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mount_oregano) wrote2013-08-15 04:40 pm
Why I couldn’t buy postage stamps
I’m looking for work as a translator, so I’m sending out resumes, and yesterday morning I needed postage stamps. Here in Spain, you can buy stamps at estancos, government-licensed stores that sell tobacco and (for historical reasons) stamps.
There’s an estanco around the corner from my house, so I headed there. According to a sign on the door, it was closed until Sunday for vacation. That was no big surprise. August is vacation month in Spain (and Europe), and a lot of businesses are closed.
I also wanted to buy a newspaper, but the newspaper stand across the street from the estanco has been closed all month. The next-nearest newspaper stand is closed until August 19, so I had already planned to go to the one a few blocks farther away.
I knew of another estanco on Cavanilles Street, which was a few blocks out of my way to the newspaper stand, but I thought I’d try. It was closed.
Then I checked the estanco next to the newspaper stand where I was headed, which I was pretty sure was closed for August vacation and which was why I didn’t go there first, and I was right, it was closed.
I asked the señora at the newspaper stand where I could find an open estanco. She directed me to the one on Barcelona Avenue next to the basilica. That was only a few more blocks out of my way on the trip home, so I went there. It was open, but it was out of stamps. The señora there suggested going to the post office.
Of course, I can’t do that today because it’s a public holiday, the Assumption of the Virgin, and the post office is closed.
Have a happy August. It’s very quiet here because no one is doing anything.
— Sue Burke
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By the way, it's 97 degrees today. Next week we should break 100. Don't come!
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