Astany bisto

...Tourists in general allow the Spanish to earn a living, some ex-pats too. In most resorts or popular tourist towns there are a plethora of 'English' 'Scottish' and 'Irish' bars. As you walk down the street of Benidorm old and new town you can see the Union flag, George cross flag, St Andrews flag, Irish harps and welsh leeks, all meant to welcome the disoriented traveller and lure him/her into the bar or shop to buy the type of goods they can buy in Great Britain and Ireland. Hence bar names like 'Molly Malones' 'Shinanigans' 'Queen Vic' 'Red Dragon' etc.

Alternatively there are the Spanish bars, shops and restaurants, which for many of us ex-pats, are adequate, even excellent sources for our weekly and monthly shopping and entertainment outings.

I have mentioned in previous blogs that my wife Ange works in a small English supermarket (the prefix 'super' over exaggerates the size of the premises) and obviously gets many UK customers.

Their reaction to things does speak volumes about some of them. One day a Scottish couple came into the shop and began to browse, the lady picked up a small bar of Cadbury milk chocolate, and said "One euro for this? that's a pound, they are 35 pence in England" then she picked up a big block of Cadbury chocolate and added "This is four euros fifty in England that would cost a pound" My wife was keeping her own council, then the lady approached the counter and said "We have just had a meal down there (pointing in the general direction of the bay) we had a couple of beers and we each had gammon and do you know that was sixteen euros (£12.60p)" That was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak and Ange said, "Well the chocolate has to be imported from the UK hence the price, as for the price of meals it doesn't seem expensive compared to the UK considering the meal was freshly cooked, served to you by a waiter and you also had 4 beers between you and the total cost comes to about 16 euros" At which point they looked astonished and left the shop.

Then a second couple came in, this time English, The man launch into a verbal offensive as he entered "Do you ever recommend that restaurant down there" (he did name it but for the sake of keeping friends with them I will not say the name) my wife said she didn't recommend anywhere. "Well its a good job" he said. "We ordered best braising steak" said his wife. "No way was that best braising steak it was stewing steak" she bemoaned. "He (pointing at her husband) only eats peas, so I told them, he only eats peas" Curiously my wife asked "so what veg did you get" "We didn't we only got the steak and chips" she said. "Did you ask for veg" added Ange. "No we didn't, but then again we always say the best place to eat in benidorm is Ray's chippy".

My wife said "...well you can get a very reasonable meal of the day in the Spanish restaurants"
The lady said "Oh no we don't eat that muck" Ange added "Have you tried any of the English restaurants around the bay?" pointing in that direction. "The bloke said you mean at the roundabout?" Ange said "No round the corner on the sea front" "Oh no we have never been round there" and off they went. Ange didn't like to tell them that Ray's Chippy was owned and run by a Spaniard......