The content of paper
1. Introduction
2. Country and culture
3. Night life
4. Gastronomy
5. Museums
6. Geography
7. Spanish islands
8. Nature
9. Summary
Introduction
Area: 504,750 sq km; 194,884 sq miles
Population: 39.5 million (growth rate 0.2%)
Languages: Castilian Spanish (official language)
Catalonian, Galician, Valenciano, Vasco (are also official languages in the autonomous communities of Catalonia, Galicia, Valencia and Basque Country, respectively)
Religion: 99% Roman Catholic
Capital: Madrid
Form of Government: Constitutional Monarchy
Tourism: 45 million visitors per year
Widely known for Flamenco music and dance, bull-fights, fantastic beaches and lots of sunshine, Spain has to offer much more than that. It is – and has been for thousands of years – one of the cultural centres of Europe. It has beautiful cities and towns, offering really old monuments as well as futuristic architecture. Its various regions are all different one to each other, geographically, climatically and even in personality. It is a fascinating country to know and to know more about it.
„Spain is different!“, Spaniards use to say. They don’t specify compared to what: to the rest of Europe, to the rest of the world, or even to itself? We don’t know it either, but we do our best to supply you with loads of information so you can find the answer to this question and to many more by yourself.
Country and culture
Flamenco is a genuine Spanish art, and to be more exact an genuine Southern Spanish art. It exists in three forms: Cante, the song, Baile, the dance, and Guitarra, guitar playing.
Gypsies are very often named as its fathers, and at least it can be taken for certain that they played an important part in its creation. But also the popular songs and dances of Andalusia have influenced early Flamenco considerably.
Certainly there were other influences, too, as it will not surprise in a country that has been dominated by most diverse cultures and civilizations during its different historical epochs. There were the legendary Tartessos, and seven centuries of Muslim occupation hardly could have passed without leaving traces. All that, directly or indirectly, influenced Flamenco. Mass medias have brought Flamenco to the world stage, but deeply it has always been and will remain an intimate kind of music. You have not listened authentical Flamenco if not in a juerga with a small group of friends, at midnight somewhere in the South of Spain, when there is nothing around but the voice, the guitar and the body of a dancer moving in the moonlight.
Bullfighting is certainly one of the best known, although at the same time most polemical Spanish popular customs. This Fiesta could not exist without the Toro Bravo, a species of bull of an archaical race that is only conserved in Spain.
Night life
There are many people who say that Madrid were Europe’s capital of Night Life. Certainly this page doesn’t offer enough room to treat the subject profoundly, but be sure: here you will find something for your taste – whatever taste you may have…
Find below a few hints, about which regions are among the preferred ones by Madrid’s „Nomades of the Night“, and don’t be surprised if somewhere, at 4 a.m. or so, you will get involved in a traffic jam. Madrileños, like all Spaniards in general, don’t stay in the same local for all the night, they prefer to change all the time, from one to the other. However, at 4 a.m. few people are on their way to work! In hot summer-nights there is hardly something better than to have a drink in one of the many beautiful terraces, where you will find amounts of people until late in the night. In Paseo de la Castellana meet the beautiful people and all those who think they are, specially between Cuzco and Paseo del Prado. In Gran Via, on the other hand, you’ll see representants of any kind of society that exists in Madrid, from middle-aged couples to vagabonds. If you ever will visit any place anywhere without needing instructions on how to find boiling nightlife, then it is Ibiza. You only need to leave one of the numerous pubs or discotheques.
Gastronomy
Since Philip II made Madrid the capital of Spain, numerous recipes and influences from all the regions of the country entered in its kitchen. Today it is practically impossible to say which dishes are original, and which are imported. Today Madrid offers more a Spanish than a regional kitchen.
The dishes that are called madrileño in Spain, are mainly hotpots, as the well-known Cocido Madrileño with chick-peas. Among regional specialities have to be named the delicious asparagus from Aranjuez and the very typical Sopa de Ajo, a soup of garlic.
There are many dishes of lamb and veal, but – perhaps a bit surprising considering its geographic location – Madrid is a real paradise for the lovers of any kind of fish. It has the second biggest fish market in the world (behind Tokyo), and as well in shops as in many Restaurants you will find an ample selection and extraordinary quality.
Ideally fitting to such a meal are the young and aromatic wines from the region, Vinos de Madrid. To finish your dinner in a very typical way, try a cup of Anisado de Chinchón, anisette schnapps.