Introduction

Location

The Region of Murcia is located at the South-East of Spain. Despite it represents the 2.2% of the total surface area of the country, it is between three important regions; Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha and Valencia. It occupies an area of 11,317 km2 and it is the ninth biggest of the Autonomous Communities from Spain.

Climate

In the region of Murcia there is a Mediterranean subtropical climate. The characteristics of this climate are: an average of 18ºC along the year, hot summers with temperatures that can reach 40ºC and mild winters with an average of temperature of 11ºC.

Clear skies can be seen 120-150 days a year and the hours of sun are almost 3000. It doesn’t rain a lot (300-350 mm/year), the seasons in which it rains more are autumn and spring more specifically, the months of April and October.

Population

The population of the hole region of Murcia was almost 1.500.000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2010. It had decreased a lot due to the Civil War (1936-1939) and the dictatorship that there was in Spain until 1975, a period of time in which a lot of people immigrated. It started to increase in 1976 and in Murcia the density of population is 105 inhabitants per square kilometre. 

Nowadays, the number of immigrants that Spain receives is higher that those who emigrate, but this tendency is changing due to the economic crisis.

Cultural Heritage

Because of its powerful historical tradition, the great amount of different cultures that had lived in this area, the privileged location in the Mediterranean zone and its border condition between the Meseta and Andalusia, the Murcian Region has a lot of vestiges of past times. History and tradition meet with contemporary life and relax, everything disposed to the visitor’s choice. There is also an archaeological attractive, with some sites like rock-paintings in cave-shelters from Iberian times. The bright of Roman culture is also reflected in urbanism with the theatres such as other attractive buildings from ancient cultures like Visigothic cities, Christian castles, Arab medinas, churches and temples, watch-towers, civil and military constructions...

Cuisine

According to the position of region of Murcia in Spain we can cook a lot of produts, fresh vegetables, meat and some seafood. While the Romans were here we learnt to make making preserves and salted fish; the Arabs, introduced rice and taught people how to grow and cook it.

In the lands there are a lot of trees that give us olives. With oil, bread and wine you have  the three mainstays of the Mediterranean Diet.

When it is a rainy day, we like eating migas ruleras, made from flour with oil, water, salt and a lot of patience. When in season, in Calasparra they love eating rice with snails.

Handicrafts

Handicraft are one of the most important points since they show how the region’s culture and customs are. Handicraft from Murcia is characterized by making objects and shapes with some rural and hard materials as wood, clay, sparto, metal,etc. These elements reflect how there is possibility to make handmade items beyond using plastic materials.

Nature

Murcia has a lot of variety both in cultural traditions and nature. In the coast there are a lot of places of ecological interest and even in the interior of the region of Murcia there are a lot of landscapes and nature conservation areas. For example, there is a kind of tortoise called “tortuga mora” that is an endangered animal and you can´t have them at home it’s illegal. A lot of people have to stop in the roads of the mountains in order to put this tortoises out of danger, far from the road because a lot of them die trying to cross the road killed by a car.

Daily life

In a normal day a university student usually gets up at half past seven, gets dressed and have breakfast. Here not everybody eats the same for breakfast, some people only drink a glass of milk, but there are other people that eat a toast with the glass of milk, and there are people that go to the university even without having breakfast.

In Murcia region there are two universities, one is in the city of Cartagena (near the coast) and the other one is in Murcia city (the capital city). The most common ways to arrive to the university are the bus,  the car, and if you live in Murcia city, the tram.

University classes usually start around nine or ten o’clock if you go to lectures in the morning or at two or three o’clock if you go in the afternoon. There are four or five hours of lectures a day, depending on the degree you are studying. Lectures are not compulsory but practical sessions are. 

A lot of students eat in the university because as we have to work in groups we spend a lot of time there.

The most common hour to go to bed is at twelve or one in the morning after having dinner.

Sources 

• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.cultural_heritage
• http://www.mediatripa.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/IMG_0925-e1297950613775.jpg
• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.climate
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgdwghBdsov2CItRt7gx32y2dGWvyDdxuLbU3jFcXkVqmDxfMVc78R_th5q1X5GQfbirDIaSltTfitsxERVAifkAAEIsyFPHB57y_9c-9SAlJeUDk8UMUS0qOLiSf-jeKxj4G2qdZRiUU/s1600/DSC_0027.JPG
• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.population
• http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/parques/donana/fauna/img/188.jpg
• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.location
• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.gastronomy
• http://www.regmurcia.com/servlet/integra.servlets.Imagenes?METHOD=VERIMAGEN_27363&nombre=Esparto_-_Cestas_de_esparto_res_300.jpg
• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.handicrafts
• http://www.tutiempo.net/i/Mapas/Mapa-del-tiempo-en-Murcia-1.jpg
• http://www.murciaturistica.es/en/tourism.nature