>So the answer is: not that many.
>
>/jordan
This thread started with a story about vacation travel in Europe. I was just remembering a J.G. Ballard short story sparked by that annual exodus. Ballard says the biggest city in the world is the Mediterranean coast in summer, a city 30,000 miles long and one mile wide.
In the story people from numerous European countries gather in vacation rentals on the Spanish coast. They spend the summer frolicking. At vacation's end everyone decides to stay put and not go home and back to work. Things go swimmingly for a while. Everyone continues playing volleyball and having a good time. As time passes conflicts arise. Small at first but then ever more serious. Beach bodybuilding turns into martial training and erstwhile expatriates become warring camps based on country of origin.