After moving to Spain I actually felt liberated from a lot of the social customs which weigh us down in much of the rest of the world. Not just the social customs but also the laws - although that's changing in Spain too. Spanish friends have often told me that we in the USA have too many rules and laws to control the people.

Self-expression among strangers is common too and I love that. They have "no fear" of starting a verbal, heated argument without the slightest fear that it will become physical or that one will pull out a knife or gun to kill the other dead on the street. They have no fear of hanging out the window of their cars, shouting about an error the other driver made - without fear that the offender will flash a pistol.

The more I think about that the more I think they're correct. Not saying "please" and "thank you" doesn't seem rude to me - but saying it definitely does sound nicer.

Saludos, MadridMan

the world of cars ... the people go crazy here in madrid, shouts, insults, is a horror. That peace when you go underground (Metro)

You're certainly right about beeping the horn while driving. I once tried to teach a Spaniard to drive in the UK. Someone made an error so she beeped. I had to explain that if she continued to beep people in the UK she'd probably get hit at some point.

Here I happily beep anyone who takes more than a mili-second to pull away when the lights change.

ref above post
got to admit i find it quite amusing hearing all the horns going off for no reason, you look and everybody is hooting the horn and there is nowhere to go because of a traffic jam, i assume its the culchure (or is it learned whilst on driving lessons) here in England and you are in a jam its just a case of sitting patiently until the traffic moves, anybody uses there horn and everyone looks around for the culprit, to see if it was them they were tooting at, and yes probably looking for a fight