hi all,

Nuria, your comment about smoking in the airport really resonated with me. on my first trip to spain i was amazed by that too.

it had been a really long flight from atlanta to madrid (originating in dallas)and i wanted to smoke something fierce, but i was connecting to barcelona and not actually getting out in madrid. but as we sat on the plane this guy said we could go into the terminal to smoke. i was like "WHAT?", he said "sure!". so we did, and when we were finished i asked what we should do with the butts, he just through it on the ground. i was just astonished, but relished in the freedom!!! haha.

about staring, i agree some cultures just do it more, me and my british friends were surprised by how much they do it even in barcelona. it took some getting used to, but finally you just realize that's what they do, and nothing is meant by it at all and there is ZERO threat.

particularly they stare at your shoes. at the time i had some dark maroon leather shoes, i SWEAR spaniards had never seen that before. subesquent trips i wore basic black.
they weren't interested in that.
haha,
i love spain.

brian


[This message has been edited by brianvc (edited 12-18-2000).]