Next time you don’t know the answer in a pub quiz, try China. It’s bound to be right occasionally, and even if it’s wrong, it’s usually hilarious. Okay, maybe my new Spanish friends and I have drunk too much vino, but the get-to-know-each-other pub quiz has us in hysterics. We lose, but we go down laughing.

I’d never expected to be sitting in a bar with a bunch of strangers having so much fun, but a lot of things about my Spanish holiday surprise me. One is that English speakers can have a cheap holiday that’s rich with experiences by joining Vaughan Town. It’s an amazing scheme where volunteers dubbed ‘Anglos’ spend a week in a Spanish village for free, getting well fed, drinking the local wines and enjoying the company of some incredible people. You have to pay your airfare, but after that, everything is on the house. I’d say it’s on la casa, but if they catch you speaking any Spanish, you’re in trouble.