Jennica & Matthew Geddert's Ramblings

Aug 18 Iberian Pain-insula by Matthew

Still in sticker-shock from five luxurious days in Paris, our fiscal mood had swung firmly into miser territory when we pulled into Spain.

Without the strong cultural connections of France and Great Britain (when have you last seen a movie set in Spain?), we felt little call to one place or another. So we just didn’t really stop. We drove long hours and ate cold food to the point that we didn’t care about finding hotels, campsites, or tickets to a bullfight, which we both had wanted to see.

My impression of the Iberian Peninsula is probably best described by example. Efficiency and clarity are virtues I unknowingly expect everyone else to strive towards as much as I do. It is difficult for me to adjust to entire cultures that have entirely different, admittedly legitimate, prioritizations.

Two cases in point:

1. We showed up at a restaurant at 7:10 pm. We asked for a table. The waiter politely told us, “We open at seven.”

To which we replied, “Yes. Can we please have a table?”

He looked at his watch and seemed a little perplexed. He responded, “Oh, I mean we open in fifteen minutes.”

Twenty-five minutes later we were seated and ordering our food.

2. We had to wait in line for four hours to buy tickets, to Spain’s most visited tourist site, Alhambra. At that time we discovered that we were graciously allowed to enter the complex five hours later. Nine hours of waiting sure gives you time to think of ways in which the 2 million annual vistors could more productively spend their combined 18 million person hours. I concluded that our time would be much better spent building an exact replica a few kilometers down the road that does not have such ridiculous queues.

I know, I know, “Keep an open mind,” "You don’t even wear a watch," “Who cares? You are on vacation,” blah, blah, blah…