I have been living in the UK for almost 2 years and even British people are one of the most important tourists for Spain they don´t know Spain. Every year thousands of British people spend their holidays in a country in the South or Europe that they call Spain but the areas that most of them visit are not the real Spain are just places ready for them to spend there their money and nothing else.
For me is a shame when I speak with some British people and they rarely knows Zaragoza (the fifth city in Spain, even it is not the most touristic area in the country it is an important city. On the other hand most of them just know about the Mediterranean coast where in every place they can survive just with English as all the bussiness are ready for them (hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. ) and the people there speak English.
So in my opinion and just in my opinion you don´t know a country if you just visit the touristic places as they are ready just for tourist. I think is the same with England, when I say that I live in England every body think that I live in London as it was the only city in England, even most of my friend don´t know where Birmingham is within the UK. For this reason when I travel to an other country I tried to go far away of the touristic areas to know this country and its culture. Do you think this is a good choice to know a real country or going to the touristic places you can know it??
I agree with your opinion. If you only stay in the tourist areas (airport, taxi, hotel, beach, museums, ...), you might see some of the landscape, but you live in a kind of bubble that separates you from the real life in the country. When I travel abroad, I always try to break out of this bubble and to get in contact with the real local culture. To achieve this, I try to find restaurants where the locals go, take a bus or subway or even walk instead of taking a taxi, go shopping in normal supermarkets etc... And of course, learn at least a bit of the local language bevor the trip and try to use it when talking to the local people. And by the way, I hate these big tourist resorts where you can spend your entire holidays without meeting anyone who doesn't work in the tourism industry.
On the trips to Spain I have done so far, I was quite lucky to have some good contact with the locals: A very nice host family in Bilbao who taught me Spanish while showing me quite a lot of their home region, and some locals in Tenerife who showed me their home and some other places which tourists usually don't see. This taught me much more about Spain and its culture than any travel guide ever could.
Thank you @David for watching the video:)and also for giving some new words like paella, flamenco and fiesta and some fact and information about Spain:)
Thank you:)
Hi Sudeep,
I have seen your the video you have shared and this is just what I mean. This video is just selling something to bring tourists to Spain nothing else (even the video and the song are nice). Anyone who watch this vide will think that people in Spain wear this costums as normal and are dancing flamenco every day, and also I have seen a paella in the video, so the most touristic message from Spain paella, flamenco and fiesta (party). I can assure you that if you travel to Spain you will not see any flamenco costume on the streets, if you are lucky you can see any in the most touristics places on the South mainly in Sevilla but not in any other city. And also Y can assure you that there is no party every day in Spain I have been living there for more than 30 years so I know it very well.
Thanks for the video very interesting.
I don't know much about Spain but It's a nice country with rich culture and heritage.I especially love the language.:)And I agree with you that one can't know a country if s/he only visit the touristic place but some places are really famous in some countries that people when think of visiting those countries then those places only come to their mind.For example, if someone wants to come to my country then s/he may choose to stay at Delhi or Bombay which are very famous but by staying there one can't really discover India.
BTW,I shared a song in the discussion which contains my language and Spanish .Please have a look at it and give your reaction:)
https://www.italki.com/discussion/126889
Thank you for the nice discussion:)
