Post offices (
Correos
) are generally found near the centre of towns and are normally open from 8am to noon and again from 5 to 7.30pm, though big branches in large cities may have considerably longer hours and usually do not close at midday. Except in the cities there's only one post office in each town, and queues can be long: stamps are also sold at tobacconists (look for the brown and yellow
Tabac
sign).
You can have letters sent
poste restante
(
Lista de Correos
) to any Spanish post office: they should be addressed (preferably with the surname underlined and in capitals) to
Lista de Correos
followed by the name of the town and province. To collect, take along your passport and, if you're expecting mail, ask the clerk to check under all of your names - letters are often to be found filed under first or middle names.
Outbound mail
is reasonably reliable, with letters or cards taking around five days to a week to the UK and Europe, a week to ten days to North America, New Zealand and Australia.
Phones
Spanish public
phones
work well and have instructions in English. If you can't find one, many bars also have pay phones you can use. Cabins and other phones have been adapted to take the new euro currency but you're best off buying a phone...
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Email
One of the best ways to keep in touch while travelling is to sign up for a free internet
email
address that can be accessed from anywhere, for example YahooMail or Hotmail - accessible through
www.yahoo.com
and
...
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The internet
The
internet
has made great inroads into Spanish life and access is widely available at internet cafés (more commonly referred to as
cibercafés
in Spanish), some computer shops and many
locutorios
. Prices vary; in...
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Media
Of the
Spanish newspapers
the best are the centre-left
El País
and the centre-right
El Mundo
, both of which have good arts and foreign news coverage, including comprehensive regional "what's on" listings and...
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