May 26, 2004
Easy Entry
We arrived at Barcelona in the early evening on the 22nd of May, a delay of one day in our plans. We felt the difference in the air immediately. Higher humidity and, of course, warmer than Amsterdam. But the breeze in the evening was still a bit chilly for us.
We flew from Amsterdam on Easy Jet, a discount airline that serves the EU nations. They offer the simplest services and sell tickets only at their airport counters and on the web. Arriving in Barcelona meant we were entering Spain, but, to our amazement there were no customs checks, not our luggage or our passports. When we entered the Netherlands, at least they gave us a commemorative stamp on our passport. This time, there wasn¡Çt even an opportunity for such stamp to prove that we actually arrived in Spain.
Perhaps this is no surprise to those who travel around Europe often, but it was an eye-opener to us, as we had not flown in Europe for several years. Just two months ago, Spain experienced a terrorist bombing in Madrid, so the easy-going nature of the airport security surprised us. It might be explained simply by the fact that our flight connected two EU nations, and that might be the actual reason. Or, is it because the new president withdrew the Spanish troops from Iraq and therefore there are fewer concerns? Still, we can¡Çt help but wonder about it.
It was even a bit of a shock to realize that they are not checking incoming foreigners at the airport, only two months after the horrible incident in Madrid. Perhaps they do background checking on all passengers traveling inside the EU. The only times we actually showed our passports to anybody was at the check-in counter and the gate to the airline¡Çs staff, not the government officials.
It seems that the friendly, open borders are an ideal relationship between closely located nations. Europe is definitely evolving. The way Holland and Spain view and handle "National Security" is completely different from that of the United States. That much is certain.
The fears that are marketed by the governments and the media of America and Japan manifest in the logistics at airports, including domestic flights. American citizens take off their belts and shoes, turn on their laptops and PDAs, and prove that they are not terrorists. They mostly keep quiet in doing so, but sometimes they do so proudly, probably out of their loyalties to the commander in chief.
So I must ask again, what are Spanish not afraid of?
Posted by taro at May 26, 2004 04:22 PMHi you two! Really enjoying your web site. My brother lives in Barcelona and his comment about terrorism is that Spain is used to it. That it is something they live with, like we live with the threat of earth quakes, but don't think about it everyday. When I traveled from Italy to Spain in 1994, I had to pass through customs, they stamped my passport, and there were armed military walking through the airport. So, I'm surprised at your experience!
Have some seafood for me!!
Linda
I³Ì Tim (William Timothy), Linda's brother here in Barcelona. Sorry I³Õe not contacted you sooner but had one of those periods of not checking my e-mail. Tomorrow, May 31st is a holliday in Barcelona (2nd Easter) but not in Granollers where I work so you can call me here at home, at work or on my cell phone. For your information, all towns in Spain are entitled to two local hollidays which are often completely different even though the towns are next to each other. As for telephones, the caller always pays be it a fixed or mobile line. Cell phones begin with "6" and fixed ones with "9". All telephone numbers are 9 digits long and there are no area codes. The exception are certain emergency numbers which are 3 digits which they are trying to standardize in all EU countries (police, ambulance, etc.)
Your comments about the lack of passport control are surprising. Several years back, a treaty was signed in Swengen to surpress all border controls. This treaty covers basically all EU countries except the UK (which makes traveling to England more complicated than anywhere else especially for Americans who cannot go thru the special EU line). Traveling between Swengen countries should be the same as traveling within the same country although since some flights originate from out-of-Swengen, you can unexpectedly find passport controls. Sometimes for security reasons (such as the G-8 summit in Italy) countries will announce that they are "suspending Swengen". Countries also have a tendency to use the old border control stations when they want to do spot checks looking for illegal immigrants or terrorists.
Since all European countries, except the UK, require you to carry a natonal ID card, passports are not needed so much.
As for your comments on the siesta culture, the locals would probably not appreciate it for a couple of reasons. One is that Spaniards feel that Americans often confuse Spanish and Mexican or Latin American culture. The other is that many Catalans (Catalonia includes Barcelona and the area around it) do not consider themselves Spanish. While this seems stupid to outsiders, regional differences can take on an enormous importance to the locals. The word "Spanish", referring to the language, does not exist in Catalonia. We use the word "Castillian" to refer to this language because officially there are four spanish languages, not one "Spanish" language. In anything that refers to culture, be it music, literature, dance, etc., the Catalans will try to distringuish themselves from the rest of Spain.
I³Õe probably run on too long in my comments even though I feel like I haven't even touched on the important stuff like the differences in values. Good luck on your trip and give me a ring so we can get together.
reading the comment from the brother in Barcelona I love it, fixed numbers....9
I sent you an email on the hotmail re: some underground less dressy clubs there....
going to the energy vorex of Shasta this week-end will be sending you two some vibrations, we are taking it not only to the next level this year? but an octive higher!:)