One of the things I and A talk about our Spain/Lisbon trip was how much I let my guard down in Spain and did not feel like I was going to get scammed. Sure we all take precautions in big cities, but at no point in Spain did I ever feel like a taxi driver was out to scam me, or the hotel employees for straight up lying, or a laundromat operator was not giving us the right information, or a restaurant was simply trying to push things. Heck, there was no heckling anywhere either even in middle of chaos in Barcelona. The first experience I had in Lisbon was the taxi driver scamming me into paying 5x what it should have cost to get to hotel, and then our overall hotel experience being horrible for a supposedly “boutique” 5 star. The nonstop heckling by Tuktuk drivers (though they respectfully backed out at a simple no) around old town was annoying. Within the first 2 hours in Lisbon, all my guards were back up constantly scanning, thinking and a general feeling of slight distrust. This is probably why we loved Spain so much. It’s that feeling of just letting your guard down knowing that people around you are just nice. (Yeah yeah I have heard pickpockets and Barcelona and all, but that’s a simple solve and it’s a common thing everywhere).