Having been in spain now for 4 months I am now seeing and understanding more about the way of life here than I had when I was ‘just visiting’. The talk of the spanish way of life being relaxed and everything being ‘manana, manana’ is true to an extent, but for such a relaxed nation there are a few things that we find the spanish are very impatient about.
1. Driving (excluding the very old folk) - I dont drive fast, but I’m not that slow either generally doing the speed limits on roads rather than above or below. Drivers are really up the back end of me desperate to take over, then only to turn in 400m at the next junction where I also follow and then they get on their mobiles and slow to a snails pace.
2. Waiting at the bar to be served - non existent. They just do not know what waiting to be served is all about (queue the british stereotype!). Once served its then a grind to a great big halt and take your time with your carajillo.
3. (This one annoys me at the moment!) Checking out your shopping goods a the till - The cashiers seem to want to get your goods through and past the scanner as if its just about closing time. No matter that there is the customer in front of you who is still packing their bags or that you’ve literally still got 3/4 of the trolley still to unload. The cashier is determined to total up the bill before you’ve had a chance to pack the first item.
4. When it comes to requesting someone come round and assess or quote for some work to be done to the house they dont seem to come round unless you ask for a second or third time (usually a month has passed by this time). Arghh! Ah well, I knew it was like this before I moved out here. Even my spanish wife finds this annoying.
On another note, the shops round here don’t display any opening hours for fear of actually having to oblige to those hours. Or when they nip out for whatever, they put up a note saying ‘Back in 2hrs’. Exactly since when did they close so that I know when to come back???!!! This just sucks of not thinking for their customers. There is such a lack of customer driven service culture round here it is insane. One of the good things about northern europe is their service culture is far greater than spain imo.
What do you think? Am I just not seeing a far bigger and better picture of spain? Or is this how it really is in general? I assume in Madrid and Barcelona it is very different?
