Defective Merchandise and other Barcelona, Spain Warning Or Danger Tips

There are no bargains when it comes to buying electronics or small appliances in Barcelona. Beware of the small "importers" shops on the sidestreets. They will cheat you right and left. Check the merchandise before you leave the store, to make sure all the parts are inside and the appliance actually works - even if you have to open what looks like a hermetically sealed plastic bag.

My husband asked for a rechargeable shaver, but when we got back to the hotel, it turned out it wasn't. We returned it the next day and - bad mistake - bought a CD player which was offered for the same price. It was in a fancy closed box with a Sony label. We didn't open it because we wanted to give it as a present. It turned out that the earphones were broken, the player itself was cracked and the batteries were dead.

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If you hate the smell of cigarette smoke, Barcelona may not be for you. Everyone smokes - especially the women! You see people puffing away wherever you go, and the souvenir stores sell ashtrays in every shape and form. None of the restaurants and cafes we went to limited smokers in any way. Everything is one big smoke-filled haze.

January 2006 update: Aha! My theory has now been proven. People in Spain DO smoke more per capita than anywhere else in Europe (apart from Greece). In fact, Spain is "credited" with inventing cigarettes 500 years ago. According to an article in the newspaper, Spaniards have been hooked on smoking since Christopher Columbus brought tobacco back from the Americas. It was claimed to have all sorts of medicinal properties at the time. In the early 1500s, the residents of Seville began to collect old cigar butts and roll them up in paper - making Europe's first cigarettes. Surveys have shown that the average Spaniard smokes 2,300 cigarettes a year, which is 850 more than other Europeans.

As of January 1, new laws have gone into effect which ban smoking in bars and restaurants. The weird part is that these restrictions only apply to establishments larger than 100 sq.m.

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