German tabloid Bild stumped us with the term Ballermann. A search brought up a web site so trashy it makes Bild Zeitung look like the New York Times.
Ballermann is a registered trademark and Germany's No.1 Party and Event Trademark. Well, that's what the site claims, and why wouldn't that be correct.
The web site broke our Trash-O-Meter by addressing visitors with the informal version of you, "Du". A sure sign of trash. We do not want to go through the colors associated with the site and its audience, but pink would appear to dominate.
The slideshow on the site then gave us a clue to the origin story with a reference to some "infamous Balneario 6". Much better than the dictionary term for Ballermann, which tells us the term is slang for a gun.
Balneario 6 is on the Spanish island of Mallorca, which makes Ballermann a mispronunciation of Balneario. We leave it to you which of the explanations for the mispronunciation you prefer - a term of endearment, an expression of ignorance, a result of the slurred speech you get after sucking Sangria from a bucket, a standard 10 liter bucket by the looks of it.
For a simple translation of the feeling and behavior think Ibiza if you are British or Spring Break if you are American.
Further research showed that Balneario 6 has the reputation of being the main German hangout in the city of Palma de Mallorca, with other Balnearios playing the respective roles for Dutch, Danish, etc. tourists.
Knowing Bild Zeitung, we searched for "Bild Ballermann" and found ample material. Ample applies to the number of videos and reports as well as to some of the ladies in the videos.
At least pretend you are a grown up when you follow this link.
Cheap happy hour booze, or altogether free drinks are not the best way to ensure a mild mannered day and evening. If you time it right, you can get drunk for free and only pay a small maintenance fee of sorts to stay drunk all night.
Rowdy, drunk, anti-social behavior of all sorts sooner or later makes the authorities intervene, and the local government has tightened the rules.
No more Sangria by the bucket with yard-length straws, paper or plastic cups instead of glass bottles, quiet hours, fighting the folks who fleece tourists with popular Donde esta el Rey con game, police patrols and -- wait for it....a dress code that could be straight from Silicon Valley's Pat House and the old dot com days: I don't care what, but wear something!
On a more somber note, here is a link to a UK paper Capitalismo-extremo-and-the-Ibiza-dream.
If this is a depressing read, you know where to go to unwind.
No comments:
Post a Comment