Annie

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THE TRIP TO SPAIN

1. 15/8/06 Valencia, Ca'n Bermell Restaurant
Dear Diary, Tonight we ate at the Ca'n Bermell Restarant in Valencia. It was absolutely exquisite! The view was fantastic, overlooking the bridge and alot of the city. I never knew how beautiful the city was when it's lit up at night. The atmosphere of the restaurant was lovely, staffed by professional waiters who display an excellent sense of humor. Both the kitchen and the interior of the restaurant are decorated with beautifully painted tiles. The Bermell family started the business in 1956 and the present chef, Emilio Bermell, has more than 25 years of experience, when eating the excellent food there, it definitely shows. The reason I chose to eat at this place was so I could experience the rich culture that the place has to offer. Everyone is so respectful, the wait staff and cheif were fantastic.

If eating there for the first time we suggest you dig into his first tempting specialty, a superb mushroom salad made with fresh fruit grown and ripened in the surrounding region. For a main course, we suggest cod, which is stuffed with onions and served with a tangy green pepper sauce. Duck breast served with a Riojo wine sauce is immensely appealing as well.


 * **Cuisine** || Valencian || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Hours** || Tues-Sat 2-4pm and 9pm-12:45am; Sun 2-4pm || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Address** || Calle Santo Tomás 18 || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Location** || Around Town || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Transportation** || Metro: Angel Guimera || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Reservations** || Reservations recommended || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Phone** || 96-391-02-88 || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Prices** || Main courses 21€-30€ ($27-$39); set-price menu 38€ ($49) || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Credit Cards** || AE, DC, MC, V || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] |||| [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="571" height="1"]] || [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="1"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/spacer.gif width="5" height="5"]] || **Season** || Closed Aug ||

2. 20/8/06 Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias


Dear Diary, We went to the city of arts and sciences today. I really wanted to check this place out mainly to see if it had anything on the good old Science Centre back home in good old Wollongong...haha. They can't even be compared!

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias is Amazing! It has three main parts you can visit. The science center, the IMAX building, and the Oceonographic. We just visited the science center and the oceanographic. In the science center there were some neat hands on exibits. They have a pendilum that moves from the motion of the earth (kinda neat).

Overall is a fun day activity especially if it were raining. The building is really cool from the outside and even better from the inside. The Oceanographic is set up into continents and has some neat sea life including one of 2 beluga whales in captivity. Much of this is outdoors. In several years this place is going to be very built up and cool to come back to.

3. 24/8/06 Mercado Central
Dear Diary, All five of us decided to do a little bit of shopping today. YAY!

The Mercado Central is one of the great markets in all of Europe. This market place was recommended to us by a couple couple of nice locals. We were told to make sure to get there early in the day when they still have the great variety of seafood, to make the experience as full as possible.

This market opens at 8 am, and is amazing in the morning. Most of the vendors are still putting out their selection of seafood, produce, bread, pasteries, meat, etc. It is a very large market and even if you aren´t hungry, its likely that you will find something there that looks good to eat. Everything is VERY Fresh and cheap. Come here to pick up some bread, meat, cheese and fruit for a picnic lunch.



4. 26/8/06 La Tominato Festival
Dear Diary, Today I went to the la tominato festival...Its was awesome! The atmosphere was fansastic. Basically my day started out with alot of drinking of different sorts of wines at a completely unreasonable time in the morning. But everyone was doing it. i met some really cool people over a fantastic brekky. They had been to the festival 3 years running and said it was going to be nothing like i expected. They just got me more excited about the day. At 11o'clock all the fun began....a siren sounded and the sky was filled with a mass sheet of red coming towards us. It was every man for themselves as everyone started to run away and get shelter. Everyone is supposed to adhere to a small number of rules: You must squash the tomato before throwing it and you are not allowed to throw anything other than tomatoes.

Later in the evening everyone helped one another to clean the streets with fire hoses and brooms, basically anything we could find to clean the blood red streets. I have to say hands down this was one of the most awesome days of my life! SO COOL!!!



5. 28/8/06 Carnaval
Dear Diary, Today i went to Carnaval in Valencia. Once again there was ALOT of drinking, i blame it on the fact that its my last day here! My friends and i have been having a great time partying it up here in Valencia. Its going to suck to go home! im really going to miss this place. The Carnaval festival is a time for fun, feasting and good cheer in Spain. It occurs in the three days before the commencement of Lent, and the whole country celebrates with street parties, drinking and dancing. Carnaval is not as extravagant and wild in Valencia as it is in other cities, such as Tenerife and Seville, but it's still a lot of fun! I definitely had a fun day.... One thing i noticed in particular was the greetings i recieved from the Spanish people on this day. They were all very open and everyone was close, one nice lady even hugged and kissed me farewell. It was so cool having everyone so united together.



Negative Cultural Travel Experience
This is a website that i found it has some pretty interesting travel tips for people travelling to Spain. They're tips provided by the readers on the Lonely Planet Website. There is a pretty cool bit on Scams and Warnings. It talks about the high risk of getting mugged and scammed in certain places throughout Spain ...stuff like that. I was able to learn from this persons experience what places in Spain I should be careful of my belongings and what key signs to look out for to avoid being scammed. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/eur/spa_pc.htm

Putting Your Travel To Work in Industry
I was working in a large 5 star establishment as manager of The Lobby Restaurant. It was 9 o'clock at night and we were preparing to close for the night. A man walked into the restaurant and approached one of the waitresses at the bar asking if he could have a meal. He had quite a heavy Spanish accent but i was able to understand him well enough. The waitress appologised to the man and explained that the kitchen was closed and that we stopped accepting customers at 8 o'clock. The man seemed quite offended demanding that he should recieve a meal and to see the manager.
 * Situation 1:** International visitor

Remembering my holiday to Spain, the first thing to strike me was the difference in the daily ´timetable´. Everything happens a lot later than at home and this can have a short term effect on how you feel. With the typical working day starting at 10am, lunch and a siesta between 2 and 4 and many people not leaving the office until 8 in the evening, you do not tend to get to bed until very late. From my holiday experience i was able to understand that the man was used to a different eating timetable and explained to him the timetable we have in Australia. I offered him the choice to eat either a light complementary meal in the restaurant or have a lovely complimenary meal delivered to his room. He seemed quite satisfied with this outcome and i was able to give him pamphlets of the hotels eating facilities with their opening and closing times on them to help him in the future.
 * Solution for situation 1:** International Visitor

I was working as a Bar attendedant in The Aquatic Bar in a large 5 star establishment. That night we were doing a promotional sale of a new Toohey's product of Extra Dry Platinum. This promotion required two staff members to wear Tooheys New outfits and walk amoungst the customers explaining the new drink and what makes it better. The outfits were rather reveiling however it was a requirement and the staff members were happy to help. The night was running smoothly and we were selling alot of the stock. I was working well behind the bar with the newest employee Carlos, who had recently moved from Spain. I noticed throughout the night that he had been making rather crude comments to Jessica, one of the girls who was promoting the Toohey's product and could see that she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Carlos would stare at her inapproprately and sometime even give her wolf wistles. Jessica became rather upset.
 * Situation 2:** A staff Mebmber from a different background

I recognised the way Carlos was acting from how some of the Spanish men acted to me and my friends on our holiday. I pulled him a side and quickly explained to him that unlike Spain where that kind of behaviour does seem to be appreciated and encouraged by Spanish women. It isn't always appreciated here and isn't accetable in a working environment. I told him that Jessica would take it as offensive not as a compliment. Carlos had no idea and thanked me for explaining the difference in culture and appologised to jessica, explaining that he meant no harm he just wasn't used to this sort of environment. He wouldn't do it again.
 * Solution for situation 2:** A staff Member from a different background


 * Five aspects of Complaint Handling**
 * Appologise sincerely.
 * Take responsibility.
 * Resolve problem quickly.
 * Involve the customer in resolution.
 * Offer something extra or something unexpected.
 * Follow up and make sure customer is satisfied.


 * My Cultural Experience**
 * Forms of address:** In Spain men are addressed Senoir and women are addressed senoirita. In certain Asian cultures people like to be greeted with a slight bow or nod of the head. From my cultural experience I was able to understand that no mater what culture, unless you know the proper way to great them it is always wise to greet them with the uttermost respect and understanding.


 * Levels of formality / informality:** Spaniards speak as much with their hands and arms as with their tongues. When meeting Spaniards, be prepared to shake hands more than you might normally. Over much of the planet, people shake hands when they meet. In many other cultures, they also kiss. Some kiss on one cheek, some on both, yet others kiss three times!


 * Work ethics:** In general there is much blurring of the line between work and social life in Spain. The typical Spanish working day in any town or city involves a morning's work from about 8.30 or 9 until 1.30, followed by a three hour break in the middle of the day, during which many people go home, have lunch, sleep, watch television, etc., before returning to work at around 4.30 or 5pm. Some people have lunch in a restaurant and discuss business with a colleague. Most people then finish work at about 8pm, which is about the time that shops close. Spaniards tend to live near their place of work, often in central apartment blocks, and after work some stay on for a drink or for dinner. Because people leave work at different times, the early evening rush hour so typical of the UK is much less evident in Spain.


 * Personal grooming:** Spanish people dress very formally. They believe that good apparel reflects a good person and are very serious about the way they are presented.


 * Family obligations:** Family members or very close friends usually kiss each other on each, cheek when they meet and when they say goodbye. It is also common to see adult men, who are good friends or family, embracing when they meet. In general the Spanish are much more physical when it comes to greetings and farewells there is greater degree of physical contact.


 * Religious holidays:** Because the Spanish-speaking world is mostly Catholic, the holidays of the Christian calendar are widely celebrated.

You would think Spanish is the only language that is spoken in Spain but it isn't. There are three other languages that people speak in Spain: · Catalan: spoken by 17 per cent · Galician: spoken by 7 per cent · Basque: spoken by 2 per cent The Spanish men dress very plainly while the women dress stylish. The children are dressed as nicely as possible. The Spanish tend to dress up when entering public. Costumes are worn for the festivals. The Spanish eat Mediterranean style food. This is fresh vegetables, meat, eggs, chicken, and fish. The most common source of recreation is soccer; both playing and watching.
 * Customs:** Spanish customs are not as foreign as some may think. The Spanish have fiestas in towns on the city patron saints' feast day. Most Spanish towns, villages, and cities have a patron saint; the fiestas are then celebrated on those days.


 * Special needs:** Different cultures require many different special needs. Buddists aren’t allowed to be in a room with alcohol served in it. Japanese people must have drinks poured for them. Jewish people cannot eat pork, it is an offence. My holiday has helped me to understand all of these customs and needs.

__**Bibliography**__ http://www.justlanded.com/english/spain/tools/articles/living_in_valencia/the_differences 7/11 http://spanish.about.com/od/religiousholidays/ 7/11 http://www.urbana.k12.oh.us/Class01/Tabor/6/Carlos/spanish_customs.htm 7/11__**
 * __http://healthweb.org/browse.cfm?categoryid=531 7/11