Apprehension traveling to Marbella, Spain for worlds

I think the locals will recognize our flat American accents in cafes and stores and anywhere else we interact with local people. It’s not like I’m worried about people telling us to go away or not serving us. But it’s more about the level of friendliness. We are used to great interactions with the locals when we travel overseas. I hope that doesn’t change. But it sounds like it shouldn’t be a problem from all the great replies from Americans who have traveled recently to Europe. I wouldn’t blame locals for feeling disdain for the US right now. Trump did win the popular vote. Heck I’m pretty darn angry with half our population for putting this huge moron back into office again

When I travel overseas, I can usually spot the Americans lol

Your whole interaction with this guy is really weird!

Serious question, do you honestly believe there aren’t areas like the pictures Gunna posted in those cities? Where do you live? Do you really think those types of conditions are in anyway acceptable?

As for Spain they have a lot of problems with tourists in some parts and I hope you aren’t flying in a Boeing.

Seems Gunnas biggest fault is not showing enough disdain for the Trump government. He has come in saying positive things, pro US and that the US isn’t involved in any wars etc, an accurate and innocent enough comment. He even says something to the effect its the government’s fault for the tarrifs. And yet it’s you who ‘shit’ all over him.

Perhaps you should take a look at your interaction and some of your advice and ‘be kind’…

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Comments like this make me assume you are pro-Trump or maybe haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening in the USA right now. It’s bad. I don’t think our Democracy will survive this. But perhaps you are MAGA or voted for Trump or maybe you admire him from afar or truly don’t know what is happening right now.

There is not much positive happening right now in the USA sadly.

Your hatred for Trump is consuming you and as a result it’s overflowing towards innocent people like Gunna in this thread.

He gave his opinion why foreigners might be nice to US citizens abroad, happy that the US for the first time in a long time isn’t involved in any wars. Surely you can see through this for what it is-if there is any reason for another country to not like you it is war?

You are wound up in domestic issues, something foreigners probably aren’t affected by or care about as much as you do.

You call him out for daring to say parts of the US have huge problems with drugs and homelessness, he supports his feelings with pictures and then you double down by saying the pictures are fake??

And then you give him the passive aggressive ‘have a nice day’… pretty poor form on your part. All you have done is attack someone giving a genuine take. And now you are trying to cast me as Maga just because I’m calling you out??

You really need to take a big step back and look at how you have conducted yourself.

Why don’t we let the moderators do the policing here. When someone is out of line or uncivil, Cathy or Eric lets them know.

My thread was about a simple question. How are Americans being treated as they travel to Europe right now. Is there any Anti-American sentiment right now? I was NOT asking about traveling to Australia where gunna resides or an opinion on the US. I asked that politics be kept out but perhaps gunna misunderstood my thread and questions. His comment was provocative suggesting there is nothing wrong with the US right now and asking why anyone would be upset with the US at the moment.

“Your Hatred” - this suggests my outrage of the Trump administration is unfounded. So yeah, I see where you lean politically. MAGA is always accusing the Left of hatred. But it’s the paradox of tolerance. Do we tolerate the intolerant? There is a lot of hatred right now in the US against authoritarianism, fascism, racism, bigotry, suppression of free speech, rolling back of rights, political violence to name a few. That’s where my hatred lies along with at least 7 million people who recently protested at the No Kings protests around the US. So I’m not alone. Call it hatred if you must. But perhaps take a look at why half the country is in distress right now.

And I don’t appreciate cherry picking photos of encampments which could have been from any city in the world. Most big cities have this problem. But it doesn’t represent the US as a whole. And Trump has no plans to rectify homelessness in the US. His solution is to round up the homeless and put them in camps or prisons.

You can keep up this tit for tat. I understand your message and where you stand. But if the US fails, it has major ripple affects. And remember, Nazi Germany didn’t happen over night.

I’m done with this type of banter., I’ve said enough on this. If you still don’t understand my backlash against gunna, then I don’t know what else I can say to convey our dire situation here in the US.

I can’t delete this thread, otherwise I would. But I’m done with it now. It sounds like I will have no problems traveling to Spain.

Have a nice day (and I mean it!)

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I did look you up on ST and found this. Nutella’s response to you. And I do value his insights on this forum. (I am just doing a copy paste here)

Trump Watch - Politics Is Life - Slowtwitch Forum

Nutella

lastlap

Dec 2024

Your insult filled, content free, posts make it clear you have zero interest in a good faith discussion. Your posts indicate you are incapable of engaging in any policy discussion and instead spew nonstop insults.

On a positive note, your posts provide a look into today’s GOP.

And final comment to you. I figured out how to “block” someone. And for anyone else, wondering how to do this. On the right of someone’s profile, hit the Normal button and choose “Ignored”.

As expected. It’s like you all have the same play book-attack the man, be aggressive and insult, totally ignore the topic or points being raised, totally make things up and flat out lie (not once did I insult you), play the victim with shallow insincere, passive aggressive statements like ‘be kind’ and ‘have a nice day’ and then the crescendo of blocking the person all while saying they are incapable of engaging in discussion. Just like many of the people Charlie Kirk used to try and engage, his calm rational thinking was met with irrational hyper emotional outbursts. You say I give a insight into the GOP, well ditto…

If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny..

I just wish you could see how irrational this statement is. Yes many major cities have a homeless and drug issue. But if you think they are in any way comparable to those being experienced in LA, Philly and San Fran then you are either straight up delusional or lying.

Those pictures aren’t cherry picked, they are an accurate depiction of the affected areas of those cities.

And you have the audacity to attack about exaggeration etc, mind boggling.

I wouldn’t hesitate to travel as an American, most of the world is sympathetic to our current troubles. behaving like an ugly American will get the same responses as it always has, but ordinarily decent travellers are not likely to be harassed.
my brother and I traveled as South African white boys during apartheid, no-one was mean to us, mostly they just wanted to understand what it was like living in a racist police state and how they could help oppose it.

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I’ve had lastlap ignored for oh, basically the entire life of the new forum. Took you long enough :slight_smile:

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I rarely visit this forum but…

I could share more…The saddest for me is the state of Hastings Street, Vancouver.

So @Triingtotrain how was your trip?

My own experience:

I was racing in Marbella, as well. I am at the airport now about to head back to the USA after a week’s extra vacation in Spain post-race.

I was traveling solo this time, so I was eager to meet people on tours, at pubs, etc. Pretty much anybody English speaking I would go pester and have a chat. I had conversations with English, Scots, Irish, Swedes, Canadians, Germans, French, Latvians, Spanish, Moroccans, and other Americans.

US politics were literally never a problem, or even uncomfortable. I didn’t expect them to be, and they weren’t.

Anybody “professional” (hotel staff, shop keepers, taxi drivers, etc) didn’t seem to care at all, and politics was never broached. As it shouldn’t be in that setting. They were happy to take my money. I found the Spanish to be very welcoming and gracious hosts.

Those who I met on the street mostly wanted to talk about non political stuff – they were interested when I mentioned triathlon, we talked about where we were from, family, jobs, travel, good spots to eat/drink, etc. Just normal human conversations.

When politics did come up, people mostly wanted to complain about their own government, and I was interested to learn about their unique perspectives and problems. No surprise, we can all bond over the incompetence and corruption of our own governments :joy: When Trump came up we laughed and commiserated over what an oaf he is. Not a problem at all, if anything it served as common ground.

I might actually be more concerned about traveling abroad if I leaned more conservative or pro-Trump. I didn’t personally bump into anybody who shared that perspective, though I wasn’t exactly trying. My mostly-uninformed assumption is that the cohort of English speakers who travel abroad around Europe will skew left-leaning.

So yeah, it was a fantastic trip (except for the last half of the run, ooff…). I hope yours was similar!

I had no issues with politics. The subject matter hardly came up. But we didn’t encounter many natives who were fluent enough in English to even touch the subject. Thank goodness. Missing bikes and the tough bike course were the main topics of conversations with the other athletes who did speak English.

i had a great race! I loved the run and had the fastest 70.3 run in a long time. But with the bike course it was my slowest split due to all that extra elevation. Minus the wild cross winds we had on Saturday on some of the descents, it was a great bike course. Almost as pretty as Nice but this course was much harder than Nice 70.3 worlds in 2019. 1800 more feet of elevation according to some athletes.

Travel was tough and long. But there was no easy way to get to Marbella from where I live. I feel lucky that my bike didn’t get lost and came home with me. A good friend still has a bike in Malaga.

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As the “Mad King” threatens the take over of Greenland because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace prize, I wonder how the US is being viewed by Europeans now (LOL). Imagine one single “toddler in chief” has this much power to change the world order for the worse. I wouldn’t want to be traveling to Denmark right now. Anyone triathletes paying attention to this insanity?

I’ve traveled in Europe recently and nobody cared that I was American beyond the usual small talk. Most people separate politics from the person in front of them. Focus on your logistics build in a little buffer for travel and go enjoy the start line in Marbella.