Spain

They practically invented the late lunch. If you try to grab dinner at six in the evening, you will be eating completely alone. Spaniards typically eat lunch around two or three in the afternoon, and dinner rarely starts before nine at night.

There is no tooth fairy here. When Spanish kids lose a tooth, they slip it under their pillow for a magical little mouse named Ratoncito Perez, who leaves behind a small gift or some money in exchange.

The national anthem has absolutely no words. The Marcha Real is one of only four national anthems in the entire world that is entirely instrumental, meaning you will never see Spanish athletes singing along at the Olympics.

It is home to the oldest restaurant on earth. If you visit the capital city, you can grab a meal at Sobrino de Botin, which has been roasting delicious suckling pig continuously since it opened its doors in 1725.

They throw the ultimate food fight every year. The town of Bunol hosts a massive, messy festival called La Tomatina, where thousands of people gather purely to throw over a hundred metric tons of overripe tomatoes at each other in the streets.

You can actually zipline into another country. There is a custom-built zipline that crosses the Guadiana River, allowing you to fly directly from the Andalusia region of Spain right into neighboring Portugal in under a minute.

The country produces a staggering amount of olive oil. While many people immediately think of Italy or Greece, Spain actually produces over forty percent of the world’s olive oil supply, with endless groves covering the southern countryside.

Taking a nap is a recognized tradition, sort of. While the famous afternoon siesta is not quite as common in bustling modern cities today, many smaller towns and rural shops still shut down for a few hours in the afternoon to avoid the blistering midday heat.

They celebrate the new year by stuffing their faces with grapes. As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, it is a massive tradition to eat twelve green grapes, one for each chime of the bell, to guarantee good luck for the coming year.

You can visit a church that has been under construction for over a century. Antoni Gaudi began building the breathtaking Sagrada Familia in 1882, and this massive, mind-bending basilica is still surrounded by cranes and scaffolding today.

Spanish is not the only language you will hear. While everyone speaks standard Spanish, there are several other official regional languages with deep cultural roots, including Catalan, Galician, and Basque, which is one of the oldest and most mysterious languages in Europe.

They gave us the mop and bucket. It might not be as glamorous as discovering a new continent, but a Spanish aeronautical engineer named Manuel Jalon Corominas actually invented the modern mop and bucket wringer in 1956, saving knees worldwide.

Nudity is perfectly legal. There are no laws against public nudity in Spain, meaning you could technically walk down the street in your birthday suit, though most people politely restrict this freedom to the country’s many beautiful nudist beaches.

They love their afternoon snacks. Because of the massive gap between lunch and dinner, locals usually grab a merienda, which is a light afternoon meal that often involves sweet pastries, coffee, or a quick sandwich to keep them going.

The concept of tapas started as a simple drink cover. Bartenders used to place a small slice of bread or meat over a patron’s drink to keep the flies out, and eventually, this practical trick evolved into the world-famous culinary tradition of sharing small plates.