Category: Spanish Culture and News

That was then, this is now: 2005 and 2006 in perspective – an interesting look at the last and the next twelve months in Spain, by Expatica. I never knew Glastonbury was coming over here…

They say that there are more lawyers in Madrid than in the whole of France (which seems unlikely), and that you can’t throw a stone in the capital without hitting a law student. The brutal kidnap of a lawyer in Castellon (near Valencia), and a number of recent lawyer shootings, including one just round the corner from us earlier this year, may soon put pay to the Spaniards’ love for the (legal) bar…

…the Spanish never travel beyond Spain.

And on a completely unrelated not, if you’re going to be in Madrid before Jan 8th, then see the exhibition at the Bellas Artes that includes this iconic photo:

And of course there are thousands more photos of Spain on Flickr… (Beware, Flickr can be highly addictive!)

Costa del concrete – an interesting blog post on a subject dear to my heart – the endless over-construction of the Mediterrean coast.

Metro Madrid has just announced an 80% drop in smoking-related complaints, with 411 people fined for smoking underground since the beginning of a clampdown this time last year. Gone are the days when you would step onto a platform to find smokers puffing away whilst chatting casually to the very security guards that were meant to be fining them.

Soon it’s to be the turn of civil servants and bankers. There is nothing worse than dropping into the local branch of your bank, to find the teller drawing hard on a high-tar Ducados on the other side of the desk. Or going to ‘hacienda’ to sort out your tax declaration, only to spend ten minutes with an extremely unhealthy sounding woman who breathes smoke at you for the duration of the interview.

Yet at last Spain is due to catch up with the rest of the anti-smoking world on January 1st, when smoking is finally banned in the workplace. An air of ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ hangs over the city, but if Metro Madrid can pull it off, then I for one am optimistic. Stay tuned for an update next month, I think I’ll be saving all my banking chores until then…

We nearly lost the leader of the Spanish opposition today. The helicopter that Partido Popular leader Mariano Rajoy was traveling in crashed seconds after take off, leaving Rajoy and Madrid PP leader Esperanza Aguirre scrambling out of the overturned machine. Click here or here, to see the dramatic video and here to see photos.

Update: Borrell: “Eso les pasa por ir a los toros en helicóptero”. Josep Borrell, President of the European Parliament, was first out with a public, open-mic witicism when he heard the news. ‘That’s what happens when you go to the bullring in a helicopter’. He has since telephoned those involved to apologise.

There is still an uneasiness in the city when dramatic events such as these occur on home ground – it seems that shades of the unrelenting and un-nerving television footage from the March 11th terrorist attacks last year are forever burned into the public psyche.

In Madrid, the capital’s English monthly magazine, has joined the world of podcasting, with interviews, ‘mugshots’ (chats with successful ex-pats), ‘what’s on’, Madrid’s best ‘barrios’, and a host of new ideas lined up for the future. I’m mostly involved on the production side so far, but hope to be getting stuck into some interviews and features this month. Check it out on their podcasting page, where you can find details of the latest shows and how to subscribe.

Thirty years ago today, two days after Franco’s death in 1975, Juan Carlos de Borbon was proclaimed king. His work in the immediate aftermath of the coronation was vital in helping secure the smooth transition to democracy that followed the end of the dictatorship.

Wikipedia has a quick rundown of his life and El Pais and El Mundo have each put together short commemorative albums.