On Saturday morning I woke up in Puigcerdá, Spain, walked across the river to Bourg Madame, France, and two hours later arrived in Andorra la Vella, Andorra. Three countries in three hours--that should be some sort of record!
Andorra, as I've mentioned before, is a tiny country tucked in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. The official language is Catalan, but they also speak Spanish and French equally, followed by English. It's a principality, so historically it's co-ruled by a Spanish prince and a French one, but it still has a parliament and a prime minister like most constitutional monarchies around Europe. It's also one of the top 10 richest nations in the world--but shh, don't mention it! Andorrans are very low-key about their wealth, but at the same time it's really obvious, if you're looking for it. Andorra has a 100% employment rate. I never once saw a homeless person, or even a musician or artist performing for change on a street corner. Everyone has on name-brand clothes. Along the highway, the car dealerships I saw were Ferrari/Maserati, Land Rover/Jaguar, BMW/Mini Cooper, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi--and then the "moderate" cars like Volkswagen, Citroen, Peugeut and Renault (the last three are French car companies). I noticed a few Hyundais driving on the roads, but it seems like it's mostly European cars here--maybe American and Asian cars cost too much to import.
So where does Andorra get all that money from? TOURISM. Andorra has some of the best shopping (duty-free! as in, you don't pay any tax on anything) and skiing in the world. In the winter, it's cold and snowy, which is great to hit the slopes, but in the summer it's warm and sunny, which is great to hit the shops! For a city that had only three major streets (it's impossible to get lost in Andorra la Vella--trust me), there were more stores than Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Watch shops, electronics stores, perfumeries, clothing boutiques, shoe outlets... for every person, every market, every object, there's a store. The best part is that we arrived during rebaixes (re-bai-shes) season, which is their twice-a-year major closeout/liquidation sales. Oh, and the European Union is really strict about knockoffs, so everything you saw was the licensed product. Need a new ipod? The store across the street from the hotel had an 8gb for 32E, for instance. One of the clothing stores I went into had an entire rack of shirts that were 3-7E. And don't forget, no pesky sales tax, so if it's 3 euros on the tag, it's 3 euros at the register.
So I guess it won't be hard to guess that I spent my first day in Andorra going from store to store, checking out the bargains. I was with a group of (all female) classmates, and I think we visited... five stores? Six? We all ended up at the local grocery store, Monoprix (a French chain similar to Target in the States), and bought food and snacks to keep in our rooms since we'd be there for 3 nights. I found a 1.5liter bottle of water for just 22¢! With that, chips and cookies, two oranges, and a sandwich from the deli, I spent maybe 4E. (PS: In Europe, they have a standard sized water bottle that is a little smaller than the one in the states, and then the mondo liter and a half. Most times, it's cheaper to buy the mondo bottle and tote it around for a couple days.)
Final consensus on Andorra: major thumbs up. It's got a great lifestyle, but only if you have some cash to put up with it. As Josep would say: "I love it, I love it, I like it!"
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