The Postcard Goosechase

The first thing I wanted to do when I finally arrived in Spain was buy some nice postcards to send to family back home. Touristy, but normal. What I didn´t expect was how hard it has been to find postcards.

The first place I tried was a little bookstore, which sells notebooks (the primary reason I was there), published books, magazines and a few other bits and pieces. I wasn´t terribly surprised that they didn´t stock postcards, but it was worth asking.

The second place I tried was the post office. This seemed pretty logical to me, as I´m pretty sure every post office in Australia, no matter how small, has a handful of postcards at least. But no, not the post office here! Glancing through the doorway I nearly thought it was a bank! Very small area for customers, with a bench to use to address mail, and a counter across which to buy stamps or collect mail, I assume.

Then I tried another shop, which sells paper and books and a few other bits and pieces. No. But I did buy a Spanish dictionary, one designed for the use of Spanish primary school children, giving brief but pretty clear Spanish definitions for Spanish words. The man in the shop suggested I try the bookstore up the road, but I had already been there, and told him so. Apparently the woman there used to have postcards, or at least that was what he thought.

Next I tried the tobacco shop, on the recommendation of a few people. In fact, I tried two of them. The first one didn´t look like it had much of anything, let alone postcards, but I had been told the other one would have them. So up I went, waited for the woman to finish serving another customer, and then I asked if she had postcards. No. But she said I should try a shop across the road from the first tobacco shop I´d tried. She even wrote the name of the place down for me.

I went to Bilbao before I had a chance to go to this shop when it was open, and I thought a big city like Bilbao would definitely have a shop selling postcards. And it did! I saw a shop which clearly had postcards for sale near the cathedral, and asked the locals who were showing us around if I could go over and buy some. They advised against it, saying they knew better shops nearby, so off we went. They were all just closed when I had time to go shopping on Saturday afternoon. And then we didn´t have time to go back to the one which had been open!

At the end of our train journey, while waiting for the others to be ready to drive home, I walked over to the little shop which had a stand of books for sale out the front. After a minute or two of looking at the titles I looked up at the top of the stand. Postcards! They had postcards! I was so surprised, and totally thrilled. By now the others were pretty much ready to go, so I grabbed one of every type of postcard I noticed, plus two of the one with a map of the region on the front, rushed in and bought them. Mission accomplished!

I thought this was the beginning of a change, as while I was in Ponferrada I found another shop selling postcards, so I grabbed two more. And then I finally had a chance to get to that shop I had been told about in Villablino last Tuesday. And guess what? 

They don't sell postcards.

They suggested I try the shop across the road, at which point I felt like laughing at the ridiculousness of it all because that was the first tobacco shop I tried the other week! It seems like I'll just have to settle for not finding any postcards of Villablino to send home. Seeing as I've been told the ones other people have bought here weren't the nicest postcards, maybe that's a good thing.

In the end, when we didn't have evening classes I tried again. And guess what? The shop did have them, probably had them the whole time! I missed the window display last time, which indicated which postcards they had. And then later, when I went to a different bookstore, they also had the same range of postcards of Villablino! So finally I have some local postcards.

Now, to get to the post office when it's open...