In Spain bank holidays fall on all days of the week, but it´s quite common to have a holiday on a Thursday and a Saturday during the same week.
As you can probably imagine, this presents a great opportunity – why go back into work on a Friday, when you can simply take time off and effectively enjoy a nice relaxing 4 day break?
The problem is that EVERYBODY does it – it´s practically customary.
So, you´ve guessed it, the whole place grinds to a halt, shuts down. There is simply nothing to do…..apart from eat…..and go to the beach…..unless it´s raining……so you go to the shops instead…….aaaargh, no you don´t because they are all shut!
They call these bank holiday extensions ´puentes´ - literally, ´bridges´. The extra day effectively bridges the 2 official holidays
Next time you are in Spain during a puente, on the Saturday take a look inside a shopping mall – you will see hordes of people (often entire families with nothing else to do and bored of each other´s company) staring longingly through shuttered shop windows.
Strange.
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