Ops sorry too many nicks to keep track of, as Damiri said to another guy, if your choice is the right one for you, then good for you. Sorry to hear you have such a bad consideration of your own people. I also understand we all tend to be severe judging our own country. It's like parents with their kids, they always want the best from them. Insurance was ironic, I truly hope you'll never need it
El Hierro is one of the Canary Islands just off the coast of Africa, which of course belongs to Spain. I have friends who lived there, check it out. Beautiful women. http://www.elhierro.tv/agua.html
Spain is very safe to travel around. It can get a bit dodgey around some of the tourist areas in Barcelona, but apart from that, it's very safe. The only problem with Barcelonia in Summer is that it's full of American Tourists who think they can speak great spanish becuase they took a class in high school. If you go, make sure you get there for the first day of the San Fermin festival. (Running of the Bulls). One of the greatest parties on earth. Runningbear
thanks mark1 for the for the escapeartist.com link, I'm looking through all the links now at http://www.escapeartist.com/japan/japan3.htm for info on japan, much appreciated! ken
Perhaps the American tourists are trying to be polite by trying to speak Spanish? If they spoke English without trying to speak Spanish they would be considered arrogant. Damned if you do, Damned if you don't.