Shopping on the Camino |

Last month I wrote a series of posts about the things you should and should not pack for your Camino de Santiago. In the last one, “Your packing advice“, I tried to summarise all the suggestions I got from experienced pilgrims. One of my favourites was:

With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to have one of our mini lessons on shopping on the Camino: shops you might need, what to buy in them and how to ask some basic questions… 

Shops and stuff

• Farmacia (pharmacy) – in a previous post entitled El botiquín I covered the most relevant information about farmacias, as well as the difference between farmacia and parafarmacia and the meaning of farmacia de guardia (you can also listen to the pronunciation of these words there). To sum it up, farmacia is where you can get medicines, with or without prescription, as well as a long list of other items for your personal care.

In a parafarmacia you can find the same stuff as in a farmacia, except for medicines: they sell tiritas and Compeed, creams (sun protection and others), personal hygiene products: from jabón (soap), to shampoo and pasta de dientes (toothpaste)… (check El botiquín for the pronunciation of these words).

Tip: personal care products tend to be cheaper in supermarkets.

• Frutería (greengrocer’s) – you can buy lots of fruta (fruit) and vegetables here. Loose fruit and veg is sold by weight, so the price you see, unless something else is specified, is the price for a kilo. Let’s say you just want an apple or two; no problem! You pick what you want, they will weigh it for you and you pay for what you take.

• Panadería (bakery) – you can buy pan (bread) here, obviously. But you can also get empanada (savoury pie) and empanadilla (small version of empanada). Many panaderías are also pastelerías (cake shop), so you can also get all sorts of sweet pies, cakes and pastries.

• Supermercado (supermarket) – In the bigger supermarkets you can buy all of the above (except for medicines), as well as other things. If you are in a small town with a small supermercado, your options will be more limited but you are still likely to find a bit of everything.

Do you just need a snack? A panadería or frutería  might be all you need. But if you are planning to cook your meals at the albergue or need non-food items, you might want to visit the supermercado.

You should be aware of shops’ opening times. If you are starting your walking day very early in the morning, as most people do, you will find that pretty much everything is closed. So, if you need something for the early morning, your safest bet is to buy it the previous evening.

Also, almost everything is closed on Sundays (not bakeries and cafés) and festivos (public holidays). And during “lunch time”, which is roughly between 13:30-16:30, although it can vary depending on the shop. Again, try to plan your shopping ahead.

And finally, some useful phrases you can use when shopping

• If you can’t find what you need and want to ask if they have it, you can simply say ¿Tienen…? (do you have?) and add the name of the item you are looking for. For instance, you go into a supermercado looking for tiritas, but you can’t find them. You can ask a member of staff ¿Tienen tiritas?

• If you need to ask for something, quería (I’d like) followed by the name of the item you want is what you say. Let’s say you go into a farmacia looking for ibuprofeno. What do you say? Quería ibuprofeno. Easy, right?

• If you want to know the price of an item, you can ask ¿Cuánto cuesta esto? (how much is this?) while pointing at it. You can drop esto if you think it’s not necessary because it’s obvious enough what item you are asking about.

• ¿Cuánto es? (how much is it?) is similar to ¿Cuánto cuesta?, but they are used differently. As I just said, we use ¿cuánto cuesta? to ask about the price of a specific item. However, we use ¿cuánto es? when we finish our shopping, to find out how much the total is.

Are you ready to go shopping on the Camino de Santiago?

Today’s Spanish words

​ 

¡Buen Camino!

En el aeropuerto |

And finally… we take a trip to el aeropuerto (airport).

You are very likely to travel by avión (plane) either to get to Spain and start your Camino or to go back home after you have finished your pilgrimage.

So, what do you need to know about airports and air travel in Spanish? If you have been following my weekly posts, I’m sure you already know a few words, those we can also use when travelling by tren or autobús (in case you missed them, here are the links: En la estación de tren, En autobús).

In those two posts you can find words like billete -de ida, de vuelta or de ida y vuelta; asiento, pasillo and ventanilla, which are common to all three means of transport. There are some other common words, but there are also words that are specific to air travel.

En el aeropuerto

• When you land on a Spanish aeropuerto, you will be in the llegadas (arrivals) area. You should easily find your way out. The good thing about aeropuertos is that all the signage is in English too.

• If you are starting your journey from a Spanish aeropuerto, you should go to the salidas (departures) area first. You can find both words, salidas and llegadas, in train and bus stations also, on the screens listing all the departures and arrivals.

• Once in the salidas area, you might need to go to the facturación (check-in) counters, but only if you have luggage to check-in or if you need a tarjeta de embarque (boarding pass).

• You have your tarjeta de embarque and your luggage has been checked-in (or you have equipaje de mano (hand luggage) only). Then you can go through security and look for your puerta de embarque (boarding gate).

Are you ready to fly?

Today’s Spanish words

¡Buen Camino!

En el autobús |

Last week we travelled by tren. This week we’re going en autobús or bus. You can use both words: the full name is autobús, but we call it bus for short.

The good news is that a lot of the vocabulary is the same, but not all. So let’s have a look at the differences and similarities:

• The estación de tren becomes estación de autobuses. However, buses don’t stop at estaciones only. In fact, there are no estaciones in most villages and smaller towns. In those cases, buses stop at paradas (de autobús), also known as bus stops in English.

• You won’t need andén, vía and vagón when talking about buses. These words refer to trains specifically. If you are in a estación de autobuses and you are trying to find your bus, you need to look for the right dársena (dock).

• If you go to an estación, you can get your billete from the taquilla, just like when we visited the estación de tren. Your billete can be de ida (one way), de vuelta (return only) or de ida y vuelta (return). Same words apply to billetes de tren, by the way.

• If there is no estación, or the taquilla is closed, you can buy your billete directly from the conductor (false friend alert! conductor is the driver, not the English conductor).

• If you need to check the bus or tren schedule, you will ask for the horario.

• And once you get on the bus, the seats are also called asientos, just like the ones in trains. Asientos can be by the ventanilla (window) or the pasillo (aisle). Which one do you prefer?

Today’s Spanish words 

Remember that you can check the pronunciation of the rest of the words in the post about trains. 

¡Buen Camino!

En la estación de tren |

You’re probably wondering… what are we doing en la estación de tren? When we think about the Camino de Santiago we think walking, maybe cycling or even horse-riding. Trains, buses and planes do not come to mind. But we will need them…

Why are we discussing transport?

• First, you have to get in and out of Spain and that will most likely happen by plane.

• Once you are in Spain, you need to get to your starting point, the town where you will start your pilgrimage. And you have to get out of Santiago, once your Camino is done.

• Even after you have started your Camino, you might sometimes skip a stage or two, for a number of reasons such as time constraints or health issues.

In the latter cases, you will probably use tren (train) or bus (or the occasional taxi, which is also conveniently called taxi in Spanish!).

En la estación de tren

Some of you suggested that I should cover this topic in my mini lessons, so that is the plan for the next couple of weeks. This week we’ll navigate our way around the estación de tren (you might find it also referred to as estación de ferrocarril, but estación de tren is more common).

• Whether you are travelling by tren, bus or plane, your ticket is called billete (by the way, we use the same word for banknotes, so you get two Spanish words for the price of one!).

• Where do you buy your billetes de tren (train tickets)? En la taquilla (in the ticket office). Well, you can also buy them online, but if you are already at the station and you don’t have your billetes yet, then you should look for the taquilla.

• On the information screens you will see in which vía (platform), your train can be found.

• Vía can be translated as platform, but it literally means track. La vía is for the tren, but people stand on the andén (platform). So, let’s say that your tren is leaving from vía 3: you wait for it on the andén (waiting on the vía would be illegal, not to mention too dangerous!). Does that make sense? Please, let me know if it’s not clear enough.

• Before you get on the tren, you need to look for some information on your billete: first of all, the number of your vagón (your billete will say coche, but we don’t call it like that when we are talking).

• And finally, you’ve made it to your vagón. Your billete will also tell you what number your asiento (seat) is. You can now get comfortable and enjoy!

• Oh! I almost forgot! The person who walks up and down the tren checking that we all have billetes is the revisor.

Are you over 60?

If you are travelling by train and you are over 60, you can get a Tarjeta Dorada (golden card). You can buy it (€6) at the taquilla and it will entitle you to discounts of up to 40% on the price of your billetes. You will need to show your passport in order to purchase it. Here’s the link to RENFE’s website with all the information about it (it’s in Spanish): http://www.renfe.com/viajeros/tarifas/tarjeta_dorada.html

Today’s Spanish words

 ¡Buen Camino!