How many times have Travis and I arrived in an unfamiliar train station or airport in a new city and wondered what we would find? How will the city look? Will it be easy to find our hostel? Will the people be nice? Will we enjoy it here? Although the guidebooks provide vivid descriptions of each place, the friendliness of a city cannot be decided until you are walking along the sidewalks looking into people’s eyes, and participating in several social exchanges. Whether it be ordering a coffee in a café, bumping into someone’s cart in the market, or checking into your hotel, we have found a city radiates a feeling of either friendliness or unfriendliness.
Our list today is comprised solely on our own impressions and experiences. To give each city a fair chance we were careful not to let this list be shaped by individual occurrences, such as a mean waiter or a brusque bus driver. Rather, these are cities we stayed in for at least 24 hours, giving them time to show their true colors. That said, some of the cities on the unfriendly list are also some of the favorite places we’ve been this year. The “friendliness factor” didn’t always alter our level of enjoyment.
So here it is, in no particular order…
Friendly Cities:
Antigua, Guatemala
Lisbon, Portugal
Norwich, England
Cambridge, England
Branik, Slovenia
*Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Sorrento, Italy
Managua, Nicaragua
Salzburg, Austria
Panajachel, Guatemala
Rome, Italy
London, England
Granada, Nicaragua
*Marrakech, Morocco
Padua, Italy
Lake Bled, Slovenia
Madrid, Spain
*Houston, Texas
Leon, Nicaragua
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Naples, Italy
Unfriendly Cities:
Granada, Spain
Casablanca, Morocco
Paris, France
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Melk, Austria
Barcelona, Spain
Seville, Spain
As noted by the *’s, three cities have stood out this year as being exceptionally warm and welcoming to us. From the point of arrival we felt the people were genuinely happy to have us there.
1. Marrakech, Morocco: How could you not feel the warmth when someone is coming up to you at every moment asking you to eat at their restaurant, visit their store, or offering to give you directions and lead you personally to your destination.
2. Matagalpa, Nicaragua: In a city with very little foreign tourism, sometimes being a novelty “gringo” wasn’t too bad. With many locals wanting opportunities to practice their English, finding a person to chat with was never a problem.
3. Houston, Texas: Who would have thought? In our brief, extended, overnight plane layover between continents, this little glimpse of the American spirit warmed our hearts. Perhaps it was the Southern hospitality or the familiarity we felt being in our homeland, these Texans knew how to give us a big shiny welcome.
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Spain
Excursion to Toledo
The Toldeo Cathedral
....supposedly one of the most beautiful in all of Europe
The city (the former capital of Spain) is on top of a hill, surrounded by a stone wall
the narrow city streets were an adventure to walk on
lovely city streets...
The top of a mosque
The "Bullet Train"
This high speed train runs over 200 miles an hour! We traveled a distance of 100 miles in 30 minutes flat. Amazing.
Excited for our first trip outside of Madrid
Another typical plaza in the center of the city. As usual, late in the day all the folks gather together and sit and catch up on their days. Very pleasant!
I loved watching this sweet elderly man pacing the square. Looks like he might have benefited from drinking more milk though in his younger days!
Our first "Menu of the Dia." This is my 1st course of their famous gaspacho- served more pureed and smooth here than how we make it in CA...
a view from on top of the city
love the flowers and shadows
The Packing Nightmare!
We actually lived amongst this for several days!
Down to the last load...
Goodbye to our apartment... now we're homeless!
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