NEDSIRELAND

I visited Spain numerous times and I can tell you: 21-days aren't enough to develop opinions such as you express. Your annoyance that "nothing opens until 10 AM" tells me you didn't look much. We usually breakfast at Toribio's Churreria in Barajas Pueblo. They are open 5AM to 11AM and get very crowded with outbound aircrews and airport workers.

Our midday meal (largest) is usually at a Taberna or restaurant with a chalkboard outside displaying their 'Menu del dia.' And, like many Spaniards, our evening meal is lighter: usually just tapas.

"I never get my food and drink cycles straight with their insane restaurant/cafe/bar rules." With that attitude, you never will!

"...my message title, think Mexico. ... the siesta is alive and well which seems so outdated in a modern country."
Visit a city like Sevilla in the heat of summer. There, closing down at midday & reopening at 5 PM is a necessity.

I have visited Mexico, D.F., Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara (Jalisco), so I know what Mexico is like, probably better than your Concierge in Toledo

"... as far as Spain and Portugal goes, once is enough for me."
I think you're condemning Portugal on the basis of a short stop in Lisbon. How many of your 21-days did you spend in Portugal? Did you ride MetroLisboa? Did you visit Belem?

I would like to see criticizers like you prohibited re-entry (i.e., There should be a way to stamp your passport to deny you entry to those Countries you 'put down').

travel_buzzing

i also misread miss prism's reaction (i thought she meant grazing as in taking 2 hours for lunch) and was about to respond.
Everyone here has pretty much summed up my same reaction.
Aduchamp:
must add tho that although i saw plenty of anti-mexican sentiment, 2nd class treatment and also ignorance towards mexico/europe in the US, it also happens with europeans. came to Barcelona 2 years ago for a trip (before settling) and my Irish friend was looking for burritos and tacos ALL WEEK.

chartley

Petra, on Mallorca, was the birthplace of Fr. Junipero Serra, who founded the chain of California missions.

If you visit both places, you will see that his design for a Californian mission was based very much on the town of his childhood.

sansman

the title is very ridiculous.

tico

Parrothead,

I hope you had fun stirring things up. I think your full of BS.
Did you wear white sneakers and a Yankees baseball hat during you trip?

tico

Sue_xx_yy

In fairness to the OP, when people say they like a place after spending only 1 day there, that reaction is taken by the board as being legitimate, yet when the reaction is negative, the observation is dismissed on the grounds that they did not spend enough time to make a fair judgment. Yet most tourists do not have the luxury of spending more than, at most, a few days in any given spot: first impressions are all we get.

It is also possible to be annoyed or frustrated by something, yet not necessarily to expect change, still less to hold anyone to blame for the annoyance. If I feel dismay at a rainy day, this does not mean I do not appreciate the value of rain, or even that, in different moods, I don't find rain romantic. But yes, there are times when I wished I lived in a more arid climate. Were I to express this, I would be somewhat taken aback to have anyone lecture me on how I ought to adapt, or to receive the defensive reaction "it doesn't rain here all the time ya know!" It is not so much that I feel one is entitled to an opinion - sometimes one is not - but more that unless one is talking about something personal, for example somebody's physical person, that opinions such as those on tourist destinations (or in my example, the weather) should not be taken personally.

However, that said, I found the title not very helpful. Observations are most useful when they convey images accessible to anyone. Comparing Spain to Mexico to me is meaningless, since I've never been to Mexico. Even if I had been, my impression of Mexico might have been very different, such that the comparison wouldn't work to describe what the author wanted me to 'see'. "Rolling brown hills" on the other hand, is a fair comment: the writer's impression is clear. We all know what 'rolling brown' means, even if we might feel differently about the landscape. Not to mention I don't expect trip reports to be used as primers for geography; I'm not going to take this as a literal and scientific description of the entire country.

I also know you were trying to be brief, parrothead, but I wasn't clear on why - for example- you didn't like Granada: saying it wasn't special to you doesn't help, since I don't know what you find special. (Example: I did like it, because its setting in the mountains I found very beautiful; our best meal happened to be taken there; and the 'scale' of the old town felt comfortable to me.) In short, giving specifics would help.

About the meal thing: Should you find yourself in Spain again, check out the food department in the department store, El Corte Ingles. There is a fabulous selection of pre-cooked food there which we found made us several excellent, if cold, meals, for those times when we found it hard to work around the meal schedule.

marigross

to each their own.... but still, wow!

So sorry you did not enjoy your vacation, that can be a real bummer.

Yes, the eating hours take a bit of getting used to. That is why we are flexible. We eat a large lunch and then a couple of tapas for dinner. Very seldom do we have a full sit-down dinner while in Spain.

Northern Spain - the Picos de Europa and the Basque Coast - is stunning!.

PalenQ

<just seems alot like Mexico as you drive into the smaller towns>

just incredible that you can say this - you obviously have never driven around Mexico to compare it to any town in Spain i've ever been to.

Spain is one of the world's economic powers and most modern countries - Mexico quite the opposite - though they have money it's in the hands of a very few and the rest of the country mires in third-world poverty.

You just obviously have not driven thru Mexican small towns to make such a ludicrous comparision.

Taints all you other impressions.

missypie

The only Spanish city we've visited is Barcelona. I admit that for the first couple of days, we were totally confounded by siesta...entire streets really did shut down! What were we supposed to do?! Duh....eat a long, relaxing lunch! Once we figured that out, the days went so much better. We were rested and refreshed after lunch and ready for more touring and shopping.

We had three kids with us, and it really only took about three days to get into the swing of when to eat. On the day we went to Montserrat, we did eat dinner at 7 or 7:30. Our train had returned to Barcelona at that time and we knew that since we had hiked all day, once we went back to our flat, we'd be too tired to emerge again for dinner. We went to a nice restaurant and were seated in what I called the "non-Spanish ghetto", full of Americans, Australians, Indians and everyone else who wanted to eat at that hour. We had a nice meal, even though I knew we were not being "fashionable." We were far too tired to care.

missypie

One more thing: When I was researching restaurants, I made special note of those that pretty much served meals non-stop (e.g. noon to midnight). While one may not always eat a memorable meal at those kind of places, they're valuable to be aware of when traveling.

jkdraper

I haven't been to Spain yet so I can't voice an opinion on that but Parrothead is entitled to his/her opinion. I just found the way it was worded to be offensive and arguementative but that sometimes happens unintentionally since we can't hear the inflection of the voice.
The one thing I can comment on is the Iowa comments. Having been raised in Iowa I would say that we are not all backwoods hicks, as seems to be implied here. I am educated, intellegent (most of the time anyway) and well travelled so Iowa did me no harm. It is a wonderful state.

suze

Oh well, not every place is for every person. Happens.

You may think it is unadventurous but this is exactly why I often return to places I have been before... I know that I will love spending time there.

mikelg

Our timetables differ a lot from most countries. The funny thing is that they used to be similar just until the beginning of the XX century. It is said that the poverty of the country forced people to work longer times, and thus eat later. Also, long lunches were associated with richness, and poorer people wanted to pretend.

Check www.horariosenespana.com, a citizen movement that tries to converge our timetable with that of other European countries (only in Spanish).

What some of you call siesta is just the time for eating and relaxing a little. We work until late, while most of you work 8 to 5, we work 9 to 7 or even later. Many downtown shops open until 20 or 2030, and in mall they are open until 2200 and even 2300. Siesta, a nap, is a luxury for a few, not for the working class.

A standard timetable in Spain would be 0830-0900, entering work, until 1330 or 1400, lunch (two course meal), then 1530 or 1600 until 1800 or 1900. Shops open at 0930 or 1000, close again at 1330 or 1400 and reopen at 1630 or 1700 until 2000 or 2030. Dinner is usually at 2100 or 2130 (weekdays), 2200 or 2230 on weekends or restaurants.

Hope this helps. In any case, adjusting to the pace of every country is always part of the enjoyment of the trip.

Cimbrone

Dear God, people! I think that Parrothead gets the point. Let's say she's the world's most ignorant traveler (and I don't think she is). She still doesn't merit this kind of MEAN-ness. One doesn't need a Phd in psychology to see the ego involved in the nastier posts. I think you can find more productive uses for your time than hurling insults at a stranger on a travel forum. Just sad...

Cimbrone

And...if she has any sense, Parrothead is long gone. Gone from this thread and, sadly, gone from this forum.

altajoe

First of all, I love Spain. I'd go there in an instant, so the title irked me and caused me to open this thread. I am happy that so many rose to Spain's defense.

I did, and always find it ironic that the OP and others seem to have a problem with Spain's internal clock. Its that clock that I find so inviting. As long as I can remember my clock is Spain's clock. For me a perfect day is waking at 11:00, grabbing a quick "breakfast" (no it doesn't have to be eggs and bacon) hang out a while, grab a power nap, head out for another snack (Tapas) around 5:00, hang out until 10:00, grab dinner, hang out until 5:00am. Go to bed. Start all over again.

When I lived on the east coast, a few days in Spain was perfect as the time change put me perfectly in synch both going and coming. Ah, the good old days.

GeoffHamer

Parrothead chose to post a message on this forum saying, basically, that 40 million Spanish people are wrong and his/her lifestyle is right. Anyone is entitled to express his or her own preferences, and anyone might prefer lunch at noon rather than two, but parrothead chose to say, not just that lunch should be at noon, but that Spanish people were wrong for serving lunch at a different time. We all have our own tastes and preferences, but learning about differences is one of the reasons for travelling to other countries. I hope than Spain continues to be distinctively Spanish.

NeoPatrick

I mentioned that I love getting into that late schedule too in Spain -- and in fact we DO eat big meals at 10 at night. But it should also be noted that we also adapt to that lifestyle when in NYC and always eat our meals AFTER theatre -- usually more like 10:30 or 11:00. When we went to Madrid for a week in 2006 it is worth noting that it was directly from a 10 day stay in New York seeing theatre and eating after the shows every night. It made for an easier transition, I suppose.

And it's also worth noting that generally in most of Europe we tend to eat after 8:30 or so, if not later. I think that's why I'm often surprised to hear how touristy some restaurants in Rome or Paris were -- I think many are eating with the other tourists at 7, instead of later with the locals who generally tend to eat much later.

Cimbrone

No, Geoff, she didn't say the Spanish are wrong. She called the system "insane" which is a word that many of us use casually and with a sense of irony. Parrothead didn't know her every word would be put under a microscope in a court of law. Not everyone expresses himself in the exact same way or with the same level of precision or literalness. People participating on a message board would do well to understand that and cut their fellow participants a little slack. Those attacking her a revealing more about themselves than they are about the OP.

Cimbrone

No, Geoff, she didn't say the Spanish are wrong. She called the system "insane" which is a word that many of us use casually and with a sense of irony. Parrothead didn't know her every word would be put under a microscope in a court of law. Not everyone expresses himself in the exact same way or with the same level of precision or literalness. People participating on a message board would do well to understand that and cut their fellow participants a little slack. Those attacking her are revealing more about themselves than they are about the OP.