Plumbing and electrics in Spain

Hola otra vez,

I’m back from a not-so-sunny Spain! It rained most of the time I was in Madrid, but fortunately that didn’t ruin my holiday. Today I’m going to look at something that you’ll find if you ever go to Spain, or if you’ve been to Spain: the lack of decent plumbing and electrics. I’ve tried to include lots of important vocabulary relating to plumbing and electricity that I picked up while I was on holiday. Hopefully they’ll come in handy for you too one day…

It’s only when I go back to Spain that I realise just how lucky we are to have the “instalación de tuberías” (“plumbing”) and “electricidad” (“electricity”) in such good condition here in England. In Spain you’re much more likely to call a “fontanero” (“plumber”) or “electrista” (“electrician”) and ask them to “arreglar” (“fix”) what’s wrong.

In our apartment the “enchufes” (“plugs”)  seemed a little worse for wear, and as for the “luces” (“lights”), I’m not convinced they were hung from the “techo” (“ceiling”) properly. Some plugs “estaban rotos” (“were broken”) and “no funcionaban en absoluto” (“didn’t work at all”).

But enough about the electrics, let’s look at the plumbing…

The “ducha” (“shower”) had its fair share of “problemas” (“problems”). The “desagüe” (“plughole”) was “bloqueado” (“blocked”) so only a “gota de agua” (“drop of water”) drained away. Also, there was only enough “agua caliente” (“hot water”) for about a five minute shower per day, and when there’s three people sharing an apartment, “no es suficiente” (“that’s not enough”)! The “caldera” (“boiler”) seemed to be making some “ruidos extraños” (“strange noises”) when it was heating the water, and it only seemed to do this “por la noche” (“at night”) so I couldn’t get to sleep!

Despite these problems, it was a lovely apartment we stayed in and I had a great time in Madrid. I will be uploading some of the photos soon, so stay tuned!

Hasta pronto.

Image via Wikipedia