Spanish Bureaucracy: the Greatest Video Ever Made

A few days ago, my college friend Kim (who also studied abroad with me when I was in Malaga) posted the following video to my Facebook wall. I think the video is meant to be an over exaggeration of the way bureaucracy works in Spain and the bad rep that civil servants get in this country. However, I can say from experience that while this type of showdown wouldn’t occur in a police station or government office, it’s not that far from the truth!

One quick example: It took my roommate five months, from the day she handed in all her paper work to renew her residency card, to receive her new one. In the meantime, her current residency card expired and when my roommate left Spain to go back to the USA for Christmas, she had to go wait in lines, fill out forms, pay administrative fees… all for some stupid document called a “permiso de regreso” which gave her permission to leave and enter Spain with her expired residency card. After five months passed, she still hadn’t received the official letter of notification that her residency card was ready. She finally went to the police station and lo and behold, it was finally ready! And of course, she had to get a note from the police station to justify her absence from missing school (she is also an English language assistant).

(I am exempt to all this ridiculousness over renewing residency cards because I have dual French-American citizenship. As in I’m a member of the European Union. Hehe.)

Did reading all of that make your head hurt? It hurt mine just writing it!

Basically, bureaucracy is very slow and complicated in Spain and they are constantly changing the rules. So nobody ever knows what is going on at any given time. In the following video, the woman beats the civil servant at his own game and (I am just going to go ahead and use a very college word) it is EPIC. She struts out of that place, putting all the civil servants in their place. You can literally hear her thinking “BOOYAH!”

Oh and the video is in Spanish but there are English subtitles. Watch it. It is amazing and if you are an expatriate living in Spain, I’m sure you will agree it is not completely inaccurate.

Semana Santa Series Part 15: the Conclusion of Vienna, Austria

Now on to Day 2 in Vienna. I decided I wanted to sleep in that day a little. I was exhausted by all the running around, schlepping from one city to another and sleeping in hostels. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to travel–but squeezing in four places in 9 days is very chaotic.

Nicole and Sarah got up early and left to go visit Schonbrunn Palace. A few hours later, I got out of bed and followed in their footsteps. There was an Easter market (it was actually Easter that very day) in front of the palace, lots of people milling around and… a very long line! Serves me right for sleeping in I guess. I waited over an hour in the freezing cold–I had my hood up around my face and my hands were buried deep in my pockets. The wind was relentless–it was not a fun experience! When I finally got up to the ticket booth, they told me my entrance time wasn’t for another hour! There were so many people visiting they were selling tickets with specific time entrances.

I decided to take advantage of my free hour, buy a sandwich for lunch from a kiosk next to the palace, and wander around the extensive gardens (which meant unfortunately going back out into the cold).

Schonbrunn Palace was the official summer residence for the Habsburg dynasty ruling Austria and Hugary (so this means Franz Joseph and Sisi also lived here–or at least Franz Joseph did, Sisi was usually away traveling). It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I might just have to look up how many UNESCO sites I’ve been to now. I feel like I’ve been to a decent amount!

Anyways, without further ado, the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace:

    

the Gloriette–building in a garden built on an elevated site

Schonbrunn Palace seen from high up on the hill in the garden in front of the Gloriette

   

     

     

    

The gardens are huge and I enjoyed walking around them. However, right at the beginning of my walk, I had barely gone twenty feet when a mini blizzard came out of nowhere! It actually snowed in Vienna in April! It didn’t last long and the snow didn’t stick–but it was right at this time that I had been eating my sandwich and I didn’t have gloves. My fingers felt like they were about to fall off, the wind was so icy and brutal! Safe to say I was so relieved when I was finally able to go into the palace and start my tour. It was so nice to get out of the cold!

And some black and white:

    

After admiring Schonbrunn Palace for a few hours, I decided that the last thing I wanted to visit on this trip was a cemetery. I got on the S-Bahn in the direction of the Zentralfriedhof–aka the “general cemetery.” I was a little confused when I got off because the U-Bahn stop drops you off a ways from the main entrance. But I managed to find it and walked around until the cemetery’s closing time.

One thing to know about this cemetery: it’s freaking HUGE! I wouldn’t be surprised if it were among the biggest cemeteries in the world. I had been hoping to find Ludwig Van Beethoven’s grave since he is buried there, but I didn’t understand the cemetery’s plotting system or the signs written in German. Asking the little cemetery gatekeeper was out of the question as well–he only spoke German as I discovered when I knocked on his window to ask him what time the cemetery closed.

Despite this, I really enjoyed walking around and enjoyed the silence–there was hardly anyone there at that late hour and I photographed what I thought were some interesting tombstones.

   

                                                             

    

                                                                                                                                      

Besides Beethoven, other notable people buried in this cemetery include Johannes Brahms, members of the Rothschild family, Franz Schubert, Johan Strauss (along with his two sons who were also composers), and one of Hitler’s nieces. There is also an “honorable mention” grave for Mozart, even though he is buried in a different cemetery.

One of the most interesting tombstones was the one with the pictures of the deceased (something that I’ve noticed is more common in Europe; putting a picture of the deceased on a tombstone). One of the people hasn’t died yet–a little creepy if you ask me, having your picture and birth date etched on a tombstone! I also don’t know what the deal is with the man posing against the car.

And that was pretty much Vienna! Like I said before, it was alright but I can wait awhile before I go back again.

And here is a picture of my last delicious dessert I consumed during my Semana Santa trip:

Semana Santa Series Part 14: Does the Sun Ever Shine in Vienna?

After the Opera House, we split up again. I forget where Nicole and Sarah wandered off to, but I decided to go visit the Sisi Museum in the Hofburg Palace. The Hofburg Palace used to be winter residence of the royal Habsburg dynasty who ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire. Today, it is now the official residence of the president of Austria. The whole complex houses various museums and institutions.

     

     

I’m not sure how many people are familiar with Empress Sisi. The Sisi Museum is devoted to the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, commonly known as “Sisi” by her family–she ruled from 1854 to 1898, her life abruptly cut short when she was assassinated.

Originally from Bavaria in Germany, Sisi was married off her to her cousin Franz Joseph I of Austria (who was originally supposed to marry her older sister but instantly became smitten with Sisi when he saw her) when she was only 16 years old. I think part of the “Sisi myth” has to do with the fact that she was tragically assassinated at the age of 60 by an Italian anarchist. She was considered to be a very beautiful woman in her time, but it seems she wasn’t cut out for the formality and rigidity that dominated court life.

Even though her husband was deeply in love with her, it doesn’t seem Sisi returned the favor. She was very shy and felt out of place living a life in the spotlight. She didn’t get along with her mother-in-law (who was also her aunt) who tried to control every aspect of her life (including raising her children, so Sisi had very little contact with them as they grew up). In order to get away from imperial life, she traveled abroad very often and spent little time at her husband’s side being the dutiful empress wife. She seemed to be a rather complicated woman and today remains an enigmatic historical figure. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum but it was incredibly interesting–I walked away feeling like I had learned a lot about Sisi, yet she still remained a mystery.  As you can tell by these pictures, Sisi had very long hair and had a very specific beauty routine she followed to take care of it.

            

After the Sisi Museum and seeing the royal apartments, I wandered around on the outer edge of the city center with no particular destination in mind. It was cold and rainy that afternoon and rather miserable. However I pushed on and was able to enjoy myself somehow. However, I was a little disappointed I never got to see the sun in Austria. But I suppose cold and rainy is typical spring weather? These pictures are random but they were the things I considered most interesting during my rainy afternoon walk.

    

Vienna City Hall

    

St. Ruprecht’s Church

   

    

    

Some interesting graffiti I came across (including a Space Invader!! Space Invader graffiti can be found all over Europe, but especially in Paris):

      

I ended up back at the Stephansdom to meet my friends for dinner.

     

And the next post will be the LAST one: day 2 in Vienna. Wow, 15 posts to get through a 9 day trip! I shudder to think how many posts I will write whenever I decide to eventually road trip across the USA.

Semana Santa Series Part 13: Stephensdom, Karlskirche, and the Opera House in Vienna, Austria

Our last stop during our 9 day Semana Santa trip was Vienna. We only spent 2 days there and I realized before we got there we simply would not be able to see everything we wanted while we were there. Like many capital cities, Vienna is very spread out–this means so are the sight-seeing spots. Vienna is definitely a city that deserves more than a 2 day visit, simply because there is so much to see.

However, out of all the places I visited that week (Heidelberg, Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna) it was also my least favorite and left me rather indifferent. Why? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe it was because I had heard so much about the city–people rave about Vienna’s beauty and its history. I liked the things I got to see and experience, but I didn’t come away with a new found adoration for the city. Maybe I set my expectations too high–I haven’t been able to put my finger on it. So no, I didn’t LOVE Vienna, but I didn’t hate it either–it was alright.

On our first day, one of the first things we did was get on the U-Bahn and make our way to Stephansplatz, where Vienna’s cathedral, St. Stephen’s Cathedral (also known as the Stephansdom in German) is located. Hands down, my favorite part about this cathedral was its roof. Nicole and I decided to go up the tower to see Vienna from high up. From the tower, we were able to get up close with the roof. The roof is covered by 230,000 glazed tiles which form a mosaic of several images: an eagle (symbol of the Habsburg Dynasty) and a triangular geometric pattern. We were unable to walk around freely in the actual cathedral though–it was barred off for some reason. I wasn’t sure if it was because it was Easter and they wanted to limit visitors from wandering around.

     

    

    

    

I’m not bothering with pictures of the view from the tower because I didn’t think the view was that great. We also had horrible weather the entire time we were in Vienna so there really isn’t much to see in those pictures.

We then headed to Karlskirche aka St. Charles’s Church. I forgot to take an exterior shot of this church (google image it though, because it’s beautiful on the outside) but I took some of the interior. I liked it even better than the cathedral.

    

    

Next on the agenda was a guided tour of the Vienna State Opera house, also called the Wiener Staatsoper. I’m not a huge fan of opera but I was excited to visit this building. I visited the Paris Opera House about a year ago and loved the tour so much; it is a beautiful building. The Vienna State Opera is one of the busiest opera houses in the world and arguably one of the most famous; the likes of Beethoven and Mozart have walked those hallowed halls! Particularly interesting to me was the fact the Opera House was bombed by an American plane raid during WWII. You can read about that story over at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_State_Opera

While I do prefer the Paris Opera house, the Vienna State Opera did not disappoint:

   

    

intermission room

   

    

   

the king’s “waiting room” before performances back in the day. You can now pay an exorbitant amount of money to wait here before a performance.

And now for the auditorium and the stage. We even got to go backstage and see the stagehands preparing for that night’s performance! That was an added bonus, since we didn’t get to do that during the Paris Opera tour.

    

    

I loved the tour of the Opera House. I’m not sure what it is about opulent music buildings, but I love them. And again, I’m not some huge opera aficionado.

I know you can buy standing only tickets the day of a performance. However, my friends and I decided to forgo this because you have to line up about an hour and a half before the beginning of the show. We had many things we wanted to visit and we didn’t want to waste time spending time in a line for show tickets. There was always the off chance they would run out of tickets and then it would have been time wasted. However if I ever go back to Vienna, this is something I do want to do.

In the next post, more about what I did my first day in Vienna. We packed A LOT in just 2 days.

Semana Santa Series Part 12: Wrapping up Salzburg, Austria

At this point, my Semana Santa trip seems like it happened such a long time ago! Again I keep apologizing for the delays… hopefully I can get through the rest of it this weekend. This will be my last post about Salzburg (yes I know another one but it’s the LAST one I swear!).

One of the last things my friends and I did in Salzburg was visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress. This white fortress sits atop a hill overlooking the Old City section of Salzburg. Construction began in 1077–which just blows my mind that a structure on this hill existed as far back as 1000 years ago. As far as I know, there isn’t anything man-made that is remotely close to 1000 years old back in the USA. The Prince-Archbishop used to live here. Again, I don’t know what a Prince-Archbishop is. How can you be a member of the clergy and be considered royal? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?

In the early 20th century, the fortress was used as a prison for Italian prisoners during WWI and Nazi activists.

For some interior shots of the fortress you can go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohensalzburg_Fortress

I didn’t take many pictures of the actual fortress while I was up there. Instead, I took a gazillion pictures of the surrounding view. I never got to see the sun in Salzburg, but the view was still magnificent. I am definitely coming back here one day!

    

    

The house in the middle used to be the executioner’s house! Our Sound of Music tour guide told us nobody wanted to live by him!

    

Around the fortress:

these stoves back in the day were used to heat rooms in Germany and Austria.

     

    

goulash I had for lunch at the fortress’s restaurant (originally a Hungarian dish)

Afterwards we split up again. Nicole and Sarah went off to visit the birthplace of Mozart. I had no interest in going there so I decided to go off to the catacombs. I probably could have skipped the catacombs–but I got some nice pictures of the cemetery again.

    

And while I didn’t go visit Mozart’s birthplace, I did pass by it:

We also walked up to Nonnberg Abbey, the abbey where the real Maria Von Trapp worked and lived at one point. Scenes from the movie were not filmed here though. I also went photo crazy with the view again

    

And finally, we left the Old City by crossing the Mozart footbridge… and you got it, also featured in the Sound of Music:

   

One last look at Salzburg and the Salzach River:

   

Despite the dreadful weather, I loved Salzburg. I think it rates as one of my favorite places to visit in Europe.