I have encountered many unique situations, traditions, and ways of life in this first week in Europe and international travel that I will attempt to put in perspective. Some situations remain "unresolved" and will be denoted as such. If you have commentary feel free to share. For no other reason than Blog etiquette, I will present them in he order in which they have been encountered.
1. Airport security. On our flight out of SFO I was requested to go to the advanced security screening even though I did not beep going through the metal detectors. The "agent" asks me to expose my palms at which time he swipes them with a dry acne circular pad, we all remember those things, and places it in a machine for analysis. I ask him what this is for and he shares no advice. The diagnostic machine lights up green and he informs me to "proceed" with no answer as to what or why I was being tested. Any idea what this test analyzes and whether it is random?
2. Europeans are not concerned with shoe bombs or americans are overly concerned as one does not have to display their dirty socks, toe nail fungus, or gnarled toes while going through security in Europe
3. Cervecerias. What a great concept and Spain has them everywhere. I presume any Californian can figure out what it may be. A beer stop with snacks open all day. Why doesn't every city and country have these? A long bar with some high tables and an outsider lanai. The more I pondered, the more I realized that we do have these (at least in Los Gatos and especially in and around Littlefield Lane, the Manor, and La Riconada). They are represented by our secondary fridge in the garage, stuffed with beer and wine. When the garage door is up or you are on the driveway, the cerveceria is open. We have some work to address the tapas and terraces. Going forward, keep your garage doors open and the beer flowing. you might be surprised with the conversations that you might strike up.
4. Capris. The elongated shorts or high-water pants. I have never owned a pair but I think their existence stems from predominantly Catholic, hot countries requiring pants for church or more importantly Mass entrance. Why would anyone really wear these...? Upon being denied admittance to a Gothic church in Barcelona, I contemplated a pair of Capris.......but thought better about it. I still can not explain espadrilles on men. Maybe an epiphany will come.
5. The good and the bad of Spain. I admire the gracious greetings (hugs and kisses) Spaniards give to one another. Their ability to put way cell phones in social settings is unmatched for an advanced country. Honestly, rarely did we see people stuck to their phones. The history of Spain is fascinating, under-published, and under-read. The wine is great, the people are friendly, and the architecture unbelievable. The food is good, gastronomically they are a world leader, but their workaday food lacks diverse texture and vegetables.
6. Smoking and tattoo surface area. The population of Barcelona and Madrid were significantly tattooed, more ink than Santa Cruz, and I would estimate two-thirds of the population smoked. Still trying to understand the correlation or causal relationship between smoking and tattoos.
7. Shirts with a zippered pocket. If you plan on travel, I highly recommend picking up a cool North Face shirt with a zippered pocket capable of storing passports, credit cards and cash. In the airport and on the Ramblas, where pickpocketing reigns supreme, my North Face shirt with the front zippered pocket was tremendously convenient. Maybe, I'm getting old or older or nerdier, but on my next Intl trip, I will be stocking up. Maybe pocket protectors are making a comeback.
8. Speedos and swimming fast. I have always been led to believe that Speedos are designed for aerodynamics in order to improve lap times. Apparently this message has not been reiterated in the Speedo marketing messaging in Europe. Here, the bigger the gentlemen, the smaller the Speedo, and the less likelihood of swimming at all. Jill and I are still trying to resolve the algorithm. Fundamentally, I don't understand trying to get tan in areas of your own body that you can not even see. Weird...
9. Emmy and Davis are troupers for tramping through Spain at an accelerated pace. The next three weeks are slow-vacations involving home cooked meals, night swimming, immersion/residency in a small town, and lifelong memories.
10. 7:00 PM an time to go down for a beach swim with the kids.
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Location:Menton
Regarding #1, isn't it to check for gunpowder residue? That's what I've been told and it is random, I got pulled in SJ on my way to Vegas. As for #2 in my limited travels to Europe, I couldn't help but notice the heavily armed security guards at the airports, that would usually keep me from stuffing bombs in my underwear, but I don't know, maybe that's just me and maybe they don't have those heavily armed guards anymore.
ReplyDeleteMy mom always says "American's are so puritanical" and in a way she's right. In America, there are so many "rules". "Rules" about drinking ages, clothes, taking your shoes off in the airport, how much clothing to wear, shave your body hair, work all the time, go go go, never stop, get to the top (Like my rhymes?) only get 2 weeks of paid vacation. Maybe if we didn't make such a big deal about those things, they wouldn't be a big deal and we could sit back, relax, eat dinner starting at 8pm, take siesta's during the hottest hours of the day, take month long vacations at the coast, drink beer and wine and eat great food on any street we are just randomly wandering down (and eventually get kicked out of our houses for not being able to pay the mortgage and property taxes and have to go to rehab) and have fun and not care about what else is going on in Facebook and Twitterland, but maybe we wouldn't appreciate the fun as much if it was so easy to come....
I don't know, but those are my "free" comments.
It sounds like you are having an experience of a lifetime! Enjoy France and Italy. xoxo
wait.... do you mean MEN wearing capris???
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