Travel, 50+, Spain

Guess what chaps and birds? Spain turns out to be one of those countries that suffer the mystery of missing pictures. Rather, specific travel years have vanished and I only have a couple of snaps from my business trip. Hence, we'll do a little bit of pixabay along this post. On the bright side, the years have helped me deduce the location of the images to a specific device. On the murky side, I do not know where to find it. Yet. It is bound to be shoved in some box somewhere...

Spain is a funny place. A country that is heavily relying on tourism, with (rumored) good education including such as English (for years) in schools. Yet, somehow, it is incapable of teaching languages to its people. Or the people are too "special" to learn. Big win for Portugal! (And France, known to be rudely limited in the past millennium, and even Italy!) So, I was forced to learn some Spanish and far beyond your most useful tourism inquiry of ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? and a "por favor to you, too". Japanese are funny for somewhat similar reasons. The only difference between Japan and Spain in the scenario around our beloved lingua franca is that the Japanese quietly wave their palm in front of their face (for "no") when you aggressively judo throw them to the ground and the Spanish won't shut up in their own language as response until your ears bleed like Victoria Falls. Because, after all, their "healthy" national self-esteem tells them that "surely you must understand at least some of our language (if we speak loud enough and add words until you get it)".

Another funny thing was that the young (on my trips) seem to be worse at speaking English than the older people. And worse at speaking their own language to foreigners. I have helped an abuela or two in shops and they spoke clearly and calmly and we handled business, whileas the youth... As I visited the nearly abandoned, yet somehow extremely touristy (per restaurants run by darker and shorter Hispanics from the Americas) Ávila, the young receptionist at the "we speak English" hotel could not speak English and could only increase the speed of his Spanish until he had to call an old lady, who occasionally worked as interpreter for the establishment, to handle the process of checking in as he "busied" himself to escape the situation. Similar cases happened quite a notable number of times, so I'm stereotyping the generations here.

Despite their linguistical challenges, the Spanish can be very polite and warm. And then you end up in one of those places. You know, the ones where the Spaniards attack you for being a foreigner (presumed tourist, what is business travel?). You can be squirted at (with water pistol, hold your horses boyz), you can be insulted, threatened and, as happened to me in Barcelona, followed around town while punching the air and frothing at the mouth while yelling in Catalan and occasionally "imitating" you like a petulant little child on a streak of mental instability. Okay, I get it. You did not get that independence and your butt hurts. You have too much tourism and an international combination of mafia running your touristy areas and airbeeNbee "investors" (often foreigners) screwing you over for housing. But guess what? That is not individual tourist's fault. Not even when they're traveling for business completely unrelated to tourism or real estate.

It's not only one time, but every time I have visited Barcelona (almost exclusively for business, only once for tourism namely on the way somewhere else), some loud and aggressive village idiot finds me and puts up a show (this is called "blond privilege" in Spain). The city is also much favored by shady characters that are eager to inspect your pockets on the go and those stationed in shops where they go "it's illegal to sell you a single can of beer after this much o'clock, but would you be interested in some drugs, instead?" And, in the end, this problem is their own doing. The local people of power have made BCN the massive flight hogs filled with flights from everywhere in Europe for something like 20-50 euros aka everyone can go. The locals have allowed the purchases of the buildings incl. housing and so forth, but sure, lets attack tourists and business travelers. These things and the general atmosphere experienced over yonder has forced my hand and Barcelona ended up in the "avoid list" of cities. I'm sure the local activists are happy, but, while I understand their situation, their methods make people rather not empathize with their cause and, sometimes, even visit harder (which I've seen happen, which begs the question: Should "hate visit" be a tourism niche?) Other locations in Catalonia have been all good and kind to me, which is nice.

Madrid turned out to be far more tolerant for business travelers, but I did hear tourists and tourism criticized there, as well. Either way, at least the pickpockets and other villains had found their way to the capital and were ready to welcome you with one of those scams where you are asked to "sign a petition" of one kind or another (for criminal purposes, obviously). Primarily near the most popular sights. What comes to sights and architecture... Everywhere I have visited in Spain has had interesting and pleasant bits. It's a great place to visit for any friend of visual experiences. If you feel more special somehow, you may wish to visit the only zipline in the world which crosses an international border (as I've been informed). In this case from Spain to Portugal. And, at the very least, do enjoy the food. In my humble opinion, Spain has the best food in South Europe (although Greece is right up there with them).

The Judgment:
Spain is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world... for some reason. Based on what I have seen, I am not sure why. If it is the booze and beach combination, it's not going to work out for me. The architecture can be very nice, food is great, shopping is okay and not too expensive... That's all I can say, really. On the other hand, I've been there more for business than pleasure and for that, I will pick Madrid over Barcelona any time. For tourism, my current favorite has been Figueres, even if it can get a bit packed. Anyone want to share on the subject?

Would I go again? Yes. Despite the overall experience averaging lukewarm at best, there are places that look worthwhile. The whole country cannot be a55. Can it? Not even every experience (probably).