The Cigarette Lady

Still hanging around the Plaza Mayor Carolyn and I decided to grab some postcards to send home. We entered one of the many shops and bought a couple of postcards of downtown Madrid. I asked the gentleman what the things were called that were required to send them and he told me "sellos." Armed with this new vocabulary word I sought out a tabbacheria (small tobacco shops I frequented in Italy that sold stamps) in hopes that they sold stamps like the ones in Italy. Carolyn and I entered and met the cutest little lady. She had to have been about 80 years old and as soon as I asked her about the economy here in Spain she began using mouthfuls of words I'd never heard before. In cases like these I simply smile, listen intently and nod my head. She sold us our stamps and then chatted despite clients coming in every four minutes to buy Lucky Strike and Marlboro Red.