By Byron Lutz
Editor, The Shoestring Traveler
(c) Copyright 1989 - 2004

I flew courier to Madrid on a flight with LHS in Miami when they advertised flights for $200 during January and part of February.

I wasn't the only courier for LHS on my flight. Another gentleman was also flying courier for the company on the same flight, but I didn't have to turn over any documents or meet a courier rep on my arrival.

Spain remains one of the few affordable destinations in Europe, where U.S. dollars still retain a fair amount of buying power.

For example, it's only 360 pesetas (US$3) to take the bus from the airport to downtown Madrid.

If you look around Madrid you can get lunch for 800 pesetas (US$6), as I did at one modest restaurant in the south of town. Lunch began with a large plate of paella with chicken, clams, scallops, and other seafood. The waiter brought me a large basket of bread, braised potatoes and trucha (fried trout) for the main course. The price included a full bottle of red wine to polish off the meal, plus fruit for dessert.

Coffee is about $1.25 a cup at a cafe, but you're expected to sit, sip and enjoy it. Tapas (bar snacks) begin at about 50 cents for croquettes, but can be much more for more exotic fare.

If you go to a common cafe-bar, a beer is something like $1.10 to $1.75, affordable by U.S. standards. If you order a draft beer or a glass of wine at the bar, most places will serve you a free small plate of hors d'oeuvres with each drink. The snacks might be a Spanish potato tortilla, olives, braised potatoes, fried sardines or anchovies, chorizo sausages or prosciutto ham.

On the southern coast of Spain along the Portuguese border I ordered a chorizo al infierno which arrived skewered over a little clay dish with alcohol in the bottom. The waiter lit the liquid and the sausage roasted at my table for a minute or two. It came with a hard roll so it could be eaten like a hot dog. It was delicious and made great theatre for the cost of only US$1.20.

You can get a private room starting at $12 a night if you're willing to stay at a family-run hostal and use the bath down the hall; $30 to $50 will buy you a comfortable hotel room with a private bath, color TV and other amenities.

I like Seville, which I passed through for the second time, because of its beauty and fun. The streets of the Barrio Santa Cruz section are filled with friendly patrons wiling away the evening hours at restaurants and cafe-bars.

Orange trees, bearing bright sour oranges, line the streets. Romantic bridges straddle the R¡o Guadalquivir.

Quite a few American college students study in residence there, and co-eds seemed to substantially out-number the male students from what I could determine.

I stood at one bar joking with some local men who were attempting to eat Mexican jalapeno peppers. We North Americans are used to hot peppers, thanks to the strong influence of Mexican cuisine in our culture. But the Spaniards are not accustomed to fire on the tongue, so I was able to show off well and we had a few laughs.

Next to us were a couple of U.S. college girls who assumed nobody in the cafe-bar but themselves could speak English. They were involved in a heated discussion about men and dating, the kind of conversation that would have had their fathers canceling their tuition and yanking them back home to Wisconsin if they overheard their little girls.

I decided to shake them up a bit. "Boy" I said, "there sure are a lot of Americans studying here in Seville, aren't there?"

"Oh my God!" said one of the students as they both turned beet red. "We thought you were Spanish!"

They finished their drinks in record time and scooted out the door in a flash. Well, I figured, I guess Daddy doesn't have too much to worry about after all.