I can safely say that the Spanish do not do email, which is a problem since we have no phones. After emailing over 50 landlords about pisos, we received one response from Roberta. !Gracias por Dios! So, we took an apartment-hunting break to go on a phone-purchasing mission. But-cept we forgot about the whole Spanish siesta thing and showed up at the Phone House at 3PM, which is smack in the middle of nap time.
Not to be deterred, we took lovely two hour walk to see some new neighborhoods.
At 5PM, we arrived back at the Phone House, along with many other people in need of phones, and waited in line for over an hour. Phone stores in Spain are just as inefficient and infuriating as they are in America. When it was finally our turn, the lady promptly told us that "prepagos" or pre-paid phones are only sold on "Lunes" or Monday. What? Why? Are you kidding me? All she could say (or all we understood) is to return on Monday and find out.
The good news today is Catalans celebrate Diada Nacional de Catalunya, which I hope means "party" later tonight. So far, it means everyone wears, carries and hangs the national flag, the senyera, which I've read is coincidentally the oldest flag in the world.
Your story about the phone purchase was hysterical. Along the same lines, here's a haiku I wrote in Costa Rica a few years ago. Haiku (except for this one) don't have titles. It's called "In Line at The Bank":
ReplyDeleteBurocracia.
Tres copias de todo.
Paciencia.
Miss you. Nice to know you're HERE.
Now I get why you mentioned "mishaps"...omg the phone thing. Gah! Sounds frustrating. Though 2 hour walk sounds wonderful!
ReplyDelete<3 Been thinkin' about ya!