The Correos and the Stamp!

When you are in a different country to your own you expect that things will be different. To some extent you come prepared for different language, different food and different culture. But you know – it’s always the simple things that take you by surprise. Little everyday things that may leave you open-mouthed and exasperated even if you can see the funny side.

Recently we had a couple staying here for some weeks and so they were having more than the usual experience of ”How Things are Done in Spain”. She wanted to send letters back home to North America and needed stamps. So off she went to the Post Office. She asked for the appropriate stamps and was told they didn’t sell such stamps and she would have to go the Tobacconist! Amazed as she was, she obediently tootled off to the tobacconist and requested the same. With a sucking of the teeth and shrug of the shoulders they too told her that they didn’t have stamps for sending mail to North America – perhaps she should try the Bookshop/Stationers? She gave up! I must add at this point that this lady speaks fluent French, Spanish and has a smattering of Catalan so it was not a language problem! Anyway – a day or so later in another town she managed to acquire a couple of stamps and posted off her letters. A couple of weeks went by and she had a few postcards to send. She needed more stamps. This is her amusing email to me about her further attempts to buy stamps at our local Post Office:

“I must be a masochist, having decided to try my luck once again at the local Correos. Entering the building this morning, I was heartened to see that the surly clerk who had summarily dismissed my request for stamps that would carry postcards to Canada had been replaced by a new and friendlier face. Stepping up to the wicket, I hesitantly asked for three stamps for North America and was pleasantly surprised to see the clerk pull three stamps out of a large folder.

My joy was short-lived, as I watched her fumbling on the computer to process the sale. After five minutes of fruitless mouse-clicking, she called on her colleague for help. He, too, found it challenging, but after a further five minutes was able to proclaim success and inform me that the total cost would be 2.10 Euros. “Isn’t that strange,” I remarked. ”A few days ago, in another office, I bought stamps for the same destination and they cost 80 cents each,” brandishing one of the stamps for emphasis. “Ah,” she answered, “but these here are stamps for Europe only. We don’t have stamps for North America.”

She sent me over to a senior colleague who confirmed the sad truth. Grasping at straws, I then asked if two smaller-denomination stamps could be used to make up the correct amount. However, this solution had to be shelved when I saw the size of the stamps in question; they would have covered half the postcard, barely leaving room for “having a great time; wish you were here.”

Not wanting to admit defeat, I then trudged up to the Bookshop/Stationers for one final attempt. Predictably, they only had stamps for Spain and suggested I try the Correos. All of this suggests that a return trip to San Carles de la Rapita — the source of the elusive stamps — is in order. Who knows, I might even find some postcards there upon which to affix said stamps”

Now you know why they say “Spain is Different”!

Lisa Sadleir says:

January 11, 2012 at 6:11 pm

You have to laugh otherwise you’d cry! It is so true that you very rarely follow the same procedure twice in Spain … even for the simple things.
Some things will never change and for this we still love Spain !

Dena says:

January 11, 2012 at 6:17 pm

And it’s funny because one way or another we have all experienced something very similar!
And you are right – as frustrating as it sometimes is – I think we’d all be a little disappointed if we woke tomorrow and Spain ran like clockwork! Well it wouldn’t be Spain would it?!
Thanks for popping along to my blog Lisa!

Pamela Lewis says:

January 11, 2012 at 8:58 pm

This has made me laugh. My husband and I wrote our usual Xmas cards to be sent to England. I made sure they were smaller cards, not too heavy, that would only require the normal stamp to the UK. But going to our main post office here in Vinaros in December, they wouldn’t allow me to purchase said stamps. They wanted to weigh each and every card and then stamp them. After weighing one, they wanted DOUBLE what I would usually pay for a card to the UK from Spain. We said forget it, and took all the cards back with us for a very brief Xmas visit to family. I refuse to be ripped off like that!

January 11, 2012 at 9:09 pm

I don’t think our guest was bothered too much about the price she would have been happy just to have been given stamps! Hasn’t the postage in UK gone up quite a lot though? And is more complex concerning size and weight? I’ve lost touch it’s so long since I had to send mail from there.
Thanks for visiting – glad you enjoyed!

Brother Brian says:

January 13, 2012 at 4:14 pm

Really funny Dena, I suppose it could be frustrating for us foreigner’s , but then we are not as laid back as Spain, which is a pity.
The postage system has altered in the Uk, not just the pricing.
We now have Letters – Large Letters – and Packets, all to do with dimensions and weights. The only way to be sure of what you are sending these days, is by a visit to the post office.

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