Spain 🇪🇸
...In two parts.
Part 1: Lloret de Mar | Part 2: Barcelona
The highlight of the trip? Sagrada Familia, or maybe Casa Batlló.
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Tots els passaports
We took an Uber to the airport and man was he speedy—the kind of driver I hate to see on the road but it was much appreciated being inside his car.
We didn't sleep much the night before, so the layover was mostly spent snoozing, as were the flights.
A preflight burger (Mill St. Brewery Pub).
When we arrived at BCN, we saw some interesting signage. Three languages were displayed. One we recognized as Spanish (in bold), one English (not bolded) and the third, in bold at the top, was unfamiliar to us. It wasn't French. Was it Spanish? "Tots els passaports" read one of the signs in that unidentified language.
Eventually we passed security. I was constipated, waiting on some seats in the airport for our next transportation and the people behind me kept saying "farragus, farragus!" That was annoying.
I looked it up later and found an ancient Spanish paladin by the name of Ferragús, but in hindsight they may have been speaking Catalan, or any of the many other languages I don't know. In Catalan, fer-ne ús means "make use of it," according to Google translate. Maybe that was it? Probably not.
We had a long bus ride to our hotel, so I buckled up for a couple more hours of sleep. We were the last two to board the bus, and I was sat next to a rather large fellow, so I had to sleep with my legs dangling in the lowered aisle.
When we stopped two hours later, the driver called out something that sounded like Roger de Flor... We looked around outside and called back "huh?" Was this our stop? We showed the driver our ticket to confirm. "Yes, yes."
He happily ushered us out and rummaged through the bus's underside for our bags and tossed them aside. We asked which way. He pointed us in the general direction of Roger de Flor hotel. The bus left soon after. We were tired and hot and burdened with heavy luggage. We started walking, checking Google Maps every 30 seconds to see whether we were getting closer. Eventually, after a few turns and a long, steep slope up the private driveway, we made it.
We checked in and entered our marvelous room with a view of a Spanish hillside and the Balearic Sea.
Before dinner, we visited the supermarket to collect water and other necessities.
I couldn't resist a warm baguette on sale, even though I knew I wouldn't get to it before it became cold.
We dined at the dinner buffet full of lovely fish dishes and what seemed like authentic Spanish food. Plus pizza and French fries. Vova asked how I was enjoying the food.
"Did you document it in your world traveler's blog?"
I started typing furiously into Colornote on my phone, lest I forget the lovely fish.
While Yevgeniya was getting food, I poured wine from an ice bucket into Vova's glass. Vova explained that you're supposed to wrap the bottle with the supplied towel to catch drips of water. "Live and learn," I said.
To be honest, I'd seen those wine bottles in ice pools and been served like that, but I never paid attention to that detail.
Later, Yevgeniya was pouring the final glass from the bottle. Lo and behold, neither did she use the towel. So I repeated Vova's explanation.
She replied, "live and learn."
Random sights and sightings from the environs.
Hamburguesa
I woke up feeling rested but groggy.
We had breakfast and dropped Teo off at the pool, which was mostly empty.
The breakfast Nutella dispenser.
This photo was not in fact taken at the time Teo was dropped off at the pool, but it is, in fact, the pool.
After a trip to the beach, I was feeling more awake. It was overcast, so it was cool but nice.
Later on, we got out and went for a walk. We passed by a little pigeon park where an old lady went to feed. No, she was not a pigeon-eater, but she had some seeds to distribute.
A few pictures from the walk.
We did some shopping but found that "open on Sundays" does not necessarily mean open during good hours—the supermarket was closed already at 4 PM.
We went for a dip in the hotel pool before dinner, and it seemed everyone had the same idea: it was busy and noisy.
We had a similar dinner to the night before. This time there were hamburgers. I knew better than to eat those. Alas, others did not. But that meant at least I got to try a bite from somebody's nibbled burger to confirm my suspicion. The onions were cooked enough to no longer be considered raw, but that was it. I've never tasted anything like it.
After dinner I felt sleepy. We hung out on the patio for a late-night chat. As soon as our beer arrived, the music got three times louder. What the heck was going on? Music and mosquitoes cut our night short. Later we found out that that was a "Fiesta y Baile," or Dance Party. That was the daily event at the hotel. And so, the bright side was: at least our dreams of late-night patio usage were not fully crushed. It is a nice patio after all.
Food is good
I wasn't so well rested today. I sleepily dragged myself to breakfast where our party had secured a windowside table. After staring out with contemplation, I began.
I had a hot croissant with salami and Swiss cheese, a fried egg, two slices of bacon, three pieces of fried chicken breast, zucchini and tomatoes, a piece of mackerel, pate on toast, jam on toast, a chocolate croissant with chocolate sauce, another pastry, watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon slushie, mint water and grapefruit water. And coffee. I may have missed a few items, but that's what I remember.
Curious about the day's event, we checked the sign, and..."Fiesta y Baile!"
After breakfast: beach. We then relaxed in the hotel room for a bit... And then we went to eat!
We were cutting it close. Lunch buffet ends at 3 and it was 2:30. Lunch is 20 € pp with inclusion of beverage. So we downed a bottle of red and heaping portions of fish, meat, French potatoes, pasta and vegetables (what—we were hungry), plus dessert.
I got a haircut. We were looking for a specific barber shop because Old Town Barber was highest rated but all 40 of its reviews were from the last 5 days. The other one had fewer reviews but they dated back at least 8 months. We found Old Town Barber, but not the barber we were looking for. Also, Old Town Barber was in a different location than Google Maps said. So we settled for a random low-key barber nearby. I didn't know what I wanted, so I showed him a good-enough photo from Google images. He asked if a zero was good for the fade, and I said sure, not knowing what that would look like.
The dude did a really thorough job. He spent like half an hour with the trimmer getting the fade just right, which I didn't really care about, and spent a lot of time making it even with scissors. He fingered my ears out in the sink. Definitely in my top 10 haircuts. I was scared when I heard the price after: 70 euros. But I'd misheard and it was actually 17 euros—good deal! Due to a miscommunication, we ended up accidentally not tipping him. He definitely deserved a tip. He seemed happy regardless. He seemed like a guy who just loves to cut hair.
We perused some souveniry shops and grabbed a couple of goods.
Random fact: A lot of street numbers stuck out like this.
I remembered to take photos of dinner. I had Catalan pork knuckle and some blue cheese pizza that tasted really strongly. "Tastes like how socks smell." That said, it was enjoyable.
I started eating too soon.
The pizza tastes approximately how it looks.
A city stroll
In the morning, we went to the Parròquia of St. Romà and strolled through the city.
Today's lunch was interesting: some sort of fishy pizza was available. The pieces were too large and flaky to be anchovies. Could they have been sardines? It would've been really good had there not already been an abundance of fish plates at this and every meal so far. Still good though. [Future research uncovered that it was tuna.]
Later on, we played with our new ball at the beach. We'd acquired a vortex-looking mini beach football and I broke it in two with a good tail throw, but it mostly stayed stuck together after that with a manual re-attachment.
I was nervous when I went to the washroom and came out of the stall and there was just one tanned dude in streetwear at the urinal and the door was closed. I didn't remember the door being closed. I kept an eye on him in the hand dryer reflection. Thankfully he stayed at the urinal and didn't pull anything out of his pocket.
Dinner today felt very Americanized: fried taters with mayo dip in a metal basket, fried chicken with BBQ sauce in a metal basket and fried calamari with mayo (plus a multitude of other things). Now, I have rules about Hamburguesa, but this chicken looked too nice. No ragrets there. It was delicious.
We managed to get to the patio a little early and somewhat enjoy drinks. I'd ordered a "Mediterranean Fizz," whatever that is. But it did not taste according to the description. At the very least, I'd recalled—and been sold on—the mention of basil gin as an ingredient. There was not a touch of basil in my beverage. We decided to pack it in for the night just as the Baile y Fiesta was starting up.
Steps to the beach.
A lizard.
A radler.
Say Gironamo
After what felt like a rough sleep relative to previous nights, we prepared for a day trip. It took me a while to get up and out. Vladdy was a little irritated and asked if I was abducted by aliens.
The bus station was maybe a 15 minute walk. The toilet at the bus station had no lid and no toilet paper but at least there was soap and water.
Making my way downtown.
We took a bus to Girona, a city one hour away. Next, in Girona, we walked to the train station, which felt a lot like a GO train station. We were planning to hang out longer in Girona if time permitted, but time did not permit.
In Spain, they put these commemorative signs everywhere to let you know that this thing was solely responsible for making all the dinosaurs go away.
When we showed our train tickets, Vova and Yevgeniya got a "gracias" and I got a "merci." I guess I look like a French guy.
Figaro! Finally, we'd made it to Figueres, Dalí's birthplace.
We passed by an intriguing vegan gelateria on the way, but I suppose I'm past my law-abiding days, since we pressed on without pause.
We visited the museum and I was shocked to see so many originals; this was the real deal.
After the museum, at 4 PM, our lunch was served at ca la Xeli, where we sipped on Sangria.
Capping off our tiring day in Figueres, we trekked back to the bus station, taking some ganders along the way.
We went to church.
Girona train station.
Our return bus was supposed to arrive at 7:15. It was past 8 now.
I was upset. I wrote this haiku for all the people watching TikToks on speaker, people pacing back and forth having an idiotic phone call with a terrible voice and whatever else miscellaneous what-have-you bullshit:
I may be judgmental
But I'm not prejudiced
I hate all these people
It's not a real haiku.
Back at the hotel, to our utmost surprise, it was not Fiesta y Baile night—there were Flamenco dancers this time.
Beach and Breakfast
We broke fast, we beached, we beered. That is all.
Viva México
In the early morning, we let Vladdy and Anna go to Girona for their day trip while we slept in and lazed at our leisurely pace. We were on vacation.
At breakfast, I had a double café and a double beignet with nutella—quite superior. Until now, I'd tried the mini old fashioned plain and the chocolate dip, both of which were cakey and dry. This powdered donut was airy and soft.
The beach was wavy today. Afterwards, we enjoyed some grocery grub on the balcony.
Quite superior.
We went shopping and returned to the hotel for a Mexican dinner. We encountered "Chicken Mex" on the menu, which was a rebranded Fried BBQ Chicken from three days ago. I hope it's not the same chicken from three days ago.
This evening, there was a wedding at the hotel.
We did stop for this Gelateria. But I was conned—Gelateria just means ice cream shop.
The only Zoom call I was taking on the trip.
L'importance d'croissants
The main note for today was: No hot croissants.
At breakfast, there's always a hot tray of croissants, but not today.
Today's balcony snack.
Craxy Taxi
After checking out, we had a few hours to kill before our taxi to Barcelona. I decided to pop my pimple I'd been harboring silently. Growing silently. Hardening.
Concerning.
I'll just take a moment to talk about how annoying PC Financial is. They offer this nice travel insurance perk, and then the fine print threatens to take it away if you don't call them first. That's fine; they offer a 24/7 number. Convenient because I can't view my PC Financial account information since their maintenance window conveniently lines up with my wanting to log in from Spain.
Anyway, their 24/7 number is of course 100% automated, automated by morons. The robot on the other end couldn't understand a thing I said. Finally it gave up and told me to call again. I hope they recorded that call for their sake, because it'll be the only record they have of me contacting them. That's because they didn't ask for my card number, which I would've been happy to reliably provide over touch-tone, instead of how they'd been asking for everything by voice. Therefore they can't use their threat against me. And, after that, if they decide to make it my onus for there to be record of me calling them, well, that's how bad things happen.
I got popped.
We were in a rush to get back, since there were now 45 minutes until our taxi would arrive. I wanted to eat lunch badly.
I was so hungry; I was taking pictures of fast food places I would like to eat at, but never would, on the way to the hotel.
We made it to the hotel in time before the taxi showed up. When the taxi arrived, there was no car seat, and when we got to Barcelona they charged us for 5 persons, contrary to the initial agreement of the 4 persons price.
In Barcelona, we dined at K Delicia, a tiny Brazilian joint. A Brazilian dude eating there helped us order and the lady serving taught us how to eat our food and it was fantastic.
We saw a cool cake in the window of a bakery on the way back.
Planning our Barcelona stay, we wanted to buy advance tickets to the Picasso museum tomorrow, but they're not open Mondays. We couldn't secure any tickets for Tuesday because it's a national holiday.