Spanish Hours

Yesterday I took a trip with my wife out to Sitges. It is a city on the Mediterranean that seems to have been around for a long time. It has lots of narrow cobblestone streets surrounded by stone buildings with people selling cloths, jewelery, food, art, and furniture. My wife wanted to buy some jeans that were being sold in an outside stall. When she asked if she could try them on, the vendor said go ahead. The vendor expected my wife to try them on right out in the public area. Aparently this is pretty common. There are some things about Spain that you just have to love.

Sitges also seems to have a thriving resort industry. There are several smaller hotels that are across from a very nice beach and some rocky cliffs. We arrived about noon and after walking around for a bit we ended up in an art gallery. We thought about buying a painting, but decided to hold off. While we were leaving we asked the curator what time he would be open until in case we wanted to stop back. He was closing at 2, and then he would reopen sometime around 4 (depending on how lunch went) and then stay open to 4:30, 5:00, maybe even 6:00 depending on how he was feeling. I think these were about the hours for all the retail stores. After eating lunch at 1:00 (a sea side cafe with a patio with a great view, mediocre food), almost nothing was opened. The streets that had been packed with people, had relatively few people left. Most of the people around seemed to be closing up. The restaurants were full with people having leisurely lunches. Two to Four is the standard lunch “hour”. This is not limited to Sitges, but is also the same in Sant Cugat.

Earlier in the day I had stopped by the bank to pick up my ATM card. It had taken 3 weeks to get the card and required going back to the bank 4 times. They had made a mistake on the first pass at opening the account (they originally opened the account with me listed as having a NIH number) which added about a week to the process. The person I worked with at the bank was very nice, but said that she was tired because she was accustomed to the branch closing at 2:00. In the fall the branch extends its hours to include from 5 until 8:30. 8:30 is about when people start having dinner and it is when most of the restaurants open in the evening.

The delays at the bank weren't so bad because the main reason I wanted the account was to be able to pay for the kid's school (you have to pay by transfering money). On the kid's first day of school I went in to let them know that I had not received a bill. The women working in the office (who is extremely nice) said that the beginning of the school year is a very busy time, so she hadn't had a chance to put our bill together yet. She asked me if I was planning to pay the bill when it came. I said yes. She said, “then don't worry about it. I'll get to it soon.” It has been about three weeks and I still haven't gotten the bill.