JMJ 2011

Group of young people of JMJ 

The letters JMJ comes from words Jornada Mundial de Juventud. JMJ 2011 is an event where many catholic young people have gathered to Madrid this year. It has been estimated that about 1,5 million people have come to Madrid to participate this event so you can see the effect of the event very well in the street picture. The people who have came to Madrid can be easily recognized from the similar back bags and from big groups wearing different color of T-shirts with JMJ logo. All the groups have flag of their own country and they sing songs of their country which reminds me of a sports event between different nationalities. These religious young people are not that innocent because they have been spotted buying alcohol and condoms.

Illegal business

Crowdy streets

Yesterday there was a party in la latina neighborhood in Madrid. Lot of people gathered to the streets. Bars had set up a serving points and speakers to play music to the streets. Always when a lot of people gather together immigrants appear to the streets to sell beer, sunglasses and hats which is illegal. Even there are some policemen it does not stop immigrants to make business. When we were sitting in one market square almost every five minutes somebody comes to offer their products. I asked one that how much does he earn in a night by selling beer from his bags and he responded that 100 euros by working five hours. Even there are a lot of immigrants doing this illegal business they make reasonable income. In Finland there are no people doing this illegal business but there the collectors of the bottles which are worth money.

Basque country

The beach in Zarautz

Rastas

During my trip to Basque country which is one region in the north of Spain I spotted the hair style in the picture above many times. The hairstyle is long rastas in the back of the head and short hair in the rest of the head. I have never seen that hairstyle in Finland. In basque it is typical that a group of friends have rented a place to make party. Both young and older people have these party places called lonja. In northern Spain instead of tapas they serve pinchos which were equally the same as tapas in my opinion but pinchos had a little stick. When we ordered hamburger there were a stick also.

One day we went to the beach where the waves are bigger than in the eastern or southern coast of Spain. We took advantage of these waves and decided with one friend to try surfing for the first time. Unfortunately waves were good only two hours so we could not surf more.

Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz

Plaza

Party people in the costumes

I took three days holidays from work and went to Vitoria-Gasteiz. In Vitoria-Gasteiz we had a meeting with 15 students who did Erasmus in Joensuu last academic year. In this weekend there was also a festival. The festival started in the main square where people sprayed champagne on each other. We got also wet clothes from the champagne shower. Then there was different groups performing  on the stages and groups of people singing, dancing and playing songs on the streets. You could see people from all the age groups partying: mothers with their babies in the stroller and seniors. Streets were full of plastic bottles and other trash because most of the people were drinking. Also you could see in the center of the city many wet spots which were of course urine of the people. Festival guarantees great party atmosphere in the city for five days.

Protected house

I have enjoyed the past days the Spanish friendliness. First I got invited to a party of one friend of a friend in the same day I met her. Then I spent nice day in a house of a friend. I noticed that Spanish private houses are very well protected compared to Finnish ones. In Spain houses have a high fence surrounding the house with a door that you cannot enter without permission. Then all the windows had bars The final thing to secure the security was a alarm system what recognizes movement in the house.

How are you?

In Spain after greeting you ask always how are you. Always it is not even necessary to reply or you can reply by asking also after greeting directly how are you. Other curious aspect is that you might ask how are you more than once. Second how are you might be asked right away after the first one without even getting reply to the first one or after the reply if you want to know more. One example how one person can start a conversation when he/she sees his/her friend is: ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal? ¿Qué tal estás? Translation: Hello!, How are you? How are you doing? Then the friend gives his/her reply.

Topless

Demonstration

Yesterday I went for the first time to a public swimming pool in Madrid. Before I had been a few times in a private swimming pool of row houses. I was surprised to see women sun bathing topless. Women from all age groups were taking tan with bare boobs. My estimation is that 20% of the women were sun bathing topless.

On Sunday I saw for a second time Spanish demonstrating against the economical crisis and for more democratic voting system. The busy streets of the center of Madrid were closed because they were full of people demonstrating. Many had sign with different messages, some were singing and one guy painted to the wall of bank of Spain. Jesús took the picture above but unfortunately he was not with in the public swimming pool so there are no photos of topless women.

Smell of the food

Seems that Spanish do not like the smell of the food. Here I will give three different examples. Spanish guy wanted to cook in a hotel room but he did not want the smell of the food to spread all over his room so he decided to move the stove next to the window to prevent the room from smelling food. I have been cooking in a kitchen and then my flatmates have advised me to close the door to stop the smell of the food spreading to living room but it is not problem to take the plate to the living room and eat there. The last one is that I suggested to make a one big room by removing the wall between the kitchen and living room but Spanish did not like the idea because then the smell of the food would spread to the living room

Tapas bar

El Tigre

One of the most famous tapas bars in the center of Madrid is called El Tigre. The bar is almost always full of people like popular discos on Saturday nights. There are no chairs to sit down and just small tables on the wall. The reason why El Tigre is so popular is that they put various different tapas and glass of a drink for 2,5 euros. El Tigre is the place to go if you want to eat and drink well for a good price.

Toledo

Entrance

Bridge

On Saturday I made a one day trip to Toledo with my working mates. Toledo is a old capital of Spain like many other cities. Toledo is on a mountain and surrounded by a wall and a river. As the city is on a mountain the city did not really have flat areas. Almost all the streets were uphill or downhill. The streets were also narrow and walking lines were not separated from the lines to the cars but there were not many cars. Toledo had a old-fashioned atmosphere even the streets were packed of tourists.