SPAIN will always be an exotic place for lovers. And this Valentine is certainly not an exception. Throughout the hundreds and hundreds of miles of Mediterranean coastline at the eastern part of the country and the Balearic islands of Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca as well as the Canary havens of Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a very temperate climate for tourists abound. There are a lot of tourists here especially now that winter is fast fading and spring – the stepping stone to summer – is heralding in. This Valentines, expect the places I have mentioned to be filled to the brim by foreign tourists. Even though there is a looming recession in the United States, many people unaffected with the emerging chaos in such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and France are trooping to Spain. When you come from these countries, you will surely have an invigorating experience this Valentines here in Spain because it is not too cold or too warm here. This is ideal for tourists who do not like to go to such tropical paradises as Phuket in Thailand or Bali in Indonesia because it’s too warm there because of their proximity to the equator.

Being a predominantly Roman Catholic country, St. Valentines Day this Thursday is celebrated in the Gothic-inspired churches all over the country as a solemn commemoration of the martyrdom of St. Valentines. If you happen to be a Catholic foreigner staying with your loved one in Spain this February 14, make sure to go to church and participate in the mass so your relationship with your loved one will flourish through all eternity (i.e. because Roman Catholics believe of an eternal life after physical death).

Across the Iberian Peninsula in Ibiza, Valentines Night parties led by such renowned DJs as DJ Tiesto, Godskitchen and Paul Van Dyk will be held in various locations all around the exotic island of Ibiza. There’s no difference in Palma del Mallorca although the parties here are dominated mostly by folks coming from such Scandinavian countries as Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Iceland and the Netherlands. Into the coast off the Horn of Africa in the Canary haven of Tenerife, parties are rather held uptown particularly at the scenic Mt. Teide, a dormant volcano which has long been converted by Spain into a national park. In here, you will find out that the tourism regulators are stricter because since Mt. Teide is also a UNESCO heritage site, you cannot just throw your trash there. And most important, you are not allowed to bring cigarette lighters so that the southern Greek and the South Lake Tahoe fires that have plagued Greece and California, respectively, in 2007 will not have a repeat here.

In mainland Spain itself, love is pervading in the air during Valentines Day as the main thoroughfares of such cities as Barcelona, Salamanca and Valencia are lined up with vendors selling lots of varieties of flowers. So if you want to be treated with fancy flowers in lieu of the more expensive but impractical flower designs at signature flower shops, then this is the place to buy flowers on Valentines Day here in Spain.