Siestas, making noise, and arriving late are things that everyone has heard about Spanish people, even those that have never been to Spain before. But the people from this country have so many more unique quirks, like the fact that they peel fruit and throw the trash right on the floor. Here, they go to bars with their entire families and they even take their children with them.
We at Bright Side have read the blogs of people who live in Spain and we made a short list of weird things that every tourist will notice when they visit this beautiful country.
1. Walking around with wet hair
People in Spain wash their hair in the morning, not before they go to sleep. So, preparing for school, work, or anything else just doesn’t leave them any free time to dry their hair. This is why people from this country often go outside with wet hair. It is considered okay for both adults and children.
2. Repeating adjectives multiple times
When any person from any other country might say, “This is a very beautiful girl” a Spanish person will say, “This is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful girl.” In order to make the language more emotional, they repeat adjectives.
3. Going to bars with children
In Spain, it is totally alright to go to a bar with your entire family. In the late evening, or even at night, you can easily see this: parents are having fun and next to them, a small child is asleep right on the table. This is probably why Spanish people are not afraid of noise — they have gotten used to it from early childhood.
4. Peeling all fruits
In Spain, they not only peel oranges, lemons, and pineapples. They peel almost every fruit: peaches, apples, and so on. There is a simple explanation: people in rural regions didn’t always have access to clean water, so, in order to protect themselves from harmful bacteria, they peeled their fruits.
5. Splitting the bill equally
In cafes and restaurants, we are used to paying only for the things we ordered. Spanish people do it differently: they split the amount in the bill equally among everyone. For example, if there are 5 people and the bill is €100, every person will pay €20. And it doesn’t matter if you just had a cup of coffee and someone else ate a lobster. By the way, waiters will not split the amount of the bill even if you ask them to.
6. Having 30-minute long coffee breaks
Everyone knows about the siesta and the 2-hour-long lunches. But Spanish people don’t like working at all. Otherwise, how can you explain a 30-minute-long break for coffee that many offices in the country have? Every day, at 11 am, people leave their workplaces and go to cafes and bars. They love being in a crowd, so the break may even take a little longer than they expected.
7. Dumping trash right on the floor
If you drop a napkin, a toothpick, or some other trash on the floor and want to pick it up, maybe, you don’t have to. If you do, it will be very surprising for the locals. The thing is, in Spain it’s okay to throw these things on the floor. This is why bars, cafes, and restaurants are so atmospheric: you don’t need to worry about anything there.
8. Being scared of Tuesdays, rather than Friday 13th
An old Spanish saying says that on Tuesdays, people shouldn’t get married, travel, or move from one house to another. The explanation is simple: Tuesday is the day of the god of war, Ares or Mars. This is why Tuesday is martes in Spanish.
9. Being okay with very little private space
Some people might feel like Spanish people don’t know anything about personal space: when talking to each other, they get very close to one another and they often tap each other on the shoulder or on the knee. They are very open people that quickly cut down the physical distance between themselves and others, which is good for communication.
10. Freezing bread
If you ever visit a Spanish home, you may be surprised to find a loaf of bread in the freezer. This is a normal thing here: bread is bought several days in advance and is put in the freezer in order to maintain its useful qualities for as long as possible. Bread is frozen and unfrozen but only in whole loaves: toast is stored at room temperature.
11. Not using the word “kettle”
The word la tetera in Spanish means kettle but in the real-life, you are not very likely to hear it. This is because tea kettles are not often used in the country, since everyone loves coffee.
12. Splitting the day into 5 parts
Spanish people probably thought that the 4-part-day was not enough, this is why aside from morning, afternoon, evening, and night, they have one more. It is called madrugada and doesn’t have an exact translation. This is the time from midnight to the break of dawn.
13. Not washing hands
In Spain, people often wear shoes inside their home. But this is not the only thing: they also don’t have a habit of washing their hands when they come home or after they go to the toilet. This is very surprising for foreigners, but the locals think it is totally normal: they probably think that the street and other public places are clean enough.
14. Having a test that shows if pregnant women can eat ham
Aside from the standard examinations and tests, pregnant women in Spain do a special test that shows whether or not they can eat ham. As it turns out, eating ham can cause toxoplasmosis in a pregnant woman, which is dangerous for the fetus. In order to make sure the baby and the mother are okay, they get a special test done.
Have you ever been to Spain? Which national traditions and other things amazed you about this country?
Preview photo credit pexels
Kayode Emmanuel Ojo is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at SHEFFA Limited. He is presently studying Computer Science at the National Open University, Victoria Island, Lagos.