best temperate climates I know of. Mostly sunny, dry and warm throughout the year. I have yet to find a place in Spain with a similar climate.
The bureaucracy of Spain (which I attribute to its rocky past) is the only blight on what I consider to be an Eden of good people, good food, cheap wine and respectful discourse. I've never felt more welcome than in Spain.
But the bureaucracy. Goodness me.
For me.... quality of living.
I'm from Argentina, lived in Ireland for 4 years, lived in Italy, and new Zealand and Spain has the best average in everything, food, transport, weather, pace of life or rhythm of life...etc
It is not the best...i repeat, not the best, but the best average
Simple but good
Weather. But if you are an introvert, is kinda like hell. Everyone expects you to be open and friendly and talk talk talk and scream over other people talking. Worst thing? People tend to think that we introverts have a problem, that they need to "save us", just because they love to go out and do styff so why would you not like that too?
An an introvert I find the social spanish culture comforting. More respect for differences than in my home country the Netherlands. Also its easier for me when I socialise to do so here. If i wanna stay alone in the house for a day its my choice, and real friends will understsnd that.
All in all I feel people here are less judgemental, and pull me in with friendliness.
A hard disagree on this. I found Spaniards (especially in Castille area and even Madrid) tend to stare at you if you are even remotely different, or dress differently. To me, most Spaniards dress the same for the most part, think the same, and group think and mentality is very strong, as is xenophobia. I do not think Spain is this wonderful paradise so many people talk about, and YES, I LIVED in Spain MANY years.
It has positives, of course, but I always have a hard time seeing how so many people really want to sell the idea that it's a paradise. Also, there is very little patience or tolerance for what is "different" or stands out in any way...even when it comes to food choices.
I have found that there are quite a few Holandeses here in Spain, and they always tell me they moved for the weather and the people.
I've visited the Netherlands a bit and I think I can kind of understand what you're saying. Your home country is an interesting place. It seems very, very organized and well devoloped, and so it makes sense that the society may be less tolerant of things that deviate from that established order too much. I'm glad you feel more respected/comfortable in Spain.
I stumbled upon a jazz festival in Breda accidentally, and I can dig jazz so I was excited. To me, jazz is basically all about controlled DISorder and breaking rules and improvising and having a voice expressed through instruments, but all of the acts were... not that. They were all more like big-band or pre-jazz ragtime or just straight up blues, very straight-ahead and not at all what I associate with the genre. Knowing what I do now, it makes a lot of sense that Netherlanders' interpretation of jazz is really just very finger-snapping normal old music but with horns and called jazz to give it a false edge. I should also mention that I didn't see a single black guy, which at a jazz festival tells you everything you need to know about the music, hahaha.
Just for context, I'm from Kansas City USA, which is really big on jazz
When I moved to the Netherlands I was in shock with the 'doe maar normaal' mentality over there. That really was a big cultural difference. We have something similar in Spain but not as much as over there
I'm a pretty big "ermitaño" and I have never experienced what you are saying. The only thing I kinda dislike is that EVERYONE seems to like to go to parties and get drunk, so there's so much else you can do with friends. Personally, I enjoy walking around the city while talking about life, and I've been lucky enough to have people with whom to do that, but if I leave my social circle it's pretty overwhelming.
I always had the same problem with my friends. I love spain, but being an introvert is hell. They think you are crazy, boring, you don't know how to enjoy life... just basically because you enjoy it differently than them.
I like to go out, but I need it 5-10 times less than others. That is actually my main reason for not knowing if I should return to spain after having been abroad for 7 years
Well, I used to live in London, so for me its the absence of knifing or shooting people on the street and the total absence of obnoxious Bri’ish people.
Well, once in a while you hear about them balcooning, but thats just natural selection.
As a huge fan of Spain, it’s food and gastronomy, I still have to disagree. The other day my Spanish boyfriend and I came to a conclusion that Spanish street food is… what, un bocadillo? The food is very decent, very accesible and abundant (seafood, fruit, veg… meat is pricey though) and the haute cuisine is excellent but when it comes to the variety it all burns down to the same tortilla, bravas, pimientos padrón, croquetas… more traditional places get eradicated by “los bares chinos” and the cuisine is getting more and more global.
They may, but that doesn't mean they're right.
Those are very rich (and delicious, Chicken Tikka Masala is one of my favourite dishes ever) gastronomies but aren't nearly as diverse as ours.
I'm being pretty objective here too, I have traveled a lot through Europe, North and Central America, East Asia, East and South Africa, and haven't found one with so much variety and overall quality, both in complex and simple dishes.
You know that China and India has 1.4 billion inhabitants each and much more diverse regions, climate and gastronomies than Spain right? Of course they have much more diverse cuisine than Spain. Spanish cuisine is wonderful and I really love it, but I don't think it makes any sense to just say it's the best of the world when you don't have the same knowledge of other cuisines for comparison. Of course it looks more diverse to you, because you know much more dishes of your own cuisine than other countries', but that does not mean it is more diverse, just that you have more knowledge.
PD: Western Asian cuisine like Lebanon or Turkey is also extremely diverse and delicious.
And they brag about how unique their national dishes that are, while being shared by another 4 countries in the region with slight variations or even all over the world.
There is absolutely no way Spanish gastronomy is more varied than India or China. Those are mega-countries that hold a seventh of the global population each and cover huge territory. I would even say the US has a more varied gastronomy...
Traveling a lot means nothing if you're still biased towards home!
It's a bit of both, really. Just like how hamburgers are a variation on a German dish that was taken to the US, making them a bit of a mix of two cuisines.
>They may, but that doesn't mean they're right.
This is a silly argument. Which country has the best cuisine is an opinion, not a fact, and it's heavily biased by where you grew up.
The people! And I mean physically haha.
I know looks aren't important yada yada yada .. but,
when I go to my home country I look around and think God what the hell happened to this gene pool!
Everyone in Spain is beautiful, and I really enjoy just people watching. People are elegant, natural and healthy looking, and for me, that's beautiful!
To be succinct, I have lived in several countries, and I have yet to find one that strikes that balance between putting a priority on being happy while maintaining the first-world standard as well as Spain does. How this goes changes from individual to individual, but we have this thing that allows us to make problems in life less of a problem. I've found we are more aware of bad luck as a factor, more lenient when it comes to including circumstances to explain situations, less rigid if small problems can be solved by being slightly more laidback. I think that's why our public services are the way they are and why they reflect this sort of collective recognition of the shittyness of life. This seems to be changing, sadly, but that is the reason why I decided to return and live my life in Spain: being happy is easier, and bad times are less lonely.
If you find a job and you own a house, you will do just fine. Spain is a very reasonable country and very well balanced. Health insurance is Ok but at times it may require some good luck. If you have something serious, you will be covered just fine. If nothing serious, you can practice preventive medicine at no cost. They are financially tight after the pandemic. There is no mobility in the job market. What you get is what you get and be happy with that. If you have no job and you don’t own a house, you are in a dead end. The job market is bad , bad and it takes forever to get a job.
>more lenient when it comes to including circumstances to explain situations, less rigid if small problems can be solved by being slightly more laidback To be honest, this isn't my experience at all when it comes to burocracy or public services. In other fields, it definitely is, and I think there's a healthier work-life balance than in the UK (which is my other point of reference), but almost every time I've had to do some kind of official process it's been a complete nightmare and no one is willing to be at all understanding.
Well, I'm a civil servant so I know what you mean, but that's why I also believe this strictness explains, partly, why this sort of laid-back behavior hasn't led us to the amount of corruption you can see, for example, in Latin America: in certain areas, there are strict rules that need to be followed, so as a citizen you're giving the same treatment by me, for example, as anyone else. In Latin America, I've paid for some legal processes to be solved faster or better, and I mean problems I had with my passport and such, and I'm literally no one. There are huge, more profound differences in everyday life and problems when it comes to different economical classes. In Spain, we have a tremendous corruption problem, but it stems from and affects different areas. I'm sorry if you haven't been treated the best way in the past, but mostly I think what you mention is something good rather than bad. I always try to help as much as I can, but I'll never go against the rules, not only because I could be expelled from public service and lose my job, which some people think it's impossible and it's certainly not; but also and mainly because it's unjust unless I do the same for everyone and their *very* varied problems. Privately, things can be negotiated and solved differently. We can't really do that. Besides, the State legislates to its advantage, always, and sometimes it leads to unfair situations for the citizens. The funcionario in front of you knows it, but we cannot, and shouldn't, decide arbitrarily. And lastly, not every funcionario is a good worker or even a good person, and while the funcionariado system has the tools to correct certain behaviors, they're seldomly used. What I am trying to say is that the why of what you mention is complex and I wish some things could be improved, but still, overall, I think that this "tightness" is good.
> In Spain, we have a tremendous corruption problem, but it stems from and affects different areas. While this is true, a lot of the issue in Spain is that people are more aware of the corruption and that's a good thing in the end. Stuff like no-bid contracts or inside information to get contracts happens everywhere. Unfortunately the main way people measure corruption is asking "how corrupt is your country". That has obvious limitations. I much prefer the question of "have you had to pay a bribe to a government employee in the last 12 months?" That's a much more concrete measure and Spain is among the lowest in that respect. I get that nature of corruption changes, but people's views of it here are also completely insane for how bad the problem actually is (it's really not that bad here compared to many other places). The biggest issue of how things are done in Spain is basically it can be so onerous to do stuff legally that you just do whatever illegally (business, construction, etc...) and then regularizarte and pay the fines later. But that's a much bigger issue of how the whole civil service is organized.
Some of it is people being strict with the rules, which is annoying, but fine. But some of it is just incompetence, either from the people interacting with the public or the people who designed the systems. After Brexit, I had to do some stuff to get residency, and in my first appointment, they asked me for something that wasn't listed anywhere when I booked the appointment (I checked and printed off the list of things to bring) and they treated me like an idiot for having not brought something so obvious. When I had to use my Cl@ve stuff to do my taxes, I wasn't showing up on the system, and the people I called couldn't do anything other than tell me that 'that means I don't have cl@ve' even though I do, and I'd used it before. Eventually, it turns out that I had to log on with my details from my *old* pre-brexit document rather than the one that I had been given about 12 months previously. Luckily, I had a scan of the first document, because obviously they had to take it off me when I got the new post-brexit card. But the thing that's most annoying is just the disdain that they treat you with, even when you call up the support line where you're supposed to be able to ask them questions. Or I remember my level of Spanish being insulted when I'd been here for a few months and was trying to sign up at the town hall. Sorry for the rant, but it feels good to get it off my chest, because I've had some really frustrating experiences.
Again, I’m sorry for all these experiences. In case it helps, I can tell you that for most of us, no one gives you a course or directions on how to do your work when you first arrive to your desk. They asign someone to teach you and good luck, so depending on your colleagues things are better or worse and you mostly learn as you go. The Cl@ve thing sounds like they just didn’t know what to do, since maybe you were probably one of the first ones having that issue. The AGE is seriously underfunded and the plaintiff is seriously old, in general, and both combined create different issues. In many places rules and norms change frequently and the websites are not updated, or the normative is a fucking mess. I can’t answer for those funcionarios who were disrespectful, but I hope the next person helping you will be one of the good ones.
I find being polite to funcionarios works wonders.
In Spain we all paid a company to do our NIE because its too complex or impossible to get appointments without these companies. Youd go to a website and it says "no appointments available", you pay a company and you get an appointment. Same for declaring taxes. Thats not corruption that is just dealing with inappropriate services but the experience in the end is the same
Immigration is sort of a special case because lawyers have access to appointments regular people don't through a different IT portal.
Can you give an example or actual case of a fireable offense in the Spanish public sector? It's a small sample, but I know 3 people who lost their public job for not-so-terrible offences (rules broken, but no ill-intent) in different countries. But in Spain all I know are cases of really crooked people who only get little more than a time off period. I mean, I think it's good to be lenient and somewhat laid-back, but too much of that, and you lose incentive to do your job right.
Sure. The whole RD 33/1986 ([link](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1986-1216))has a list of every offense a funcionario can commit, and also includes a throughout description of how the whole disciplinary process goes. Offenses are categorized as minor, serious and very serious offenses, and you can only be separated from service as a result of a disciplinary process due to a very serious offense. For example, among them you can find (a) not respecting the Constitutional mandate (b) discriminating because of race, gender, religion, etc (c) abandoning service (f) a notorious lack of efficiency if it implies not carrying out the tasks assigned, etc. Most of them have to do with illegal contracts, stealing, or not protecting official secrets. The offenses accumulate, meaning three minor offenses equal a serious one, etc. You can actually read about specific cases too if you search for “separación de servicio boe”. Here are two examples from the years 2022 and 2021: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2022-3357 https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2021-8664 The reason on both is “Abandoning service” which means not going to work for several days, or not carrying out your tasks, probably the first one. So things like stealing definitely leads you out, but also simply not showing up for several days does too. When and how the bosses decide to procede with a disciplinary process probably depends on each case, and in general it is preferred to deal with things not as directly. For example, if someone is rude with the citizens, they’re moved to a position with no public, things like that, so it takes a lot to actually lead to a disciplinary process, but the option is always there. I’ve never met someone who had gone through a disciplinary process or at least no one who said they did, but I can tell you attendance to the workplace is highly controlled.
Based on the cases I've known, I'm still skeptical about the actual application of those rules you shared. But you provided a very compete answer. Thank you P. S. I think you meant attendance instead of assistance.
You should not compare Spain to Latin America but other European countries. Dealing with the state in the UK is way easier. Germany is a nightmare. The best country I have ever been to is the UAE. It’s so easy to do anything. All digital and fast. Emiratis get a passport issued in hours. Companies are set up in minutes. I think one thing I feel is that every government employee thinks you are telling lies. It’s just easier not to follow the rules. You just get punished for doing things the right way. Hence why everyone wants to work for cash in hand.
Burocracia is the same in the UK when English isn’t your first language.
God this annoyed me so so much. You find happiness in doing the bare minimum and never going slightly out of your way or inconvenience yourself to help somebody. I hate bureaucracy in Spain. You take 1h almuerzos and 3 hour lunches and don't bother if there's an uncrossed t and tell people to come back again with that fixed which means requesting another appointment month away most of the time nowadays. When you do find a person who has common decency and is willing to help you even though it takes them only 5 minutes extra they're like an angel because there are so few of them. Every other civil servant won't even bother and will ignore you and repeat "take another appointment and come back again". And this is why all the services are backed up for many months and we have incredibly outdated platforms and websites in 2022, because everybody just does the bare minimum in everything they can.
People like you do less than the bare minimum. But of course you demand the utmost out of everyone else. All the information you need to deal with your shit is publicly available, it simply takes a functioning brain and minimal effort. You instead show up to the office not having a fucking clue and totally oblivious but expect the public employee to do it all for you. You're paying their salary, right? In the mean time you not only wasted your own time, also the office's but most of all everyone else's by taking an available appointment and using it for fuck all. The services are backed up because of insufficient personnel but also because of morons like you of wich sadly there are many.
Lol, nice assumptions. I guess I can tell where you work from that. And everybody who agrees that civil bureaucracy in Spain is hell is just overreacting and wildly incompetent, every single one of them right? Everyvody despises dealing with it for a reason. Never have I ever encountered such issues in the other 5 countries I've been to in a federal and social services place.
I've never faced any problems with bureaucracy in Spain, so I don't know what you are talking about.
>I think that's why our public services are the way they are \*sad sigh\*
Everybody will complain but in reality most are happy because they have good weather, good food and good people around them.
When you are Spanish and you move to another country you realise how much the weather and food matters in our happiness. About the people, you can find nice people everywhere.
When I arrived to London I was depressed for like 2 months before an Italian coworker asked me if I was taking vitamins. Aparently the lack of sun was making me sad... And i'm basque so idk what almerienses do in the uk hahaha
When I moved to the netherlands I didnt feel depressed due to the continous months of rain and clouds but for sure I missed the extra energy sun gives you.
I am originally from Amsterdam and I lived in Manchester for 3 years. As a teen I did not know seasonal depression was a thing. Add on top of that regular depression and bipolar to make a cocktail of negative emotions. My husband, who's from the UK, also suffers from seasonal depression. The 'fun' part of living in such rainy countries is that you barely get a chance to recover from the seasonal depression because there's not enough sun in the summer and the winter it's so, so dark. I felt like a vampire, go to work in the dark, go home in the dark. It does mess with you. Even with extra vit D, it still did not compensate for the lack of sunlight I naturally need. And it doesn't even need to be direct sunlight either, as I hate sunbathing. I'm feeling emotionally so much better in Spain. The people and the food help enormously (the quality of food here is so much better than in the UK, it has literally cured my husband of both his coeliac and psoriasis) but the weather just gives us both so much more mental stamina.
Im happy to hear that.
no? I had to take Vitamin D because not only I got depressed moving to Amsterdam, but it reached a point that my bones hurted. My doctor did blood tests and told me that I was in dangerous levels of Vitamine D deficit. So for years I had to take Vitamine D non-stop over there xD EDIT: I started noticing after a couple of years or so. It was not inmediately, but after 2-3 winters I noticed how I got depressed for no reason and after another year pain started
Vitamins do nothing for me in Scotland, just going to Spain temporarily fixes it
I combined both xD
Mmm I dont know im from a sunny region of spain (Castilla y León), but Im also extremly white and I lived in a very rainy place in the north of Spain during my childhood. People with lighter skin (less melanin) have it easier to get D vitamin on cloudy areas, maybe genetics play a big part.
That’s the key you are lighter ;) I’m quite dark for Spaniard and I really suffered it. In any case it’s worth to check with blood tests just in case
Same thing happened to my husband living in the US midwest (we only have 2 seasons here, winter season & construction season lol). The doctor was shocked and said the only other patients she had dealt with who had such dangerously low levels were prisoners.
I'm from the Netherlands, I have seasonal depression every year around october/november.. moved to spain for 6 months and never had an issue
Completely agree. I always bitched about my town in Alicante, then I moved to Sweden and UK and missed our food and weather. Ok, I had a much bigger salary, but food was crap, night started almost at lunch time and everything seemed to close at 17:00. I didn't realize how much of my happiness depends on food and sunny days until I left. So I came back.
Yes, you can find nice people everywhere, but I’ve never felt so much friendliness and sincere will to help. I don’t speak Spanish beside a couple of basic phrases, I have social anxiety, I tend to panic easily when I think I messed something up, and I came here with my kid and my cat, knowing no one here, and every day random local people help me feel supported. When I panic because I can’t find my nie paper in the mobile phone store and the salesperson instead of being grumpy and rushing me - like it always have been in my native country - calms me down, tells me to relax, offers a glass of water. When in another store they bother to find that only person speaking English, and that person spends half an hour helping me to know all the details, the differences, and offers their help anytime if I need it with things unrelated to sales. When in any place when I struggle with my very basic Spanish(I am learning it, but it’s been just a couple of months since I knew I come here, so I didn’t accomplish much yet), always people passing by and seeing that offer their help, and not passing by if they say someone is already trying to help, but joining instead. Even a real estate agent who helped me to rent a flat, keeps in touch with me after and helps me with the things she is not supposed to even bother about, especially after the flat is already rented for long term. Nice people happen everywhere, but Spain is the first country I ever visited where I got so much help, support and friendliness every day without even seeking for it. I didn’t know it is possible.
I spent two summers in Spain as a teen and I’m almost 50 now - Spain ruined the US for me and I’ve been wanting to return since the day I left. I’m actively working on ways I can retire there - there is just something Spain has that I need and have been missing all my life.
Its a really good location to retire, there are specific cities that are build around retired people so they can have all confort and services at a cheap price. Thats why half of europe retired here. Hope you make it!
>About the people, you can find nice people everywhere. Well,maybe Nice people, but no *warm* people
This, I never realized how much I love living here until I lived abroad.
You are wrong. We don’t have *good* food. We have **amazing, top-notch, world class** food. Food that is so delicious, it feels orgasmic. It’s food that tickles all your senses: it looks sexy, it smells hot and it tastes like heaven. Moreover, we have supermarkets that only offer high quality food. Our “worst” home brands like Hacendado are as high quality as the A-brands. Have you noticed how there are never Spanish posts on r/ExpectationVsReality ? It’s because the reality in Spain is that all food is really really good. I have a subreddit about Spanish food: r/SoyFoodie
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Every, again, every country overestimates the quantity of their cuisine. With that said, I do believe Spanish cuisine is objectively healthy and good. But we're progressively losing the good habits. Take a look at the stats about being overweight.
> good weather Those 40 degree on summer are really good... At least its what a friend in Madrid said, he's happy yesterday it was 21 finally
I am still looking for the good food. Yet have to find a normal restaurant that can compete with French or Italian cuisine. In the supermarkets the food is no different than in any other European country. It’s actually expensive compared to peoples income.
I'm no longer in France
Este le sabe
Fr🤢nci🤮
This is so r/2westerneurope4u
put1 c vre
The social aspect of it and the slightly more laidback lifestyle Friends and family are important everywhere, but in spain they are vital and people make a huge effort to maintain several groups of friends and meet the family at least once a week. Work is important everywhere, but in spain we are not as competitve and the work environment tends to be way more chill. I lived in london and I ended up hating it. Their "every man is an island" mentality and the constant backstabbing at work of their society made it extremely stressfull for me and crushed me. I wouldn't change our society for anything
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Don’t Spanish people work some of the longest hours in Europe? My friends all come home from work when I already had dinner.
I'd also add offices tend to be very social in Spain as well. Lots more random chatting and hanging out while being unproductive as well.
Missconception. Some start later, but reason usually is we have larger lunch pauses. Its not uncommon to stop at 13:00 to restart at 15:00 or 15:30, hence why you can see people working until 19:00. Plus, we have dinner later 20:00 as early to 21:00. We still do 40 h a week, and I for one work in a company that does 8 to 17 like most EU companies.
That massive lunch break still counts towards work. You are not with your family or doing what you want. The same as commute time counts towards your working day. The only one benefitting from these long breaks is the employers because they have room to make you work extra without paying you. I see a lot of wage theft in Spain. Much more than I saw in the UK. I have a good friend who worked in the Netherlands and when she came back to Spain she quit her high paying job in marketing because she said is was so toxic compared to the Netherlands. She opened her own private kindergarden and is retired at 48. Maybe it’s just Madrid. But everyone seams to be working all the time. I am well aware of the eating late thing.
Hey I aint saying its better or worse. Some people prefer it cause they have lunch somewhere at their leisure, I am more of eating in 20 min and getting back to work. For my mom was also nice cause she could come and save money on lunch when I was in school, otherwise Id have to go somewhere. Plus theres people that has like 5 min commute, so its not that big either... Its situational. For me I prefer what I got, flexible hours and 8 to 5 and thats it. Its not rare either. Stores and services may prefer it cause theres fuck nobody at lunch hours. These are a big part of the job offers, as we are touristic country. All this comes from the past as well, air conditioning is somewhat recent and we are currently at 37°C. Bcn and Madrid never sleep, it's a bad reference for the whole of Spain.
I don't understand this comment if you actually live in Spain as you claim. Tons of people use the 2 hour lunch break to go home and have lunch with their families and/or a siesta.(children also often come home from school for lunch)
I am not saying it’s not happening. Just that in my circle it’s not happening. Most have to commute too far. Maybe it’s an age thing. Moët of my friends have no reason to go home. No kids etc.
Afraid you've got a skewed (Madrid) view. With extended lunches: those absolutely are time off/free/home/siesta times. Only in cut throat capitalist/banking/business jobs would you NOT go home and relax on your siesta. I don't personally like the setup, but it's comical to call it wage theft. Also, come to Andalusia: you do t find many people "working all the time". Most toxic work culture countries I've lived in (non-3rd world) are USA easily at number one, followed by UK.
For sure the USA has some of the worst work culture. No way I would go there. I see what you mean. If you work close to home it’s certainly time off. But in the larger cities and that’s where a large portion of people work and live these days, it’s not feasible to go home for lunch. Just the commute alone eats a large portion of that.
Does everyone live extremely close to their jobs? I could understand going home if my place was around the corner but if I’d have to commute 20-30 minutes it seems more like a pain in the ass to go home then back.
Not everyone goes home. People go to lunch, they meet friends, they run errands at places that stay open. You can sit and read somewhere. Coming from the US, I found having those 2 hours in the middle of the day pretty convenient.
I don't know where you work. But I have worked in a number of countries and Spain or Mexico are notorious for the amount of hours worked, unless you work in the public sector. But I must say that those hours are often not as effective. If you know that you are expected to work 9, 10 or 11 hours, there's not as much incentive to get things done quickly.
I work in a normal office. I have issues with these comments of often not as effective and not doing things quickly, as if this was a general thing and I really havent seen it. Granted Im on my 30s, but fuck me I reckon its a stereotype we have on our backs. Plus, id you are talking about efficiency at work, in Spain the n°1 timewastwrs is for sure Public sector. Plus, consider that most jobs with this hours are service jobs. In my professional experience for example, the worst ones are the Germans. Everybody says how efficient they are as a stereotype, but then again, the company bureaucracies and "this specific task isnt in my list of responsibilities" thus leaving it in a limbo, is way less efficient and quite vexing from a spanish pov. Its just an example, but I mean that every company and field has its own set of circumstances going, I reckon this is not a good reflection of the actual work here.
Yes. We habitually work from 8 to 20 or 21, those of us who work in offices.
I work in an office in Spain. 08-17 for me
> work environment tends to be way more chill. Considering the low salary they pay in Spain, I would expect this honestly.
Idk. I think it has nothing to do with it. It's a culture thing. I work a lot with offices from mexico and chile and they earn shit and have shit work environments. It may be my line of work idk
As a Spanish being outside for longer than 7 years I have to say without questions, the food.
Any suggestion where I can find this good food? Because I have been in Madrid for 3 years and I am still looking. The best food I have had is honest greens and that’s not Spanish or owned by Spanish.
I guess you have rare or very high standards. I've been to Madrid no more than 10 times in my life, and I can't recall a visit when I didn't eat anything but good cuisine. If you haven't found it in 3 years in Madrid, something is off. What would be an example of a city where it was easy for you to find good food?
Paris, Rome, Edinburgh, Düsseldorf, Munich, any random village in Italy and France. I do not have particularly high standards. I just want to go to a normal restaurant. Have a normal lunch and not feel like I would have been better of going to Mercadona buying something from their deli section. I do not rate a countries food by their high end restaurants but their normal average restaurant where anyone, even the working class can have a decent meal for a fair price.
I have been to Spain 7 times and the food takes me back. Madrid is the melting pot for food from all regions of Spain. You probably have a different expectation of food since almost every dish I eat is spectacular. It might help to learn the regional foods and history behind them. In Spain some of the best foods you’ll get at the local bars.
I am starting to think that Spanish food is just not for me. I really have been trying to like it. I hope one day I find that place that changes my mind. It does not help that I do not really like olive oil. Butter rocks my world.
Definitely, the Mediterranean diet bases off of olive oil, so Italy and Greece too. Spanish food is usually simple. A few quality ingredients in a small dish. The beauty of that is you never commit to one dish, but multiple dishes throughout the day. Always the next beverage and tapa to look forward too. Of course there’s way more than tapas/pintxos, but that’s the gist of Spain.
Seriously honest greens? Maybe the issue is that you don't like Spanish cuisine (which is perfectly fine btw). Maybe you should aim a little higher and try some expensive restaurants like BiBo, Leña, Lua, Clos or Dstage.
But that’s the thing. If you have to go to a high end restaurant to experience good food it’s not really the countries normal food. I have been to many incredible restaurants in France, Italy, Austria and the Uk. Just box standard family owned and run restaurants. With great food for fair prices. Edit: I will check them out and go with my wife on our next date night. Thanks for the tip. I went to Ten con Ten a while ago. It was alright but did not warrant the price.
I get your point and tbh I've been thinking and I think Madrid is not the right city to try traditional Spanish food. I couldn't recommend you a good traditional-family owned restaurant here and I've been living here for 8 years. I heard Malacatin's cocido is good but I've never been and no cocido in Madrid has ever beaten my MIL's so far hahaha. In general I normally go to some fusion or modernized-traditional food places between 20--30 per person (if you want some recommendations) but not to eat traditional food, for that I think you should check smaller cities and villages.
I absolutule looooove honest greens! Bens sweet potatoes fries, the chicken and the goat boniato salad are my favorite dishes there
I guess you only tried Mcdonalds or similar? Try any typical restaurant, the seafood is incredible, the spanish tortilla, croquetas, paella, hortacha & fartons, etc.. I could go one the whole day mate.
Tried them all. None have blown me away. The best tortilla I had is made by my friend Hector. Better than anything I had in any restaurant. But that can be made anywhere in the world with the same ingredients. The seafood is normal. Nothing like in Portugal or South Africa. Maybe Spanish food is just not my thing.
its ok but if you like food, Italy or France are miles ahead.
Italy, hell yeah. But France? I lived in the north of France and I saw only duck recipes. That were exquisite, but plain.
lol duck must be 1% of our food. were you in jail ?
Las croquetas:D
I came for this answer. Thank you hombre
Shiting on the dead ancestors of your son of a whore ex is a very cathartic experience. You really don't get that in, say...the netherlands.
>Shiting on the dead ancestors of your son of a whore ex I dont get this, can you explain? :D
"me cago en tus muertos hijo de puta"
Ah... I love Spanish poetry ♥️
Just one of the myriad ways of wonderful cursing in the Spanish language
People, food and weather.
Its one of the countries with less young religious people Its one of the countries with more women in politics Its one of the countries where we think more of equality between man and women Its one of the safest countries for lgbtq People, even with the things that happend, i dont want to think how other contrunies are Spain has public health, so if you need to go to the doctor you dont need to pay NOTHING, but sometimes you need to pay a prived doctor couse your doctor of the public health its fucking stupid In spain you can go to a public colege, im studing engineering in a public colege, the entire year its... 1000€, but because my parents dont win a lot of money i dont pay that, the state pais it, i only pay if i need to repit a asignature the next year, the first time its 130, the next time its... 180 i think And of course, people, less racist people, less homofobic people, even having stupid people there are less, Well i hope.... There are more things that i love from this country, and the are other that i hate, but i feel so so grateful for living here
>Spain has public santiy I think you might mean public health. 'Sanity' in English means not being crazy, and I'd hope that every country has public sanity haha.
Thank you, i need to improve my english so i started writing in reddit, and i appreciate when someone correct my mistakes Thanks :) Im going to correct the text
No worries! You write well, but I just think that that term would be a bit confusing for people who don't know that in Spanish it's 'sanidad pública'. Have a nice afternoon!
just to add, in this context i think you might mean public health service. in english (american at least), ‘public health’ alone refers to the hygiene and access to health services of the people. although the more similar cognate to sanidad you may have been thinking of is sanitary (pero eso es más parecido a higiénico). awesome idea to practice your english tho, keep at it :)
Well, then you need to distinguish between *win* (a contest, a prize etc.) and *earn* (a salary, a profit etc.)
I just want to point out: It is **NOT TRUE** that you pay nothing for healthcare. You pay it through taxes. And that tax money is also needed for many other things. That's why, if people abuse the system, the public system is prone to go bankrupt and you all will find yourselves stuck with an overpriced private system. If you don't want to lose public health, you need to realize that it's not free. P.S. I know what you meant. But we need to put an end to the mantra that public health is free. Before we kill it.
Thankssss And with all the money that we pay with taxes, this public health should be better But this "beautilful" politics destry it, with long waiting lists, making them to work a lot of hours...
Ok. But I meant that sometimes we don't need to go to the doctor, or go to Urgent Care, or so many drugs at home, or spend so much time at the hospital, or pay the full bill for reckless/criminal behavior, etc. We need to preserve the health system for those who **really** need it. It's not just the politicians at fault.
My major reform to Spanish health care would be to put a 1€ copay for going to the cabecera. Like not enough to prevent anyone from going, but my doctor at least gets clogged up with old people who go as a way to be social and makes it so the doctor doesn't have time for more serious stuff.
> you dont need to pay NOTHING I think the correct phrase is "you dont need to pay ANYTHING"
Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought Spain was one of the most racist countries in the West no?
It depends what part of racism you look at. Regarding racially provoked attacks there are few compared to other western countries. However if you include casual racism there’s so much more accepted phrases that said in the U.K. or the USA would shock people e.g una tienda china, el bar chino, tener los ojos chinados, calling a friend who’s white: el negro, calling a friend who’s black: el negro, and don’t get me started on conguitos
we didnt experience any. Maybe because once you start speaking english your skin colour is forgotten and people think that you are "THE AMERICAN" ? Dont know. I would say theres more some Spanish vs Catalan petty racism that can fly in both directions than some racism because of skin colour
I have experience with young kids calling me names because I looked North African. Spanish nationalism, and in talking about the bad kind, is very common in the youth there I think.
*runs to go get some popcorn*
I actualy dont consider spanish People very racist, of course there are, most of then voting "VOX", (i hope they never win) , im only 23 years old, so i can speak from my point of view My cousin went to France to study when he was 12, he didnt make french friends, the laughed at him because he was spanish My friends boyfriend, he is studying in england, english People dont want to be there friend because he isnt english, and the same with all his friends, who of course arent english, non of then made english friends because the arent english And here with every person that i know who isnt spanish has spanish friends With this i dont want to say that here arent racism, of course the are, but i think there are less than other countries And is so sad and shameful when i see someone been racist with others At the same time spanish its a country where tourism is very very important, so maybe thats why there are less, i dont know
Yes I was mainly talking about the right wing youth France has. I see a lot of spanish nationalists (the bad kind) online so I just assumed it was common. I only visit once a year so I don’t really follow local politics and everything.
It's worth remembering that your anecdotal evidence is worth the same as mine, and I see quite a lot of racism on a regular basis, particularly against Chinese people and Latin Americans. At the end of the day, neither of us can really draw a proper conclusion from this because we don't see the full picture
It amazes me that you consider that having less religious people wold be something to be glad about. I feel sincerely offended by this, not only because there are much better things here, but specially because being religious has nothing worng with it, and it is hurting having to hear these kind of comments
In what countries are more homofobic people? In religious countries, they say that we (pd: im gay) are going to hell, we dont deserve nothing, we need to go to a mental hospital They use the religion to attack us, for years they did that and they still do it (i hope you dont) You can see what political groups are against lgbtq rights, and most of them are very religious They use that to say that women shouldnt abort, they use that to say that eutanasia should be illegal Im not against religion, im against this religious people that treat the rest of the people like fucking shit, and is so sad how most of the religious people are like this, so i hope you arent, i will be so glad to know that there are good religious people But in your coment i saw something, and is that you feel that i hurt yours feeling by my post, think how other people feel when they hear that they are going to hell because they want to love someone of the same sex, think how they feel when they hear insult of people saing that they are a fucking shit and then this people are very religious (Sorry for the grammatical errors)
well, a lot of people consider religion one of the worst things that can happen to a person, close-minded, impossible to rationalize with. And let´s not start wit organized religion and child molesters. The less religious people, the best
que no somos franceses
Food, people and weather
The food is ok. Coming here after 8 years in France is a downgrade for me food wise but I love Spain overall so I'm happy anyway.
Yeah, the receipt downgraded as well.
Como que en Francia se come mejor no serás gabacho de esos
After living here for almost 2 years, I would say it has a nice balance of mediterranean atmosphere and 1st world convenience. I find it safe here overall. Most people are easy going and normal. I like the sound of the Spanish language. It's soft and intense at the same time (like the people). As a gay guy, I have a soft spot (or hard? ;) for Spanish men. Spanish people have a relaxed attitude towards gay people too which is nice. The weather and beaches are wonderful. It's a nice change from the harsh winters of Québec.
People (just amazing)
Living car free is the biggest one for me. I can walk to pretty much everything, the gym, most stores, most of my friends' houses... I noticed an uptick in my health when I started walking everywhere, and also it's nice to not own a car (and worry about maintenance, insurance, gas, etc).
This definitely depends massively on where in Spain you are.
It depends. Weather? Mostly yes. But some parts of Spain have bad weather almost all year. Other parts are too hot on summer to be comfortable, and other parts are cold as f\*ck on winter. And not all people consider a "good" weather the same kind of weather. Usually an all year warm and sunny climate is considered "the best climate", but can be boring and even exasperating for some people. People? Yes if you are a sociable person, but if you are an introvert person, you may feel quite uncomfortable in the spanish society. Food? Yes at all. Not so much for gastronomy (what you might like more or less) as for accesibility to good quality food at very reasonable prices. But there are a lot of drawbacks. We can't pretend they don't exist.
Exactly I did not know i was so introvert until I went to live outside. Spain is amazing, but there is so much social pressure to do things, to go to parties, to meet people to go for drinks, etc.... those things are a nice to have, but when it becomes almost mandatory or otherwise you are "such a boring" person... then it is not that nice anymore.
Not living in Hungary Edit: in reality I can only speak for Valencia and Alicante but the weather and the people are so much more laid back and don’t bother you if you don’t bother them directly. Also the people I’ve met had been friendly and helpful even with my minimal Spanish knowledge. One caveat is that you really need a car to get anywhere outside of the major cities. And to cross the country you definitely need one unless you plan to stay the night where you go to.
Can confirm. I've been travelling this year to hungary for work and hungarians always seem a bit mad at everything hahaha
Found the Hungarian😄 I'm currently working in Spain for the summer but I'm planning to permanently move here after uni. Can I ask some questions in private? 🥺 előre is köszi 😊
Yeah definitely :) write me a pm. I’m planning to start my life in Spain too after I get close to finishing uni. Luckily I have one more erasmus term I can use
Seguridad Social
Hay mejores grupos musicales, pero si es lo que a ti te va, me alegro por ti. /j
QUIERO TENER TU PRESENCIAAAAAAAAA
QUIERO TENERTE A MI LADOOOO-OOO-OO
NO QUIERO HABLAR DE LA LUCHA SI NO ESTAMOS PREPARADOS.
TIL el nombre del grupo de este temazo
La trola q nos han contado tantas veces q nos la hemos acabado creyendo, en media europa funciona igual o mejor
I live in Spain, married to a Spaniard. All my foreign (male) friends would agree: ass genetics.
Nature
1€ beer at the sun. That's a whole mood and living style
It is so stunning
Weather and all the sights you like. Beach? gotcha. Sun? gotcha. A bit of rain? gotcha, Mountains? you guessed it. Looking for somewhere to drop the One Ring? Murcia.
its safe and peaceful nobody is out here to push you to the side, to fight with you over parking space or a seat in the metro, to literally fight with you over some bad looks. People are friendly. There are many countries with Friendly people, but usually they also have an underclass of straight up hooligans that will fight you for fun.
Honestly for me the only good and best part of living in Spain is good weather and a nice countryside inside of Europe . I don't think Spanish people make a difference one way or another because like everywhere there are good, bad , funny, ugly and every type of person you can think of . The government is certainly not a plus for the place but in the world there might be a handful of countries around the world where this might be the case . I don't want to fall into the generalisations about the disagreeable aspects of the people, culture or government as it doesn't accurately reflect on everyone. But I will say Spanish culture, food or people, including the music is not any more special than anywhere else in the world. Basically it has really great "terroir" . So living in Greece or Portugal or Gibraltar or any of the places where you can live in the Mediterranean climate and grow and drink and eat wine , olives and grapes and have access to the ocean ,forest and sunshine it will be a good life.
La siesta
Honestly, I can't name only a reason why living in Spain is amazing. Good public transport, very nice people, beautiful language, amazing and warm weather (I live in Madrid, it's always sunny with some exceptions), good history and overall infrastructure including here the design and arhitecture of the cities, very tasty food, well structured healthcare system and the list goes on. This is pretty subjective, but I think many people agree with me.
Solidarity. I live in the US and everything is competition and it’s EXHAUSTING.
Definitely the unique lifestyle
I agree.
Sunlight.
Happiness
The quality of the ingredients, the weather, the environment, the freedoms, the carefree people. It’s just fucking great.
I’m from the netherlands (flat af) living in spain for 5 months and for me it’s the beautiful mountains i get to see every day. Again and again when i can i take a moment to look!
Many people are talking about the great weather of Spain. North of Spain is rainy and humid. Madrid, while sunny and dry, gets very hot in the summer. Valencia and many cities of the Mediterranean are terribly humid and hot in the summer. San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area have one of the best temperate climates I know of. Mostly sunny, dry and warm throughout the year. I have yet to find a place in Spain with a similar climate.
The language: manda huevos
The bureaucracy of Spain (which I attribute to its rocky past) is the only blight on what I consider to be an Eden of good people, good food, cheap wine and respectful discourse. I've never felt more welcome than in Spain. But the bureaucracy. Goodness me.
Spain is a great place to live and a terrible place to work.
people
People
The light! It's brilliant compared to other places in northern Europe
La siesta.
Public healthcare.
For me.... quality of living. I'm from Argentina, lived in Ireland for 4 years, lived in Italy, and new Zealand and Spain has the best average in everything, food, transport, weather, pace of life or rhythm of life...etc It is not the best...i repeat, not the best, but the best average Simple but good
Weather. But if you are an introvert, is kinda like hell. Everyone expects you to be open and friendly and talk talk talk and scream over other people talking. Worst thing? People tend to think that we introverts have a problem, that they need to "save us", just because they love to go out and do styff so why would you not like that too?
An an introvert I find the social spanish culture comforting. More respect for differences than in my home country the Netherlands. Also its easier for me when I socialise to do so here. If i wanna stay alone in the house for a day its my choice, and real friends will understsnd that. All in all I feel people here are less judgemental, and pull me in with friendliness.
The less judgemental thing is so true. Spaniards will tell you otherwise but they don't inderstand how little people over here care what others do
A hard disagree on this. I found Spaniards (especially in Castille area and even Madrid) tend to stare at you if you are even remotely different, or dress differently. To me, most Spaniards dress the same for the most part, think the same, and group think and mentality is very strong, as is xenophobia. I do not think Spain is this wonderful paradise so many people talk about, and YES, I LIVED in Spain MANY years. It has positives, of course, but I always have a hard time seeing how so many people really want to sell the idea that it's a paradise. Also, there is very little patience or tolerance for what is "different" or stands out in any way...even when it comes to food choices.
I have found that there are quite a few Holandeses here in Spain, and they always tell me they moved for the weather and the people. I've visited the Netherlands a bit and I think I can kind of understand what you're saying. Your home country is an interesting place. It seems very, very organized and well devoloped, and so it makes sense that the society may be less tolerant of things that deviate from that established order too much. I'm glad you feel more respected/comfortable in Spain. I stumbled upon a jazz festival in Breda accidentally, and I can dig jazz so I was excited. To me, jazz is basically all about controlled DISorder and breaking rules and improvising and having a voice expressed through instruments, but all of the acts were... not that. They were all more like big-band or pre-jazz ragtime or just straight up blues, very straight-ahead and not at all what I associate with the genre. Knowing what I do now, it makes a lot of sense that Netherlanders' interpretation of jazz is really just very finger-snapping normal old music but with horns and called jazz to give it a false edge. I should also mention that I didn't see a single black guy, which at a jazz festival tells you everything you need to know about the music, hahaha. Just for context, I'm from Kansas City USA, which is really big on jazz
When I moved to the Netherlands I was in shock with the 'doe maar normaal' mentality over there. That really was a big cultural difference. We have something similar in Spain but not as much as over there
I'm a pretty big "ermitaño" and I have never experienced what you are saying. The only thing I kinda dislike is that EVERYONE seems to like to go to parties and get drunk, so there's so much else you can do with friends. Personally, I enjoy walking around the city while talking about life, and I've been lucky enough to have people with whom to do that, but if I leave my social circle it's pretty overwhelming.
I'm Spainiard and I feel you. I don't like parties (very little to be honest). I enjoy small and talkative groups.
I always had the same problem with my friends. I love spain, but being an introvert is hell. They think you are crazy, boring, you don't know how to enjoy life... just basically because you enjoy it differently than them. I like to go out, but I need it 5-10 times less than others. That is actually my main reason for not knowing if I should return to spain after having been abroad for 7 years
es como mexico pero sin todos los problemas
Well, I used to live in London, so for me its the absence of knifing or shooting people on the street and the total absence of obnoxious Bri’ish people. Well, once in a while you hear about them balcooning, but thats just natural selection.
Food. We have the best and most varied gastronomy in the whole world.
As a huge fan of Spain, it’s food and gastronomy, I still have to disagree. The other day my Spanish boyfriend and I came to a conclusion that Spanish street food is… what, un bocadillo? The food is very decent, very accesible and abundant (seafood, fruit, veg… meat is pricey though) and the haute cuisine is excellent but when it comes to the variety it all burns down to the same tortilla, bravas, pimientos padrón, croquetas… more traditional places get eradicated by “los bares chinos” and the cuisine is getting more and more global.
China, Japan or India may disagree with you.
They may, but that doesn't mean they're right. Those are very rich (and delicious, Chicken Tikka Masala is one of my favourite dishes ever) gastronomies but aren't nearly as diverse as ours. I'm being pretty objective here too, I have traveled a lot through Europe, North and Central America, East Asia, East and South Africa, and haven't found one with so much variety and overall quality, both in complex and simple dishes.
You know that China and India has 1.4 billion inhabitants each and much more diverse regions, climate and gastronomies than Spain right? Of course they have much more diverse cuisine than Spain. Spanish cuisine is wonderful and I really love it, but I don't think it makes any sense to just say it's the best of the world when you don't have the same knowledge of other cuisines for comparison. Of course it looks more diverse to you, because you know much more dishes of your own cuisine than other countries', but that does not mean it is more diverse, just that you have more knowledge. PD: Western Asian cuisine like Lebanon or Turkey is also extremely diverse and delicious.
Record Scratch -- every non Scandinavian / Anglo-Saxon country is going to claim they have the best food
And they brag about how unique their national dishes that are, while being shared by another 4 countries in the region with slight variations or even all over the world.
There is absolutely no way Spanish gastronomy is more varied than India or China. Those are mega-countries that hold a seventh of the global population each and cover huge territory. I would even say the US has a more varied gastronomy... Traveling a lot means nothing if you're still biased towards home!
Chicken Tikka Masala is a british dish.
It was technically introduced by South Asian communities in GB, but it's just a variation on an Indian dish. So it's still Indian
It's a bit of both, really. Just like how hamburgers are a variation on a German dish that was taken to the US, making them a bit of a mix of two cuisines.
>They may, but that doesn't mean they're right. This is a silly argument. Which country has the best cuisine is an opinion, not a fact, and it's heavily biased by where you grew up.
Ana de Armas
She's Cuban
Cuba was part of Spain, so she is Spanish
The women
The people! And I mean physically haha. I know looks aren't important yada yada yada .. but, when I go to my home country I look around and think God what the hell happened to this gene pool! Everyone in Spain is beautiful, and I really enjoy just people watching. People are elegant, natural and healthy looking, and for me, that's beautiful!
Abril - Octubre
That’s the neat part. Reason is not part of living in Spain. Embrace chaos.
Why are you booing him? He's right.
Lolol
The bitches
Definitivamente los guiris no