August, 2009

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Celebrate the local Spanish Festivals in Granada

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

During September there’s loads of festivals and parties all over Spain, celebrating traditions from each region. There’s loads of music, food and traditional festivals to enjoy and see, and each city has it’s own local traditions and specialities.

In Castille and Leon there’s loads going on in each city for example, with the Ferias in Salamanca, of the Virgen de la Vega, in Valladolid where they chase a small bull through the streets, there’s different festivals too in Segovia and loads more things to see in the area.

If we go further afield to Madrid there’s more to do too! And in the east in Valencia and Castellón there’s festivals, including wine festivals, paella festivals and more.

The Cascamorras Festivals in Granada

The Cascamorras Festivals in Granada

In the south of Spain though there’s some more exciting things going on. In Jerez de la Frontera, near to Seville, there’s a wine harvest and a local Sherry festival, and the celebrations include the local Sherry, flamenco dancing and horses! If you want to see more Flamenco Seville is the place to visit, there’s loads more Flamenco festivals going on in September in Seville.

The most interesting festival to see though is the Cascamorras Festival in Granada. This tradition dates back to the year 1490 and takes place in the villages of Baza and Guadix in Granada. It’s been declared a National interest for Tourists and anyone that wants to can join in the celebrations!

The history is that in the year 1490 a worker was working on the Church of the Merced, when he heard a shout coming out of a hole in the wall of one of the chapels. It’s said that this voice was beautiful and came from the ground below the church out of this hole in the chapel, and said “Have Mercy!”

They found a sculpture of a Virgin and then gave her the name Her lady of Mercy, because of what had been heard. Since then there’s been an ongoing fight between the two villages of Granada over who has proper claim over the statue of the Virgin. The custody of the statue was given to the village of Baza, but every year the people of Guadix were allowed to enter the village every September the 8th to try and claim back the statue. If they could enter and manage to get the statue of the Virgin of Mercy without being stained, they could go back to Guadix with the monument.

The kids from the village of Baza throw paint at the others to try and stain them, and this Spanish tradition continues up to today and the people still celebrate every September 8th by thowing paint and water at each other! If anybody gets out without being dirtied up then the village of Guadix can take back the statue!

This is just one of many Spanish traditions and cultures that you can see and enjoy first hand if you’re in Spain. Have a look for some cheap flights to Spain or take a holiday and study some Spanish whilst you’re here so that you can really appreciate the Spanish culture!

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Cheap flights to Spain from Europe and America!!

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Flying to Spain doesn’t have to be as expensive as you’d think. If you take the time to look around at the different options on offer you can find some good deals and cheap flights to Spain!

Visit Salamanca, Castille and Leon

Visit Salamanca, Castille and Leon

The length of the stay doesn’t really affect the price of the flights available, after having looked at some of the best offers around we’ve found that the flights are cheapest when you take them during the week and not at the weekend, and that the return flight doesn’t need to be within a week or two of the outbound flight. The flights can normally be looked at on a weekly or monthly plan on the companies websites, and you can get an over view of the different flights they do and the prices, and select your trip to Spain that way!

Flying within Europe is easy and you can find loads of flights that are low cost. Today we’ve found loads of up to date offers for trips to Spain, and here we’ve got some of the best options we found for you to have a look at!

Flying from London there’s more options because of the different airports that you can fly from. Depending on where in Spain you want to go to there are quite a few options, and most flights should cost you under £50 for a return trip!

Ryanair has loads of offers for flights from different places across England and Ireland for low cost flights to Spain. The best flight we found was from London Stanstead to Valladolid for £31.46 return! This flight in particular was leaving London on the 9th of September and returning on the 25th, nearly 2 weeks in Spain for about £30! If you were thinking of mixing your trip with tourism and maybe a Spanish course this flight would be perfect. You could spend a few days in Castille and Leon and still have time to take a week long Spanish course in Salamanca before coming home! Ryanair had loads of similar flights and you can see them all on a weekly timetable on their website and find the best flights for you.

Visit historic monuments in Spain

Visit historic monuments in Spain

Another option flying from London to Spain is to go to Madrid, for which there are loads of flights. The cheapest flight from London to Madrid that we found was from London Gatwick to Madrid for £30.00! This flight was flying on the 9th of September with Ryanair and returning on the 16th, a week long trip to Spain. The best bit about Ryanair and this flight is that, again, there were loads of options and the dates were flexible with loads of flights for nothing, only paying taxes! The average for the flights from London to Madrid with Ryanair were about £40.00, but if you keep looking and are flexible with flights then there’s loads of chances to pick a cheap flight out! The best part of flying to Madrid is the options it gives you once you’re in Spain, you could go to any of the major cities, and there are great transport links to Salamanca, Seville and Granada, to name a few places. There’s more information on how to get to Seville, how to get to Salamanca and how to get to Granada available here.

Flying into Seville is a bit more expensive on average, but still isn’t too bad and the flights are relatively cheap. We found a cheap flight from Stanstead in London flying into Seville, again from the 9th to the 16th of September for £69.56. The most important thing that we’ve found whilst looking for cheap deals to Spain is that you don’t even have to book a long time in advance, the week of the 9th of September is soon but there are still plenty of cheap flights available!

If you fancied visiting  Granada and wanted to fly to Malaga then there are flights available for 48,06€, making that only about £42.00! The flight we found for this price was with Aer Lingus flying from London Gatwick to Malaga in September. They also had flights where you only have to pay the taxes, the flight itself was free! Have a look at their website for this, if you’re flexible with dates then you’ll easily find something cheap.

Fly cheap to Madrid, Spain

Fly cheap to Madrid, Spain

Flying from America you can also find reasonable flights to Spain! We managed to find a variety of flights for about 400-500$, so for about 280-350€! This is the price including fees and taxes. Flights on expedia.com and with Iberia were about this price for flights going from New York to Madrid in September and October. Flying mid week and being flexible with dates makes these cheaper. On Rumbo.es there are flights too for reasonable prices, including a trip for 413.81€ return from New York to Madrid on the 2nd of October, returning on the 11th.

A few things to look out for when booking online flights is that they don’t catch you out with extra prices. The prices we’ve given you here are the final prices after taxes for the flights! The adverts sometimes show you a cheap flight, but after insurance, taxes etc they quickly shoot up. Baggage can be a problem too, if you’re able to travel with just hand luggage (remember most companies let you take a pretty large bag or small suitcase on-board with you now) you can keep these prices cheap. Whilst looking for flights we saw that with Rumbo.com the price per bag was 22€ extra! The other advice is to print everything out and take your ticket and information with you printed from home, some companies charge you to print your ticket at the airport!

If you look around and follow our advice then you’ll definitely find cheap deals and cheap flight offers to Spain no problem. Have a look around and enjoy a trip to Spain!

You can also download here in pdf format information on how to get to some of the best cities in Spain:

How to get to Salamanca 2009 How to get to Sevilla How to get to Granada

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Spanish language, one way of fixing the ghettos

Monday, August 24th, 2009

The International University of Andalusia has new Spanish courses for foreigners. Aurelio Ríos, the director of courses of second languages, including Spanish as a foreign language, realises how important it is to learn Spanish. This University, centered in Granada, south of Spain, recognises the importance of learning Spanish as a foreign language and being a foreign student in Spain!

Ríos even sees learning Spanish as a way of helping fight the problems of ghettos of immigrants who come to Spain, especially local to him, in Granada. Arriving in Spain and not speaking Spanish really affects the integration of these immigrants into the Spanish way of life, but also at anyone coming to Spain - including Spanish students and tourists. Learning to speak Spanish helps everyone in Spain to find jobs and also to integrate themselves into the Spanish way of life.

Inside the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada

Inside the gardens of the Alhambra in Granada

Spanish should be used as a tool for everyone in Spain to be able to communicate and fit in with the Spanish culture, Spanish way of life etc.. the Spanish language is simply a better way to help you enjoy Spain! Learning Spanish shouldn’t be to make people Spanish, but to help everyone understand the language and the country better, and to have a better time whilst in Spain! be it for studying, travelling or otherwise. The Spanish courses on offer should open up Spain and the Spanish language and make it more accessible to all, not only in Granada but all over Spain too!

There are all different kinds of Spanish language courses to study abroad, there are courses for people who are familiar with languages and find it easy to study them, people who have no knowledge at all of Romance languages and course for all the people inbetween who need a bit of help with studying Spanish! There are Spanish courses available in Granada, but also all over Spain, namely in Salamanca, where the purest form of Spanish is said to be spoken!

But learning Spanish isn’t all down to the teacher, the Spanish students need to put in an effort and try to learn their best, practising the language. Not putting in an effort makes learning Spanish harder and your progress slower, which in turn will make your Spanish experience less fulfilling. Not putting in the effort when learning any foreign language is going to stop you from being able to enjoy the country and the people as you’d like to. What’s more, Spain, as far as accommodation goes, is fairly cheap to stay in a hotel, making it a great place to visit and learn Spanish and study abroad!

Being able to speak and learn Spanish is a great opportunity to learn about Spain and get to know the Spanish people, food, culture, history etc! Spain is an amazing place to visit and to live, so make the most of any opportunity you get to study or live there and learn Spanish! The best bit is that Spanish doesn’t only limit you to Spain, Europe, but because it’s such an important language and spoken all over South America you can travel the world speaking Spanish and see loads of new and exciting things whilst doing so!

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Join in the Ferias in Salamanca this September!

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Every year Salamanca has, just like most Spanish cities and villages, their own Ferias and Fiestas, parties and local celebrations!

The beautiful city of Salamanca

The beautiful city of Salamanca

In Salamanca this year the Ferias are running from 8th to the 15th of September, and are kicked off and ended with a huge firework display over the river! Everyone gathers around near the river by the Puente Romano, the famous Roman bridge, and watches the fireworks and goes on to enjoy the food from the casetas, another big part of the Salamanca fiestas!

The casetas are little huts all over the city that are set up by all the best local cafés and restaurants where you can buy their special tapas. Each café that joins in prepares a special tapas, their best, for the fiestas and you can try this at their caseta. There’s a fixed price for all of the huts for a drink and a tapas, and there’s loads of variety between the food between all the different casetas. The huts are spread all over the city, down the main roads in the historical centre and further out too. This year there won’t be any casetas near the Plaza de Toros, the bull ring, but there’ll be more closer to the centre – 81 in total!

There are huts in the square by the University and Cathedral, down the roads in the historic centre, in little squares about the city with loads of atmosphere and even music, beautiful corners of the city with flowers where people sometimes forget to go and enjoy, and in all the main squares and points of interest across Salamanca!

There’s always loads of music in the Plaza Mayor at night, and this year will be no exception. There’s big concerts on and there’s loads of atmosphere, it’s a great chance to enjoy the city and see some of it’s beautiful sights with such a nice atmosphere.

Being in September the climate is perfect for this kind of event, the ferias are full of things going on all day and night for the week that they’re being celebrated in Salamanca. In the evening the weather is lovely and is the perfect temperature to be outside eating from the casetas and enjoying he live music in the square and the general atmosphere. The days are still sunny and lovely, but not too hot and sweaty! If you’re already studying with us it’s a great chance to enjoy the city, and if not, come and join in the fun!

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Segovia, visit the Aqueduct and the European City of Culture 2016!

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Segovia, a gorgeous city in the centre of Castille and Leon in the north of Spain is hoping to be the European city of Culture in 2016! Segovia is a beautiful old city in Spain and is most famous for it’s impressive aqueduct. Segovia also has a huge Cathedral, one of the biggest and most impressive in Spain. There’s loads to see and do there, including the famous Alcazar, the Royal palace. Amongst others, the famous Antonio Machado is from there too, and his house in now a musuem not to be missed.

The Aqueduct in Segovia

The Aqueduct in Segovia

Segovia is hoping to be the European City of Culture in 2016 and has really good chances. Being such a beautiful and cultural city already the city has a good chance and winning the prestigious award.

Soon there’s going to be a celebration in Segovia to celebrate the anniversary of being named a UNESCO city! The basis of the celebrations will be surrounded around the Aqueduct. There’s going to be a projection of music sounds on the aqueduct making it pretty and lit up, reflecting the sounds of people singing! Anyone can join in singing, there’s going to be microphones available by the aqueduct.

There’s also a set up of mirrors reflecting on the aqueduct making it appear to be floating! If you get the chance to see this you should definitely go and make the effort.

If you’re in Salamanca you’re not far either, Segovia is relatively close and we’re also running a trip to Segovia on the 22nd August, the bus leaves at 8am and the trip is 30€ for those who want to join in! People love Segovia, it’s similar to Salamanca in it’s old style and it’s beautiful buildings.

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