I seriously think this stuff only happens to me.
Trip Start
Sep 08, 2009
1
66
72
Trip End
Dec 02, 2009
El Cabo de Gata, Andalusia, Spain
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Yesterday I had dinner at a Chinese place. Yes, I'm still in Spain. And it was pretty decent. Their tomato soup was rather unique -- egg drop soup with chopped tomatoes. Better than it sounds. Then this morning I had a feast of cheeses at the breakfast buffet. Had I known how the rest of the day would shape up, I would have had double.
I headed off to town. The morning had been a little cloudy but it seemed like the sun might break through so I opted for my swimsuit as undergarments. The town is teeeeensy. And most of the shops are closed for the season (aka 'personal rest'). So I quickly found myself on the beach, and much to my contentment the sun was shining. The water was cool but not cold and completely clear. And they were sand beaches -- not rocks like in Italy. I found a big rock that hung out a bit over the water and sunned there for awhile with my normal clothes still on. Not knowing if the sea experiences tides and freaking myself out that I'd get stuck on the rock I headed back to the sand. It was so nice and warm I decided to go full on and don the bathing suit. A great idea that would have been made better if I had thought to bring a towel. Argh!
So I'm laying on the sand, applying sunscreen over sand and just making a royal mess of myself. And. Prepare yourself. I officially went European sunbathing!!! There were two older women by me and nobody else. They were topless so I took a deep breath and joined their fashion statement. I have to say, it was quite freeing. But I still don't think I'm ready for the nudist beach down the coast.
Anyway!
So fine, I traipse home with my sand-covered body and come into my fancy schmancy hotel. I'm sure they think I'm a charity case. Oh, which reminds me of a quick tangent. This morning at breakfast I wore my yoga pants and a tank top with my flip flops. I was stared down like nobody's business. All the other fancy folks had Polo sweaters and YSL wraps. Wh-at-evs!
Okay, so that was my beach experience. Determined to find food, since I had found only a plate of roasted vegetables at the hotel tapas restaurant (though yummy, I was having carb withdrawal) I headed back into town. There were two restaurants I had spotted earlier that looked good. But guess what, they're both closed for personal rest. Hmpf. I found another place that looked decent-ish. I ordered the pasta with gorgonzola sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. It was like they took a hunk of blue cheese, melted it down and poured it over pasta. It was so rich and biting. Ugh. I covered it with salt, pepper, olive oil -- even vinegar, because it was on the table and I thought it might help. Let's just say, nothing made it taste worse than how it started. 13 euro later I was still starving. (I could only force down 1/4 of the pasta.) I stopped in a market but couldn't find anything microwaveable. And being in a hotel rather than a hostel my cooking devices open to me are limited. I finally stumbled upon a pizza place. Thank goodness, you can't screw up pizza, right?
I order a 'birra' which I later recognized was idiotic since that's Italian for beer, whereas 'cerveza' is Spanish for beer. Anyway, a beer I got. I also order just a plain cheese pizza. I just needed food I didn't need anything decadent. I literally laughed out loud at the waiter when he dropped off my pizza. It was the size of an elephant's butt! I took a photo with my beer mug for scale, but it's on my iPhone. It was absurd, especially considering this was my second restaurant dinner in about 45 minutes. The pizza was good enough. Nothing great. And I boxed up the rest for my mini-bar fridge. As I was paying I asked the little old gal behind the bar if they sold beer or wine for take-away. She said yes to the vino. She told me it was diez -- 10. WHAT?!?!?!? I told her thanks but that it was okay. She said, "ocho! ocho!" I smiled and tried to explain in Spanish that my hotel sold bottles for 6 euro so not to worry I would just buy it there. She started shouting and throwing her fingers in my face, "cinco! cinco!" "tres? tres?" I started giggling and said, "Gratis! Gratis." Anyway, I ended up getting the wine for 5 euro. But I swear I had no intention of bargaining her down. It was the strangest experience, but I loved it. Sort of like how I loved when I returned to my hotel room to realize the fridge is a mini-mini-MINI fridge and about 4 inches deep. My pizza is now doing a face plant in the fridge and I'm drinking my haggled wine out of a plastic cup.
You just never know what to expect from the day.
Comments
You certainly keep yourself entertained....and us. Enjoyed hearing all the fun of your day.