Even at foreign resorts, vacationers are forced to fight for a spot on the beach.<\/em><\/p>
Everyone has at least once encountered the practice of war for a beach spot in the sun. And for us, former Soviets, it has been familiar since ancient times and honed to perfection on the beaches of Odesa, Crimea, and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. It is part of our eternal struggle for survival: a towel or a not-too-valuable piece of clothing carelessly thrown on a sun lounger, or even just on the sand, guarantees the opportunity to have a leisurely breakfast and only after a couple of hours take one's place by the sea or pool. As a result, all spots are taken, but there are no people around.<\/p>
As the correspondent of «Russkaya Germaniya» writes, in civilized countries where the likelihood of theft is relatively low, some manage to reserve their morning beach spot even from the evening before. Such actions have always irritated less prepared (or more naive) citizens, of course, but this year the outrage seems to have reached a boiling point. This especially concerns the crowded public beaches of the Balearic Islands and mainland Spain.<\/p>
As the newspaper El País writes, the strong reaction of vacationers forced the authorities of coastal municipalities to introduce tough measures against those who like to secure an advance advantage. For every cunning individual, there is now a legal remedy: the perpetrators face a fine of up to 720 euros. And not only that.<\/p>
«We decided to go further and gave the local police the right to confiscate items laid out in the morning that effectively turn public beaches into private ones,» Jose Manuel Prieto, a representative of the Gandia municipality in Valencia, told the press. The population of this city of 75,000 inhabitants quadruples at the start of the tourist season. Along with many other resorts, strict penalties have been introduced here against «reserving» spots on the beach. Local media report that just the information about the introduction of new rules has brought the desired results: the number of brazen individuals has sharply declined.<\/p>
The authorities of Italian resorts, especially on the coasts of Tuscany and Sardinia, were forced to resort to similar measures. The fines here are, however, smaller – around 200 euros. According to the newspaper La Repubblica, the coast guard in the Livorno region recently confiscated hundreds of unclaimed towels, sun loungers, umbrellas, and chairs from morning beaches. Along with «reservists,» enterprising dealers who rent out sun loungers and umbrellas to vacationers without any right to do so are also punished.<\/p>
By the way, sociologists note that «reserving» a spot on the beach is the most irritating factor for most tourists. According to polls by the portal n-tv.de, it leads the anti-ranking of ten items with 27%. In second place (20%) are «peddlers» – beach vendors of various goods who prevent people from relaxing in peace. The bronze medalist (13%) is boarding an airplane, more reminiscent of storming a train during a civil war, even though all passengers have their own legal seats that no one else claims.<\/p>
In fourth place (10%) is the desire of German tourists to speak exclusively German everywhere, which annoys other tourists. The fifth negative factor (7%) is the «battle for food» at the buffet system: fights at the buffet leave no one indifferent. Sixth and seventh places are shared by construction and other noise outside the windows and dirt in the room (both factors get on the nerves of 6% of respondents).<\/p>
The eighth line of the anti-ranking (5%) is occupied by inappropriate clothing in which vacationers come to the hotel restaurant. Both men's sandals with tennis socks and women's evening dresses with clusters of diamonds around the neck and ears are equally irritating. Strangely enough, only in ninth place is bad food (4%) – which means not everything is so bad in the leisure industry. Closing the top ten is the end time of breakfast, which 3% of respondents are unhappy with. Sleep lovers, of course, would like it to last longer, but then breakfast, alas, would be called something else. So do not get irritated – better sleep peacefully until lunch.<\/p>