Majuki...it wasn't meant as bashing. From the first day I started travelling after getting out of college, I have seen this naivity. In 1967, I attended expo 67 in Montreal and there were signs reminding patrons that post cards mailed in Canada needed Canadian postage stamps. I have been to bull fights in Madrid where they handed out seat cushions and seen more than one American try to pay for it with dollar bills, I have been to boutiques in Paris where somebody was told something cost 400 francs and she asked how much is that in real money, just two weeks ago, on a shore excursion from my cruise in Germany, we stopped at a rest stop onthe autobahn and the person behind me tried to pay with US dollar bills. It's not bashing anybody, it's the sad truth of how naive so many Americans, unfortunately, are when it comes to travel. Is it exclusive. No. However, years ago, pre euro, a Dutch person, just as an example, would travel an hour or two and would be in Germany and would know once he or she left the immediate border area between the countries, that marks were needed not guilders.

It is not meant to bash anybody. It is a function of the size of the country and yes, to a degree, some brainwashing that the dollar is king, that everybody wants dollars yada yada yada. Would a resident of the UK come to NYC and expect to be able to use sterling. Perhaps a very few but I doubt not nearly as many.

It was simply a point I was trying to make. No need to get all excited about it.