Glancing backwards at the rapidly forming queue behind us, I whispered fiercely to David, ‘hurry up! There are people wanting to use this cashpoint!’ and with another glance behind me, I added ‘and they look mean!’
As a result, David groaned as a message flashed up saying the operation had to be cancelled and thus started the process again. A process that takes 10 mins at a time. Fake smiling over my shoulder, I raised my eyebrows in mock amusements as I glanced to David with my eyes to tell them I was dealing with a retard. That’s not true. I mean, David can be one sometimes but not today. The cash machine was being trebly annoying.
We were standing at one of the many ‘La Caixa’ Cashpoints that not only deals with indirect financial transactions but also provides a service to book and collect tickets for events, transport and entry. We have used this quite a few times. And we found it’s not easy. And we wanted Tapas stat.
First of all, make sure you have the correct card to use. All too often, we would go through the laborious process only then to be told at the point of payment that the card we were using is not valid and our booking thus cancelled. This happened all too often and we would fly into a rage. None of us had the correct one when we tried to buy a ticket to go to Toledo for the next day before we went to the Eurovision Party. You can see how David and Auston of Two Bad Tourists looked then…not happy instead of the same stupid grinning faces you see on a regular basis.
Not cool…
The second thing is that you depend on the touchscreen actually working. Sometimes in order for a button to be selected, you don’t touch above it, you may have to touch halfway across the screen in order to do so! Because if you try to be correct about it, you may end up selecting a different button and to cancel, means going back to the beginning. Sigh. And this is what happened to David this time again as he started frothing at the mouth as for the 6th time he was directed back to the beginning.
So what we were doing? We actually found ourselves at the end of our Andalusian Travels trying to buy tickets to go and see the Alhambra and we knew that the amount of tickets available was dwindling thanks to a mocking display by the cashpoint as well. Sometimes we did get to the end but only for David to forget his PIN number momentarily after celebrating getting pass a stage, or we were far too slow to decide on anything. But to the end we did, and after a brief spell of going pale thinking the ‘La Caixa’ cashpoint ate our card, the tickets was finally printed. Hooray! It was that traumatising that the queue behind us looked on with amusements as David and I high-fived and huggily wept with joy as we finally had paper copies in our hands.
So if it’s so much bother, why use the cashpoint? For me, it seems like it was the only way to. I didn’t really see anything during my time in Spain of a ticket seller within the tourist information and bus stations for local trips. But most Spaniards we met, upon questioning where we could get a cheap and affordable ticket, would refer to the ‘La Caixa’ Cashpoints, that you can find on literally most street corners alongside with a very questionable looking prostitute.
Despite its faults, the cashpoints really do their job but remember, just have a dollop of patience and the right card to use.
Have you used La Caixa Cashpoints? What did you think?
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