Arguineguin
On one of our days in Playa Del Ingles we decided to make a visit to Arguineguin, which is a small town about 10 minutes by taxi from Playa Del Ingles. Arguineguin has been fairly recently developed as a tourist resort, it used to be just a quiet town where mostly local fishermen and their families lived. Now this place is also starting to be taken over by tourist, and not just any tourist, Norwegian tourists!!! We went to Arguineguin because we had read in the free Norwegian newspaper for Gran Canaria, “Natt og Dag” (“Night and Day”), that there was a women’s clothes store there called Chantal that should have clothes in all types and sizes with cheap prizes.
Coming to Arguineguin was a strange experience. There were Norwegian names on lots of stores and cafés and pubs, and everywhere you walked you heard people talk Norwegian, we were even approached by a man who was obviously local, but still spoke to us in Norwegian and asked if we needed help. This was when we were searching for Chantal, which we in the end did find – just to discover that what’s called cheap is very individual. We didn’t buy anything in the store, but if you’re willing to pay the price, I guess the selection of clothes was quite good.
We walked around Arguineguin for a little while but didn’t really stay there that long. Still, it very much gave me the impression that at least parts of Arguineguin is a Norwegian ghetto. I don’t care much for ghettos no matter what kind of nationalities live in them. I think that when you live in another country you should try to interact as much as possible with the locals. Meeting up with people of your own nationality, and going to stores to buy food from you own country is fine – but if too many foreigners are too heavily concentrated in one area I think that can be a hinder to learn the local language and customs. I have seen on Norwegian television documentaries about Norwegians abroad in Spain who live in mostly “Norwegian” areas and they refuse to learn Spanish, they talk badly about the nationals of Spain and they try to make sure that the so called foreigners can’t move into “their” neighbourhoods. This I don’t like. Arguineguin might not be like this, but still, if I am ever to stay for a longer period of time in Gran Canaria, I don’t think I would opt for Arguineguin, because I would be going down there then to experience something new – not something Norwegian!! I’ll admit to though, being happy about stores that sell Norwegian food stuff – after having lived 9 months in England, I do know how much you can come to miss your favourite foods from home!
Coming to Arguineguin was a strange experience. There were Norwegian names on lots of stores and cafés and pubs, and everywhere you walked you heard people talk Norwegian, we were even approached by a man who was obviously local, but still spoke to us in Norwegian and asked if we needed help. This was when we were searching for Chantal, which we in the end did find – just to discover that what’s called cheap is very individual. We didn’t buy anything in the store, but if you’re willing to pay the price, I guess the selection of clothes was quite good.
We walked around Arguineguin for a little while but didn’t really stay there that long. Still, it very much gave me the impression that at least parts of Arguineguin is a Norwegian ghetto. I don’t care much for ghettos no matter what kind of nationalities live in them. I think that when you live in another country you should try to interact as much as possible with the locals. Meeting up with people of your own nationality, and going to stores to buy food from you own country is fine – but if too many foreigners are too heavily concentrated in one area I think that can be a hinder to learn the local language and customs. I have seen on Norwegian television documentaries about Norwegians abroad in Spain who live in mostly “Norwegian” areas and they refuse to learn Spanish, they talk badly about the nationals of Spain and they try to make sure that the so called foreigners can’t move into “their” neighbourhoods. This I don’t like. Arguineguin might not be like this, but still, if I am ever to stay for a longer period of time in Gran Canaria, I don’t think I would opt for Arguineguin, because I would be going down there then to experience something new – not something Norwegian!! I’ll admit to though, being happy about stores that sell Norwegian food stuff – after having lived 9 months in England, I do know how much you can come to miss your favourite foods from home!
posted by Lena M Bakke @ 4:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home