I left my heart in Tossa de Mar!
Trip Start
Jul 23, 2010
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Trip End
Jul 30, 2010
Tossa de Mar, Catalonia, Spain
Monday, July 26, 2010
Now listen up, American drivers: the left lane is for fast cars and for taking over. It's not for those who drive the speed limit and don't care about anyone else around them. In Spain, people seem to understand this simple principle very well, and traffic flows smoothly as a result. Most drivers drove in the middle lane: the fast lane is for passing other cars and the right lane is for merging cars. Even fast cars use the middle lane. Now why is that soooo difficult to achieve in the States?
Irini is not a driver and is definitely not that good of a navigator. She was a trooper, though, and even when the tights twists and turns were making her stomach churn, she tried to read the map and figure out which way to go. I'm sure we took the wrong way out of Barcelona, since there were at least two different highways to get to the northern coast, but the signs were so clear and plentiful that it was difficult to get totally lost (believe me, we tried hard). Roundabouts are littered around all regional roads. There is a roundabout every 2-3 miles or so. I've never seen so many roundabouts in my life! Perhaps they contributed to the sick feeling in our stomachs.
On the way to Tossa, we passed through a place called Lloret de Mar. The first words reminds me awfully of "crying" in Spanish (llorar). I thought that was so appropriate: this tourist trap, with its high rise package-deal hotels, hoards of obnoxious tourists, flashy discos and noisy bars, is enough to make any Spaniard want to cry. It's like the Cancun of Spain. Apparently Lloret is a derivation of "laurels", which is rather ironic. Many of the large hotels were built during the tourist boom of the 1950s, and locals bitterly regret that development and are now trying to reverse history by knocking some of the ugly buildings down. Despite that, we saw more construction under way. Believe me, we could not get out of there fast enough.
Alright, enough about driving - let's talk about Tossa de Mar. Thank you, Nadia, for the wonderful suggestion - we are eternally grateful to you! Tossa is truly a Mediterranean gem. We fell in love with the town the moment we got there. The old lady that held the hostel and her charming husband were so welcoming, it was like staying with grandma and grandpa. And in case you have no idea where to stay - the tourist information center provides leaflets with lists of hotels, including average prices and services offered. They have similar leaflets with Tossa's restaurants (which we didn't use since we decided to experiment) and a whole host of regional maps in case you decide to wander about. Everyone in town is so friendly - for example, when we were looking for the 7euro/night parking and could not find it and ended up at the 15 euro/night parking, the attendant kindly pointed us in the right direction. This might seem like a small gesture unless you are from Bulgaria and are used to everyone trying to skin you alive.
We decided to park ourselves in Tossa and explore the area from there. We spent the first day in town, walking around Vila Vella, the fortress, the Moor Tower (which offers excellent views but is otherwise closed to visitors), the narrow streets full of cute stores of every kind, the overcrowded beach, and so on. Tossa is definitely a family-friendly vacation spot, especially Monday through Friday when streets grow quiet around midnight. We had a tough time finding a packed bar or night club, even though we searched on two consecutive evenings. After Barcelona's madness (recall that we stayed in the noisy immigrant quarter), this was a welcome development. I feel old for saying it, but it's true! One evening we decided to go "clubbing" and were told to hit the Tahiti Bar, but were disappointed to find that the live band was playing covers of 60's and 70's rock tunes, and that the crowd was 40s and over.
Among Tossa's numerous restaurants I can recommend two: Can Carlus and L'ajustada. The former offers huge entree portions (get a 1/2 portion, its enough for two people), wonderful salads and cute waiters with classy service. The latter offers amazing sea food and great sangria, oh and cute waiters with classy service. Ha-ha-ha. You can see where our attention was the whole time. Desserts were a flop at both places, you'd be better served buying ice cream from street vendors.
Of note to Bulgarians is that I did not see a single graffiti in all of Tossa. Each building was renovated with much style, the streets were cleaned every day, there was no trash lying around. Locals apparently respect and treasure their rich cultural heritage and try to preserve it for the next generations. One of our waiters (he was actually the host, not really a waiter at all), who is a local, told us that he works in tourism during the summer and as a painter during the winter. He spoke at least 4 languages fluently, and carried himself with so much class that I wanted to pack him into my suitcase and take him home with me, never mind that he was at least 10 years older than me.
Irini wanted to put in some beach time each morning, whereas I used the mornings for scuba diving. I was hoping for a boat dive as I understand there is more to see that way, but there weren't enough takers (minimum 4 people for a boat ride - no problem on weekends but a question of luck during the week). So I did two shore dives instead. I chose Andrea's Diving as the instructors were friendly, the shop looked decent and the price was the best in town (20 euro for a shore dive if you have all the equipment). Our guide was Tato Fuentes, he was great and I totally recommend him. But the fauna and flora were a bit disappointing - beyond the multiple octopi, I don't think I saw much that was new to me (and that is saying a lot, considering I only have 10 dives under my belt). At least the water was warm and it was good practice. Except I got a horrible toothache immediately afterwards, and am now dealing with the aftermath of it (3 visits to the dentist, and another 4-5 to go).
On Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, after beach/diving, we explored the surrounding areas. On Wednesday, we went to Girona - a one hour drive away; and on Thursday we managed to pack in three towns despite the rain - Pals, Peratallada and Begur. We left in the early afternoon and returned around midnight, totally tired and extremely happy with ourselves and ready to hit the bed. You guessed it - two single girls spent 7 days in Spain and managed to NOT party for even a single evening. I either need botox or I need to re-examine my priorities in life!
