On the Road ... Tour de France

I love the Mediterranean 

After a week of sleeping in countries in which I didn´t understand almost any of the local language, coming to Spain is a relief.

Not that I´m fluent, but three years of high school Spanish and being married to a woman who is a fluent speaker has at least gives me the comfort of knowing when someone really doesn´t like me.

Believe it or not, that can become a major issue in places like Amsterdam. While the Dutch seem to be a relatively polite culture, they don´t seem to care much for tourists -- to the point that they are almost entirely indifferent toward your existence. Of course, they´ll accept your money, but not one time during my week in Amsterdam did a waiter/bartender go out of his/her way to make me feel comfortable. I´m not expecting anyone to treat me like a king, but it doesn´t kill to smile once in a while.

Not to badmouth an entire country on the basis of one week in one town, but I was truly alarmed by how much disdain many Dutch seem to have for non-native speakers. It almost seems as if two cultures exist in this nearly universal bilingual culture -- one world for English-speaking tourists and one for Dutch-speaking locals.

Maybe Spain is the same way, but since it´s not such a bilingual culture it doesn´t feel as creepy. While not being able to speak Spanish here can be a serious limitation, I´ve never felt the contempt that I felt in Amsterdam. Maybe I´m being paranoid, but that´s how I felt.

This may also come as a surprise, but after watching Spain´s victory over Tunisia, I got the impression that the Dutch are actually more passionate about at least one thing -- soccer. While the Dutch were going absolutely bonkers for their team´s victory over the Ivory Coast, the Spanish were pretty subdued even though their win also guaranteed them a spot in the next round.

Again, it´s one day in one city, but considering how much of a big deal soccer is here, I would have expected more of a response. To be fair, I´m in a small, rather touristy town called Sitges. Maybe in five days, when I´m in Valencia it will be different.

posted by FreeSanJose at 2:32 PM

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