Archive for 'Spain'
The coldest winter
Thursday February 25th, 2010. 12:07 AM. Published under Spain, Videos, helsinki. 2 Comments.
… in Europe. That’s what everybody says. Even in Spain is snowing and raining more than normally. A Spanish TV Program “Comando Actualidad” made a program about how is the winter in rest of Europe compared to Spain and they came to Helsinki too.
Here you can see the video. (1 hour)
Cheap Flights Spain - Finland. My experience.
Saturday February 20th, 2010. 01:42 PM. Published under Spain, Tampere, helsinki. 5 Comments.
Spain is a popular destination for holidays among Finnish people. This is the picture of the home page of Air Finland and shows All Europe flights that they offer. Not France, Greece…etc. Only Spain.
I’m from Málaga and it’s good to have direct Air Finland flights (5 hours) for 130-200€ one way.
Not bad price, but you can find cheaper ways if you don’t fly directly. For example Helsinki - London, and then London-Málaga. Bad thing is that you will spend all day long in airports and you have the risk of losing your suitcases in the first flight (still didn’t happen to me) or a delayed first flight that will make that you can’t take the second flight. No refunds, because they are 2 independent flight tickets.
But if you want so save some money, you will have to take these risks.
The best tool I have found to search combination of flights is skyscanner. Also I like that you can make generic searches. From Finland (without city) to Spain, and it will show you all airports, the whole month, etc and indirect flights are automatically calculated .
After finding the right flight, jump to the airline company website to book the flight.
Ryanair (from Tampere) and Easyjet (from Helsinki) are normally the cheapest ones, both flying to London. And then London-Malaga.
Remember that flight prices only includes 1 handbag of max-weight 10 kg. Any extra suitcase you will have to pay for it. If you have an extra suitcase, Ryanair adds 15€ and limits max-weight is 15 Kg. Easyjet adds 9 pounds and max-weight is 20 Kg.
Also, they will add other extra in the last step of the payment. Because of paying with credit card you will have to pay some extra euros. (Except Easyjet it will be free if you pay with Visa Electron).
So if you take 2 flights, multiply by 2 these “extras”.. and think if still worth it. Also add the price of a meal in London airport because you’ll be hungry after the first flight. (And you will have to change cash to pounds to pay!)
More tips:
- GOOD news. Ryanair will open a base in Málaga, opening a direct route Málaga - Tampere since June 2010. Also from Málaga to Aarhus, Berlin (Schonefeld), Bratislava, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Krakow, Maastricht, Memmingen (Munich West), Oslo (Torp), Paris (Beauvais), Pisa, Santander, Santiago, Stockholm (Skavsta), Valladolid, Venice (Treviso), Wroclaw and Zaragoza.
- Cheap flights airlines are VERY strict with sizes and weights… some times being ridiculous about it. Don’t risk, make sure you are not overweight. And your handbag is correct size.
- If you are planing to go to Helsinki, a Tampere->Helsinki Train costs (now)
36 €28 €
- If you fly to Helsinki, the airport is located in Vantaa, you can take a cheap bus 615 that goes to Helsinki or Airport taxi for 25€ for 2 people.
I will add here more tips in the future. I hope it’s helpful. Please ! add some tips in the comments, or experiences. I will like to know your experience too.
Hymyile! olet Espanjassa
Saturday February 13th, 2010. 12:57 PM. Published under Ads, Photos, Spain, Winter, helsinki. 2 Comments.
Smile! You are in Spain.
Fast Finnish lesson: -ssa means ‘in’.
Good way of promoting my country. Congratulations to the creator. It reminds me to this other advertisement about traveling: Routine sucks
Andalusia in 1 minute
Sunday December 27th, 2009. 03:50 PM. Published under Ads, Spain, Videos. 6 Comments.
I just received a big package from my parents with lots of stuff: olives, Spanish ham, etc… and talking with them by phone told me about a recent TV ad about Andalusia, the south-part of Spain where I am from. The advertisement is made by Cruzcampo, a beer brand.
I added subtitles. Most of things can be applied to Spanish people in general, but I have to say that: IT is true, Andalusia, the south of Spain has something special.
Most of the statements are in metaphoric way, so I will add some explanations in brackets:
Andalusia is not where Europa ends. It is where starts.
Here is, nonetheless where The New World started. (About Cristopher Columbus)
We have sea, countryside, snow, desert (snow in Sierra Nevada in Granada, desert mostly is about Almeria).
We have cowboys (In Almeria’s Tabernas desert was filmed many American spaguetti Western films) and even English soldiers (Gibraltar, English colony)
And we have art, a lot of art. (images of La Alhambra, in Granada)
Andalusian is not an accent, it is Spanish talked among friends
And blondes are never alone, they come with ‘tapa’ (we call Pale Ale “blonde beer” because of the color, and traditional bars serves beer with some free snack)
Here we don’t eat tomatoes, we drink them (Gazpacho, cold tomato soup)
Our suits are not shown off, they are of light, (words game about “suit of lights”, i.e. the suit of a bullfighter)
And our matches always have a third time.
In Andalusia we aren’t afraid of horns, we fight them (In the picture, Picasso born in Málaga)
We don’t undo our shirt, we ript it in two. (mostly flamenco dancers, I still didn’t achieve to do that )
We don’t walk the street, we live it.
In Andalusia we don’t exagerate. It is the others that fall short. (They say that Andalusian people tends to exagerate)
We love the olive oil, the cured ham and bulbs of colors.
We love the friendship, the passion and to dream at midafternoon (siesta)
We love to the ones who went and the ones who stayed (in the picture, Camarón de la Isla, considered the best flamenco singer)
We love that art, that laugh, that pride, that breed, (breed referring to the Andalusian horse)
That green, that white. (colors of Andalusian flag)
We the Andalusian people love our land and we
make a toast to it with this beer
Cruzcampo, made of Andalusia.
Although is a little stereotyped, I liked it. We are more than 8.000.000 people and is not easy to represent us in 1 minute without falling in stereotypes. I don’t support bullfighting but my grandparents do, for example.
The funny thing is that Cruzcampo was Andalusian for almost a century and, some years ago was bought by Heineken Group and they are spending a lot of money to keep in our minds that “Cruzcampo is Andalusian”. (This ad is only broadcasted in Andalusia, not rest of Spain).
Also they are sponsors of the Spanish soccer team.
In a way it’s Andalusian, because still Cruzcampo’s factories are in Andalusia and Heineken keeps promoting the brand and the Andalusian/Spanish culture, but at the same time I can’t stop feeling fooled by the marketing department of Helsinki.
Aside of this marketing stuff, I still like more San Miguel or Alhambra beers and I can be proud that they are still 100% Spanish. Here in Finland, Karhu III it’s the one I like more, but anyway I’m not an expert.
Spanish Manchego cheese in Finland
Saturday November 21st, 2009. 12:56 PM. Published under Photos, Spain, helsinki. 4 Comments.
Ouuch! 3x times more expensive than in Spain.
El País in Finland
Tuesday October 20th, 2009. 11:13 AM. Published under Finland culture, Spain, helsinki. 1 Comment.
El País (in English: The Country) is the most widely-circulated daily newspaper in Spain. Price in Spain: 1.20 €, Price in Helsinki: 2.75.
BTW. You can check the most important today’s front pages in the world in Kiosko.net and even more (838 newspapers in the world) in Newseum. From Finland only Iltälehti.
Iltalehti is a tabloid newspaper (sensational newspaper) and it translates directly as “Evening paper”. And ¿What? Wikipedia says that Iltalehti.fi is the most popular website in Finland as of November 2008. 0_o I didn’t expect this.
Writing from Helsinki
Sunday October 11th, 2009. 12:57 PM. Published under Spain, Tampere, helsinki. 4 Comments.
Bye, bye Tampere. Hello Helsinki!
New period in the life, leaving behind in Tampere great fellows and supportive teachers in Onnenkieli, where I have been 5 months learning Finnish.
Then, a busy and great month September: 2 weeks in Estepona, Spain, and then moving to Helsinki to start working in a Web development company.
Two days ago we received finally at home the Internet connection (25 Mbits !), and I have many things to post in this blog, so be ready. During this week I will write some new lines and more photos.
In the meanwhile, cold has arrived to Finland already and trees are telling you: Be ready, winter is just around the corner!
San Fermín and the bulls
Tuesday July 7th, 2009. 10:34 AM. Published under Spain. 2 Comments.
Yesterday 6th of July has started the festival of San Fermin, in Pamplona, in the north of Spain. Most popular event in this festival is the running of the bulls “los encierros” in the morning at 8, from 7th to 14th of July.
I have never been (it’s 1000 Km far from Málaga), but it is one of the most popular festivals of Spain, specially outside of Spain. It’s a big party all day long, and the bull is not the main thing of San Fermin; is the alcohol and crowds of young people having fun.
Also many foreigners run in front of the bull. Main reason of its popularity outside of Spain is due of Ernest Hemingway, who brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people, specially in USA, when it was published his novel “The Sun Also Rises” (1926), where San Fermin events are main part of the plot of the novel.
You can see the videos of the running of the bulls 2009 here. And very good photos of 2008 by Big Picture.
Where do the bulls go? They run to their death: to the bullfighting square, where later will be killed. Like in Pamplona in many other main cities of Spain. Even I respect people who like bullfighting, like my grandparents, I am against it and it’s a shame for me that the main tradition of Spain is this animal torture.
(Credit: Enfoque Diferencial)
PETA organized every year some activities to make world conscious of this torture. Like me many other Spanish people, specially young generations, doesn’t like bullfighting and don’t support it. In the future I am sure this activity will be only part of our history.
EDIT. Today I have seen this original campaign in meneame called ‘Love Spain, Hate Bullfighting’ by the The League Against Cruel Sports.
C&P: In recent independent polls we learned that 89% of the British public would never visit a bullfight and that 67% of Spaniards are not interested in bullfighting.
World’s cleanest countries
Tuesday April 21st, 2009. 12:55 PM. Published under Finland culture, Spain. 1 Comment.
Forbes has published a list of the world’s cleanest countries, with Switzerland in first place:
1. Switzerland.
2. Norway
3. Sweden.
4. Finland.
5. Costa Rica.
(…)
30. Spain.
(…)
39. USA.
This study has been made by Yale University and you can see the complete list here and the methodology used.
The report ranks 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked across six established policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change.
Although Forbes published this week, it seems the study was made in 2008.
Spanish crisis in Finnish TV
Saturday April 4th, 2009. 08:04 AM. Published under About the blog, Job, Music, Opinion, Spain. 20 Comments.
A Finnish TV channel has created a short documentary about Spanish crisis. After the crazy growth of the construction last years and speculation, the happy days are finished. The bubble has burst. Nowadays Spain has the highest unemployment rate in all Europe and many families with economic difficulties.
