I lived in Spain for 3 years. Spain is a strange country in that it is conservative while simultaneously being liberal.
For example, relationships appear flexible and open at a glance. But at the same time, divorce is shamed by society (wasn’t legal until 1981) which means that they aren’t always that open by preference. People are awfully open with PDAs but moving in with your partner before marriage isn’t particularly common. Abortion wasn’t legalized until 1985. Despite that, Spain is very LGBT friendly, especially in the major cities. They were 10 years ahead of America in legalizing same-sex marriage despite its religious past. However, politicians condemn sexual assault and rape but haven’t made any efforts to update their law to reflect the modern day. Just a world of contradictions.
Anyway, Spain has their own far-right party popping up that basically swallowed the tiny ones called Vox. They weren’t around when I was there. When I was, Podemos was the new party which was an anti-austerity left-wing party that was the third largest behind the People’s Party and the Worker’s Party. In 2019, Vox became the third largest party and Podemos (now called Unidos Podemos) moved to 4th.
It definitely doesn’t have the wealth of The Villages though the old people are just as bigoted and use the same arguments against immigrants that you hear in America. Granted it doesn’t have an unemployment rate nearing 30% like when I was there but it’s still higher than average compared to the rest of the EU. It’s also way more culturally diverse. While the overwhelming majority of people speak Spanish, a huge number come from Central/South America. So there is a large foreign-born contingent there.
Obvious, I guess, but I think it’s the Catholic heritage. France isn’t as ‘bad’, but definitely has similar tendencies. E.g. it’s only very recently that IVF for non married people was allowed, and gay marriage is still mainstream controversial here in a way that it just isn’t in the UK (where I’m from).
One generally chops off the heads, fillets, and debones them, chops them up, and uses them in pasta dishes, but I also think they can be grilled whole. Canned sardines usually come de-headed.
Love tinned sardines - any bones are soft so everything in the tin is edible. Mush them with the back of a fork - in tomato sauce for a sandwich and in oil to grill on toast.
I imagine @JohnnyTruant just pops the can open and downs it like a Popeye with a can of spinach, but I’m waiting to hear from the master before I do anything.
“I agree with the current leader of the GOP that the following people are terrible human beings, the worst (bad): Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Jeb!, Rex Tillerson, Reince Priebus, Adolf Sessions…”
