Although there are still a couple of days before my trip ends, I figure now is a good time to start capturing some of the feelings and thoughts I've had so far about the trip. As usual, I'll split my comments between positive comments (in this post) and negative comments in the next post.
So below is the stuff that I enjoyed (in no particular order) about Spain.
Football
My trip to Spain also coincided with several of Spain's games in Euro 2008. The Spanish are well known for being passionate about their football and it really shows. After the Spanish victory against the Italians, the entire street just comes alive. Scores of people wander the street singing and dancing. Cars drive by while beeping their horns followed quickly by screams of delight from the crowds on the street. The atmosphere is incredible although I shudder to think what it would have been like if the Spanish had lost!
In fact, if I had known Spain would do so well, I would have booked a longer stay to encompass the final. Ah well, que cera cera.
Food
Everything they told you about eating Paella's and Tapas in Spain is true. The Spanish food available here is nothing short of excellent.
The first night that the missus and I had Paella, we ordered the Paella Mixta – basically a mix of meat, vegetables and seafood. At the time, we were in a relatively nice restaurant (which is actually very important if you want to eat good food in Spain – more on this later) located just off Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Luckily for us, the restaurant made a slight mistake and gave us the Paella Marisco instead. The Paella Marisco is a seafood paella so there was lots of fish, calamares, prawns, scampi and even some tiny crabs.
Short version - the paella was excellent. The taste is a lot stronger compared to paellas which I've had in Hong Kong. The main difference is that the ratio of seafood to rice is much higher in Spain than in Hong Kong. This means that the rice picks up a lot more flavour from the various ingredients during the cooking process. The end result is a delicious aromatic dish which gets its flavour from the ingredients rather than from adding in lots of salt or other flavouring.
Tapas in Spain (or Madrid at any rate) are also excellent. The portion sizes are a lot bigger than the portion sizes you would get in Hong Kong. Although portion sizes in Spain are more generous than in Hong Kong, the larger tapas portions is probably more a result of the cultural difference. In Hong Kong, tapas are generally used as a starter to the main dish. However, in Spain, tapas serve a very different function.
One of the most common sights you will see in Spain is people drinking. The spanish love their alcohol and you will often see them drinking beer, wine, sangria or some other alcoholic concoction which possibly includes sherry of some sort (even during lunchtime!). Even at night, when you wander out to the various Plaza's, you will find tables laid out around the Plaza filled with people drinking. Of course, drinking on an empty stomach is never a good idea. To go with their drinks, people often order some tapas. The spanish eat dinner very late – very often after 8:30pm – and so the tapas effectively becomes their evening meal.
Weather
The weather, in Madrid at least, is brilliant. Granted, this may simply be the result of travelling to Spain at the tail end of June but regardless of the reason, the weather is brilliant. Temperature ranges from the low to mid 20's (in the morning and at night) to low 30's during the day. Although the temperature can get just a little too hot for comfort during the day, especially when you are wandering around various tourist traps, the temperature at night is simply beautiful. Generally in the mid to high 20's, the weather practically invites you to sit outside in a plaza and sip a drink while tucking into a tapas.
Being the good guest that I am, I naturally accepted this invitation graciously. Numerous times.
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Museums
Spain has some great museums with some of the worlds most famous art available for your viewing pleasure (El Greco's “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz” and Picasso's “Guernica” being two of the more famous paintings that we saw). What is more impressive though is that if you are travelling on a budget, hitting the museums can be a great way to pass time.
This isn't to say that entry to the museums is cheap. Rather, the Spanish seem to love culture so much that most museums have certain times when you can get free entry. For example, the Museo del Prado (one of the biggest and most famous museums in Madrid) gives you free entry every night from 6:00-8:00pm. Other museums might have an entire day with free entry (normally on a Sunday).
In short, a great way to culture up without breaking the bank.
Flamenco
We also spent an evening at the Corral de la Moreria watching the flamenco dance. The Corral de la Moreria is meant to be one of the finest tablaos for flamenco dancing (at least according to the brochure anyway!). When we got there, the walls were filled with pictures of various celebrities (many of which were Hollywood film stars) which had been there before.
I don't know enough about flamenco dancing to say whether the Corral's reputation is justified. However, the dancing that we saw was highly entertaining. Flamenco dancing seems to be a mix of tap dancing with body movements that are at times, elegant and at other times, combative in nature. There is a huge amount of energy in the dance as the dancers slam their shoes into the dancefloor while clapping their hands or spinning their bodies.
And of course, no commentary on flamenco dancing would be complete without mention of the dresses. The dresses drape to the floor and in one case, was so long that whenever the dancer swung round, it would fly out and over the edge of the dance floor (and almost into the face of the closest crowd member!). You can tell that a lot of care and attention has been paid to the dresses themselves and you can tell it takes a lot of skill just to avoid stepping on the dress while spinning.
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