Translation of samt und sonders

I hope you could understand my last letter to you. You see, when I write in Spanish I am not very confident. I always question myself and each and every sentence takes about fifteen minutes.
Usually in a place with a homegenous society hatred towards foreigners can grow much more easy as a small disturbance to the homogenity may upset the entire society. People are not used to changes.
We spent the entire day walking around the city, looking for gifts for our friends and for family back at home. It was a nice and relaxing last day. In the late afternoon, we decided to buy shoes.