1.
What Wikipedia says about Spain: first hominoids
1.2 million years ago; first humans 35 000 years ago; well- developed cultures
during Neolithic and Bronze ages; settled and/or invaded and/or conquered
and/or taken-over between the 9th century BC and 15th
century AD by Phoenicians then Greeks then Carthaginians then Romans then Germanic tribes
then Visigoths then Magyars then Islamic Berbers and Moors then Christians;
dominated the oceans, the European battlefield, became one of the largest world
empires ever, and had a period of flourishing arts in the 16th and 17th
centuries; but things ran downhill from there.
2.
What HS says about Spain: several years ago
there were endless cafés on the streets with chairs, tables, umbrellas, and old
men gathering and drinking their coffee there in the mornings, workers eating
long lunches, and young couples drinking wine and eating tapas in the evening
but now, with 50% youth unemployment, families cannot afford to go out for
coffee and the cafes cannot afford to stay open and the streets are barren with
nary a table to be seen.
3.
What I saw as I walked around: paint peeling
from apartment walls, businesses empty or up for rent or sale or bricked up,
national flags flying but in tatters, deserted buildings in various states of
disrepair, unfinished municipal projects, and empty streets and squares crying
out for their former vitality.
Today I decided to do my bit for the economy and went to get
my hair cut in Spanish. I could have gone to Gibraltar, where they speak very
good English, complete with genuine sounding British accents, but I chose
instead to go to La Linea, Spain. ‘Don’t you need an appointment?’ HS asked.
‘Doubt it,’ I replied, ‘the place we pass on the way to the grocery store is
always empty.’
I stopped on the way at my favourite bakery and ordered a
‘pain au chocolate’, well, to be honest I ordered ‘one of those’ which, in
fact, turned out in fact to have a totally delicious tuna salad filling inside
it instead of chocolate, which made it, to me, all the more enjoyable. I like
the randomness that lack of common language brings.
The hair salon was open, large, modern looking, had spotlessly
clean with gleaming white floors, black chairs and accessories, and teal neon
lighting. There were six employees there but no other customers. I asked how
much it would cost to get my hair cut and thought the answer was 17 Euros,
though feared it might have been 70, and decided to go for it, hope the answer
was 17, and enjoy the experience a lot just in case it turned out that I was
wrong and the answer was indeed 70. (I hadn’t pre-researched the approximate
cost for a haircut.) The place looked very spiffy, which had me a bit worried.
The girl who washed and cut my hair was very cheerful, and, as expected, spoke
excellent Spanish - and could even do a wee bit of miming as is ‘do you want it
trimmed around the ears?’. She asked a lot of questions to which I nodded and
smiled in response. At one point we had a conversation in which I thought she
said, ‘All done, how is it?’ to which I replied, ‘Perfect, thank you!’ but I
must have missed something in the exchange because it led to more snipping. The
bill, when it came, was 7 Euros. I also hadn’t pre-researched expected tipping
behaviour, but I paid with a 10 Euro bill, didn’t accept any change, and think
we were both very happy with the transaction.
Tomorrow I will be in Morocco, which might, just possibly,
make this all seem very tame.
