Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis

[rant]

Now we have a baby in tow we obviously need to find places to eat that are non-smoking. This is hard.

OK, there are options available via a quick search at www.nofumadores.org, but if we try to think of favourite old restaurants that are smoke free, we can only think of four. Two are pretty expensive for a weekday lunch, one is completely over the other side of town, and the last is a wonderful Hare Krishna center where you sit on the floor and eat rather delicious Tali, but again, quite a metro ride away.

So come on Spain, SORT IT OUT!!! If the French, the English, Irish and Italians can all do without smoking in restaurants and bars, why can’t Spain? In brand/image terms, this smoking thing is going to make your country start looking pretty intelectually and sociologically backward pretty soon.

Yes I know you passed some half-arsed ‘less-smoking’ law a few years ago, but it only applies to places over 100m sq., of which there are about 3 in Spain, and everyone ignores the legislation anyway!

I also realise that at street level, hardly anyone really gives a damn. A friend told me the other day about going into a bar with 3 sets of parents, each with small children in prams/strollers, and ALL of the parents smoking! The smoke was so bad that my friends left the bar! We see parents breathing smoke over their kids every single day, so this is not an isolated, or surprising, case…

So come on Spain, work on your self-image AND your nation’s health a bit, and get with the damn program. Look at the French! No one smokes like the French (except the Spanish), yet they have done it – 100% non-smoking bars and restaurants now a pleasure to be in, a pleasure to enjoy that wonderful food in. Spain Spain Spain. How long til you sort this out?

[/rant]

Feel better now. Still can’t find anywhere smoke-free and local for lunch though. Grrrrrrrrr 😦

Two things happened recently to make me start thnking about Spain and the love of all things new.

Firstly, I was going over past comments recently, and came across this, from Bill:

“The contemporary Spanish like to look forward, not backward. They like to live in brand new flats, drive brand new cars, build new railways, etc. They’re not interested in the past so much…”

Secondly, while Marina is on maternity leave, I’m putting together a series of special advanced Spanish pocasts with our friend Isabel (who is currently helping with everyone’s written Spanish in the forum).

We are planning to make a recording about how the Spanish would never be seen dead wearing second-hand clothes from a charity shop, something that is both common and seen as perfectly acceptable in the UK in most social groups.

I’d love some input on this. Why do the Spanish run from the old and embrace the new? Why are there no second hand/charity shops in Spain? Will all this change as the ‘crisis’ (set to get worse in 2009) means that out-and-out mad mass consumerism has to calm down, and people might have to reconsider their views on the merits of buying second-hand?

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.