Please see video below.
By Tom Forrest
1. "Right now" generally means about one hour.
2. "A few minutes" usually means two hours.
If you are from America, Canada, Australia, or the United Kingdom this understanding will save you a lot of frustrations and you will enjoy your trip to Barcelona and the rest of Spain more than if you try to force an English speaking mentality on the relations you have with Spanish speaking people of Spain.
Their culture is very different to what you may be accustomed to in your native country.
Please understand you are in their country and you can learn a lot by studying their culture and lifestyle.
If you are fortunate enough to have the financial resources to stay in a luxury 5 star hotel like the Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos there will of course be English speaking staff. People come from all over the world to visit Barcelona which is known worldwide for all night dancing and partying.
It is true, and it is also very different from say Las Vegas, where you can also party all night long. The Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos has some very good things and some really stupid things their management does. The good include a great breakfast buffet that any American hotel executive could learn from, the gym and spa are very nice and the staff does try to please you. The bad includes a very small shower area even by European standards, the Garden restaurant is always booked and very expensive. Then if you order room service you can have some $30 French fries and other vastly over priced food. Spain is very expensive in general and it is not just the exchange rate. Like most of Europe everything is more expensive since the conversion to the Euro. I do not understand why this is yet it it true for the Netherlands, France, Spain etc.
A rental car in the USA that might cost $70 per day is $510 per day in Barcelona, you do not really want to drive yourself in the city anyway, the traffic and drivers are kind of crazy. Even dry cleaning your laundry is about 400% more expensive than in the USA. Plus the level of service is terrible. I had to go twice to pick up my clothes because when they were supposed to be ready I was told tomorrow, which is typical of Spain's culture. Then they did not give me all my clothes and the next day I had to have the hotel call them 3 times and after a few hours my clothes did finally appear. This is why you need to alter your American ideas of service and quality when you are in Spain.
Some of the funny things I noticed:
Just a short walk down the street heading north towards the beach you will see one of the most beautiful buildings that looks like a castle. It is a military building and then across the street is a University with a run down dumpy building that is their College of Architecture. This makes Americans smile, because it is the complete opposite in America.
