Let the festivities begin! Spain produce the most emphatic win of the World Cup so far, thrashing the Ukraine 4-0! At last the Spanish look like they are actually capable of playing like a team! Can they go all the way? Can they finally beat the quarter-final knock-out jinx that plagues them in all major competitions?
And who ever said the Spanish don’t like their flag? 🙂
It seems South American style, 24 hour turn-around kidnaps are on the rise in Spain – plus “there were 147 kidnappings in Madrid alone last year” – reports Giles Tremlett in the Guardian. That’s one every two or three days! I never heard about any of them!
Marina and Ben are in the UK for the weekend marveling at the amazing number of England flags draped everywhere in honour of the world cup. Why, they wonder, are there none to be seen on the streets of football-loving Spain?
Discuss/comment on this podcast here in the forums.
Telefonica’s takeover of 0-2 was pretty impressive, and now this:
“Directors of airports operator BAA have backed a takeover by Spanish building group Ferrovial, the BBC has learned. Following a secret “auction”, BAA has agreed to a 950p a share offer, which values the firm at £10bn.”
If you are in Madrid before July 23rd keep an eye out for black on yellow PHE06 signs dotted around the city – the signs denoting an exhibition forming part of the 2006 Photo España festival. 20minutos has a sample of what’s on offer (some are more inspiring than others) – this year’s theme is Nature.
Meanwhile, how up are you on 20th Century Spanish Culture? Take a look at this photo gallery in El Pais and see how many of the names portrayed you are familiar with… I score a poor 8/15!
I pick up most of my on-line news on Spain from three sources: El Mundo (one of Spain’s biggest daily papers), Expatica, and Newsvine (all fed into my RSS reader, Bloglines). Are there any I’m missing? Do you have a favourite source of Spanish news?
Comment below or in the thread I’ve started on this in the forums.
Marina and Ben visit the Feria del Libro (book fair) in the Retiro park and discuss the rise of the book in post-Franco Spain. The image above is of Mario Vargas LLosa, author of the extremely powerful ‘Feast of the Goat’. Other titles mentioned include ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ and ‘The New Spaniards‘ by John Hooper.
Comment on/discuss this episode in the forums.
Isn’t that a lyric from a Beatles song? Lennon and McCartney must have been on holiday in Spain when they wrote it. The point is this: when you pass a neighbour in the street in the UK, you say ‘Hello’, or ‘Morning’ to each other. In the same situation the Spanish will usually say ‘Hasta Luego’, or ‘Adios’ (See you later/Bye…) to each other as they pass.
Plus, it is a common to say ‘Buenas Noches’ (Good Night) when you walk into a house/bar/restaurant at night, a phrase I would only use just before heading for bed. I wonder if that tells us anything about the two cultures…
The daily paper ’20 Minutos’ has put together a wonderful collection of old photos sent in by readers, an interesting window on the country’s past. Thanks go to Marbella for bringing this to light in the forums.
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 