Jousting with Windmills

"A magnificent account... This was a book that I couldn't wait to finish but also wished it didn't have to end." Tom Meeks on GoodreadsEver wondered why it is that international opinion is so strongly in favour of the Mediterranean approach to life? Why is it that the countries of the Northern Hemisphere are possessed by an unreasoning passion for the Latin race as if they retained some basic ingredient that we have long been missing?Mark, curious to find some answers, decided to take...
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"A magnificent account... This was a book that I couldn't wait to finish but also wished it didn't have to end." Tom Meeks on GoodreadsEver wondered why it is that international opinion is so strongly in favour of the Mediterranean approach to life? Why is it that the countries of the Northern Hemisphere are possessed by an unreasoning passion for the Latin race as if they retained some basic ingredient that we have long been missing?Mark, curious to find some answers, decided to take root in the Spanish capital Madrid and go native with three other unfamiliar post-grads briefly riding the TEFL bandwagon. Come the end, a part of them had become irrevocably Spanish.They discovered a country where Franco has been 'forgotten' not forgiven, a land famous for music but has no lyrics to their national anthem and where running red lights and double parking are the norm. A country where macho men kiss their male friends 'hello' and people go out to dine at ten. Where nobody speaks Spanish but 'Castilian' and where everyone still greets strangers at the bus-stop. What they hadn't reckoned on was the extent to which their 'year abroad' would change their lives.As the Spanish speaking world learns our language we in turn take on their customs: greeting friends by kissing them, throwing flowers onto passing hearses, the siesta, Mediterranean cuisine, the benefits of olive oil, bands playing among the crowds at football matches and learning to express rather than repress ourselves. If you want to discover what the Spanish get up to behind closed doors far from the costas in the cultural heart of this extraordinary land then you only have to get on a plane and go and live there. Alternatively, you can save yourself the fare of a low-cost flight and start your armchair odyssey here.