a bit of culture

‘Upcoming ‘puentes’
FIESTA WHEN WHERE somewhere below those of sloths
Todos los Santos 2007 1st Nov All of Spain
La Almudena 2007 9th Nov Madrid on heroin, often let their workers
San Saturano 2007 29th Nov Pamplona take a day of annual leave (some
San Fracisco Javier 2007 4th Dec Pamplona companies even close for business).
Día de La Constitución 2007 6th Dec All of Spain The day becomes a bridge between
Inmaculada Concepción 2007 8th Dec All of Spain weekend and public holiday.
Navidad del Señor 2007 25th Dec All of Spain
San Esteban 2007 26th Dec Baleares,Cataluña Now, I suspect the clichés about
Día de Reyes 2008 6th Jan All of Spain Spanish people being lazy might
San Valentín 2008 14th Feb All of Spain be floating into your head, but I
Carnaval 2008 31th Jan - 5 Feb All of Spain think that would be unfair. Most
Magdalena Castellón 2008 23th Feb Valencia Spanish companies still force their
Valencia en Fallas 2008 15th-19th Mar Valencia workers to take at least three of
Feria de Abril 2008 8th Apr Sevilla, Andalucía their four weeks of annual leave in
San Jorge: Moros y Cristianos
en Alcoy 2008 23th Apr Valencia July or August. Really, these little

Puent e
Puente de Mayo 2008 1st May Toda España islands (with bridges) of respite
Día de la Comunidad de Madrid 2008 2nd May Madrid are the only thing to take the sting
San Isidro Labrador 2008 15th May Madrid out of 10 months of hard grind in
a country with some of the longest
working hours in Europe.

Spanish people seem determined

to get the maximum benefit from
these breaks and, as a result, roads,
airports and train stations quickly
become as congested as an obese
man’s arteries. Newsreaders tell
us where the traffic jams are and
What in Great Britain might be called a Baker Day, in Spain compare the road death statistics
might be called a bridge. Confused? Luc Ciotkowski explains all. with last year. Nearly everyone has
gone somewhere else, whether
WORDS by Luc Ciotkowski it’s the beach, the mountains, the
country, another city, it doesn’t

‘B
ridge’, ‘long weekend’ or
‘bank holiday weekend’.
No. None of them are quite
there…
There was something strange about
my first day in my current job.
What I have since come to know
as a bustling office, with about 40
people in a rush to do their jobs,
phones ringing and a generally
very busy-feeling atmosphere,
was silent. Five or six people are
ambling about and respecting an
unspoken agreement to do as little
work as possible. Only the odd
phone call from Barcelona, Seville
or some other regional office can
spark them begrudgingly into
action. I know that there is nothing
unique about this situation and
that it is being mirrored in almost
every office or workplace in the
autonomous region of Madrid.
I’m not shocked by it, I had seen
something similar when I lived in
France and Spanish people often
talk about days like this, but I
haven’t lived in Spain long enough
to be completely unsurprised by
the scale of the standstill. It is
Monday 14th May and tomorrow is
the public holiday of San Isidro in
the Comunidad de Madrid. Most
Madrileños are probably feeling
especially fond of their patron
saint this year; he has given them a
‘puente’.
On my first trip to the coffee
machine on that Monday a big
calendar catches my eye. There are
ten red days, two green days and
two blue days to represent national,
regional and local holidays. 14
public holidays! After weekends
swallow some, you always get
between 10 and 13 public holidays
in Madrid. Mustn’t grumble.
Back there in the coffee room I
have already worked out that we’ve
got 12 holidays in 2007, but now I
need to work out which days of the
week they fall on. We’ve got one on
a Monday and three on a Friday;
what I call bank holiday weekends.
We’ve got two on a Tuesday and
two on a Thursday; what they
call here the “puente”. Employers,
realising that one working day
between two days off usually results
in productivity levels dipping
really matter as long as you
go somewhere. Newly-arrived
foreigners make contingency plans
when they discover all the hotels
in their destination of choice have
been booked-up for three months.
Those who have to stay behind
usually send their minds ‘de puente’,
even if their bodies have gone to
work.
I missed out on the puente on that
Monday in May. But, each time
the machine has whooshed coffee
into my plastic cup over the last
few weeks, those blue and red
Thursdays on the calendar have
been looming large and they are
beginning to look more and more
promising.

??

12 nov 07 www.europeanvibe.com