Mingling with the loud Spanish crowd

In my four years of traveling and residing in various owners direct in Spain, more specifically Andalucía, I’ve noticed that I just can’t seem to get used to how loud the Spanish can be. In bars, restaurants and even when travelling in planes, there is that ever overwhelming sound of “rakatakata”.

From my point of view, it seems that the Spanish are always just very excited. Pretty much about anything. In bars, they are excited about their conversations and the more they drink, the louder they tend to get. In restaurants, this overexcited loudness is often combined with screaming, yelling or crying kids. Even people standing outside of the bar talking on their phone (too noisy inside) seem to have the desire to involve the entire neighborhood into their conversation.

This makes it very hard to follow any conversation in a restaurant or bar for me. Being a soft speaker myself (as there is no need in my country to be more louder than thy neighbor) I sometimes start shouting out of frustration myself as my conversation partner has already asked me 4 times to repeat what I’ve said. It’s seriously quite deafening at times.

This is also true for beaches, where overexcited loudness, drinking, kids and angry parents, teenagers and music are mixed into a perfect noisy blend. But I guess that goes for most beaches and probably not something isolated to Spain alone.

I always need a good set of ear plugs when travelling to my home country from Spain by airplane, as the noise continues. And for some reason, most travelers seem to be first timers. Make that loud first timers.

The overexcited loudness hovers at the same decibel level of a bar or restaurant, probably due to the fact that most drink and fly. And for some reason these first timers behave like 10 year old kids, and yes, that even includes adults.

When they sit down -with a lot of noise- and after they have made sure that everything is taken out of their cabin luggage (by taking it out of and putting it back in the storage unit 500 times…even before the plane has taken off) making everyone wait, one has to start playing with the chair, the table, tapping is involved, shoes are taken off and feet are put up in the space between the two chairs.

I seem to be on the receiving end of this quite often. Of course, the Spanish are too cool for school and the safety strap must be unbuckled as soon as the light of the safety sign turns off or the plane has landed on the ground. This clicking sound can be heard simultaneously throughout the whole plane.

Of course, being around Spanish folk, you will never have a dull (nor quiet) moment in your life, but honestly…sometimes it can be a little bit exhausting.