So many of my travel adventures have been to places where tourism is under development. Here in Barcelona it´s quite a breeze to sort out the metro and get to all of the sites. And the very moment I feel a slight bit of need for a bottle of water, a bathroom or a snack, it´s all comfortably available. Moroever there are so many people who look just like me (wearing day packs and carrying digital cameras), that I´m barely an oddity...so very different from Africa and New Guinea!
Perhaps the oddest thing is hearing Spanish spoken by light-skinned people. Living in California, the majority of native Spanish speakers have Indian roots in Mexico and Central America, creating beautiful golden-brown skin tones. Here the Spaniards look equally European as all of the hordes of tourists from France, Germany and Italy.
Perhaps the oddest thing is hearing Spanish spoken by light-skinned people. Living in California, the majority of native Spanish speakers have Indian roots in Mexico and Central America, creating beautiful golden-brown skin tones. Here the Spaniards look equally European as all of the hordes of tourists from France, Germany and Italy.
The last time I travelled in Europe I was 20 and it was 1973. Spain was so different then. Franco was in power--the streets of Madrid were flanked with countless uniformed guards and police. And there was no such thing as an Internet. I composed my letters on onion skin aerogrammes and received letters at American Express offices. There was no such thing as low cost flights (e.g. Easy Jet and Ryan Air) and I bounced around on a youth eurail pass. Then I was happy to stay at crowded youth hostels and now the thought of piling into a dorm room and sleeping on a bunk bed pretty much turns my stomach. I´m a bit different and many of the people I´ve been meeting weren´t even yet born!
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