Comments for Pain in Spain at http://www.rivierareporter.com , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.rivierareporter.com Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:57:41 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/731/132/#comment-384 hehe...Karen - that sounds like Scotland without the gay weddings! - Shortia Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:20:16 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/731/132/#comment-383 Is this not further evidence that one man's heaven is another man's hell? And also evidence that both good and bad can be found everywhere. Generalisations abound, and are almost always misleading. - Mike Meade Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:56:36 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/731/132/#comment-382 I think Karen's views are based on a limited vision of Spain. I'd say her comments are 100% fair in respect of those dreadful coastal resorts where so many Brits and other Northern Europeans go on holiday, and just as true as the places they choose to live, built on laundered money and the proceeds of various types of crime. Spain's cities are festering and decaying concrete jungles, monuments to overpopulation and poor governance, just like the cities of most other countries, full of feckless unemployed youths who turn to drugs and crime at the one extreme, and the new Spanish yuppies, equally unbearable but for totally different reasons, at the other. It is in the open lands of La Mancha and Extremedura, in the small inland villages of Andalusia, in the 'Rias' of Galicia, and in the mountains of Asturias, the parts of the Spain that the average person has barely heard of, let alone been to, that you find the real Spain and the real Spaniards. Those are the places people should visit to experience the reality of this diverse and wonderful country. I'm so glad they don't! - Mike P Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:37:55 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/731/132/#comment-381 I lived in Spain for 4 years. It was a seedy, criminal environment. Tried as much as I did, I could never change my impression that it was floating on little else but crime, prostitution, drugs and the newly popular gay weddings. The people are depressed and see no future, and the young often occupy their spare time (even during siesta breaks from work) by doing dope. Crime was immense; biggest I have ever seen. I have no clue what people see in Spain, really. - Karen Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:03:01 +0100 http://www.rivierareporter.com/content/view/731/132/#comment-51 It's getting even worse for expats in Spain. There is a frightening piece at www.timesonline.co.uk about this. - JustMeAndMyDog Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:45:40 +0100