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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is this acceptable Spanish behaviour?

78 replies

sportmixture · 17/07/2017 20:07

I have rented a house for the summer in the canaries, it is in a small village, there is a small one way road between the house and the sea and we have a pool and there is an almost 5 foot wall between the pool and the road. There are quite a few tourist though not loads as there are no hotels. When we are in our garden ( and when we are not) people walking past keep hanging over our wall pointing at us and our house and acting like we are zoo exhibits!! I understand people will walk past and might glance over but I am talking about practically climbing on the wall, I have tried saying hello but they then act like I am being crazy! Is this normal Spanish behaviour? I spend quite a lot of time in the canaries and I have never encountered this before.

OP posts:
originalbiglymavis · 17/07/2017 23:12

You need to brush up on your Spanish.
"And that's the pool where she drowned her ex husband...and there's where they found his head..."

blackteasplease · 17/07/2017 23:13

I'm sorry, the OP really made me laugh, with the image of the people hanging over the wall to look in. Still laughing now...

blackteasplease · 17/07/2017 23:16

Also the OP's update about them reacting as if she were crazy. And the supermarket story.

Plus alongside this is running a debate about whether the canaries are in Spain...

TathitiPete · 17/07/2017 23:18

Yes OP this is definitely a Spanish thing. Every single person who is from any part of Spain, or even any Spanish owned territories, peers over walls at people. It's actually the third favourite national pastime. Behind running with bulls and having giant tomato fights. Wink

Serahpalin45 · 17/07/2017 23:19

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

thenightsky · 17/07/2017 23:22

You've rented a house for the summer. God I'm jealous. I'd love to rent a house in Spain for a whole season.

[jealous]

Gwenhwyfar · 17/07/2017 23:47

My grandparents in north Wales (within Snowonia National Park) used to get people staring at the house. Luckily it had a little garden so they didn't quite have their noses up to the windows, but it was almost like that. My granddad said it was because they (tourists) found it 'quaint'.

HellonHeels · 17/07/2017 23:55

Can people from Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands get British passport if those places are not part of the UK?

LinoleumBlownapart · 18/07/2017 01:18

Yes, I believe so but they are special ones, not quite the same.

originalbiglymavis 😂😂
thenightsky you said Spain, better get your armour out and wait for the onslaught!

MrsOverTheRoad · 18/07/2017 01:23

In Italy people openly stare...maybe it's like that?

HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 18/07/2017 01:31

Ugh stop it everyone.

It's geography versus political boundaries.

Two different things.

Geographically the Canaries are not part of the Iberian peninsula / Spanish mainland. Politically the Canaries are part of Spain.

Easy peasy.

AcrossthePond55 · 18/07/2017 02:38

Puerto Rico is a US territory. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but they cannot vote in presidential elections.

Hawaii is a US state. Hawaiians are US citizens with full voting rights just like any other citizen of any other state in the Union.

Lweji · 18/07/2017 02:44

The canaries aren't even in Spain

After all is said and done, that's factually correct, though.

The vast majority of canaries are not Spanish or in Spain, I'd guess.

The Canary Islands, or the Canaries, on the other hand, are.

LinoleumBlownapart · 18/07/2017 02:45

Puerto Rico is a US territory. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but they cannot vote in presidential elections.

Really? !!!? That's shocking given that they are governed by Adolf Twitler Donald Flump. I'm suprised there hasn't been a revolution or something, that's a dictatorship by all accounts, what's the loop hole?

LinoleumBlownapart · 18/07/2017 02:49

Lweji isn't tweety pie Spanish? Or should I say la tweety misses point

Lweji · 18/07/2017 02:56

I believe he's American, not Spanish.
Speedy Gonzalez, otoh, it's an illegal alien, who'll pay for the mouse traps.

LinoleumBlownapart · 18/07/2017 03:06

Yep possibly or perhaps Italian NY American
Speedy has already made his position clear Grin

BertrandRussell · 18/07/2017 03:58

Have you offered them some beads or other trade goods?

AcrossthePond55 · 18/07/2017 04:37

Lino it's because PR isn't a state, it's a territory. Only 'fully-fledged' states can vote in presidential elections. Technically Congress has authority over PR, but PR is considered to be effectively self-governed by an elected governor. The 'head of state' is the US president. Statehood can only be granted by Congress.

PR (a beautiful place) recently passed a referendum saying they'd like to become a state. Now a request for statehood has to be made and then it has to go through Congress. As it stands it appears that Congress may reject their request as currently PR has an outstanding debt of $74 billion and is facing bankruptcy. If they became a state the US would be expected to assume that debt. Before this financial debacle, the people of PR rejected statehood in previous referendums.

originalbiglymavis · 18/07/2017 07:55

We lived in a cute little house in a cul de sac with no pavement and window onto the road.

Many a time I'd be sitting in my PJs nursing a hangover over a coffee, or doing the crossword with a cuppa tea and tourists would come right up to the window and press their faces up to the glass to see if 'people live in there'.

Salmotrutta · 18/07/2017 09:04

Are there any very interesting plants in the garden OP?

Maybe the people doing this are keen gardeners?

Or something?

Lweji · 18/07/2017 09:05

&As it stands it appears that Congress may reject their request as currently PR has an outstanding debt of $74 billion and is facing bankruptcy*

They'd be joining a few other high debt states.

Lweji · 18/07/2017 09:07

Is there an attic? Maybe you have the ghost of a mad woman peeking at the window.

LinoleumBlownapart · 18/07/2017 11:00

Given that the us has the highest debt in the world, that's well into the trillions, I think that's a bit rich (excuse the pun) to reject them on that basis Grin.

Littlechocola · 18/07/2017 11:10

How do you know they are Spanish?