Advertisement
Published: June 15th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Banyoles is awesome!!
Yesterday I spent most of the day hanging out at the villa in Montmelo... I needed some time to rest my feet, so I sat around sending CouchRequests, leaving references, translating my profile into Spanish, and then reading my book for most of the day. Then I left at around 6:00 and took the train into Barcelona so I could get on the train to Girona, where I connected onto a bus for Banyoles. It was really nice seeing the landscape from the train, and then even nicer seeing people's houses from the bus! Catalunya is way more beautiful than Barcelona would suggest, and it looks weirdly like pictures of France I've seen, which I guess makes sense since Catalunya is right on the other side of the Pyrenees.
My host, Panxii, which is apparently short for Francesc, the Catalan version of Francisco, met me at the bus stop and we walked to his house and talked for a while (in Spanish!) and then went to bed. This morning we got up and walked around the lake that is right next to the city, which was so nice! All the vegetation was really awesome and the
A Church
That was next to the lake! temperature was nicely cool. After that, we came back home, and I met his mom, who was super nice. It threw me off when I met her because she leaned in and we did the little kisses on both cheeks! How cool is that?? After a while I went to lunch with Panxii, his roommate, Encarna, and her boyfriend (whose name I can't remember right now). They took me to a place that served authentic Catalan cuisine, including wine in a
porron, which is this weird jug from which you pour wine into your mouth! I tried and ended up with a few drops in my mouth and a wet, newly-red shirt. I think I need to bring one of those home, though, because I bet that a lot of UGA students would really like that. At this restaurant, they don't have a written menu, since it apparently changes every day, so the waitress came out and told us everything they had, which wasn't particularly helpful to me because, firstly, she had a really strong Catalan accent, and secondly, I didn't know what any of the foods were, so the accent didn't really matter that much anyway. So Panxii kind of explained what the dishes were, and I just asked him to recommend something, so he ordered for me. We started out with beans and ham as well as these fried meat-things whose name I can't remember, but both were really good. I thought that that was it, but then there was the main course, which was pig meat roasted with onions and carrots and some kind of delicious sauce that was amazingly savory. The meat was a little too meaty for me, but the onions and carrots were incredible! After that came desert which was a lemon cake, and then, finally, coffee, and all of this is included in the
menu for only 9.50 euros! A
menu in Spain is how they usually do lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day)... it's kind of like a combo meal where everything is included for the set price and you can choose between some of the different courses.
After that, we drove all around on kind of a tourist circuit, stopping at different spots and hiking around a lot, and then hanging around and talking (again in Spanish!!). Finally, Encarna had to meet some friends, so we came back to the house. Panxii had to do some work on his computer, so Encarna's boyfriend and I walked around the town. He showed me the old medieval wall as well as the cathedral and some cool medieval-looking streets. We ran into Encarna and her friends in the main square sitting at a cafe so we sat with them for a while. Then Encarna's boyfriend had to go to an English class (how cool is that? He doesn't even speak English!), and everyone went their separate ways, so I walked around the city, which was so nice! It's outside Girona, which has the highest per-capita income in Spain, so I guess it's pretty wealthy, and that explains why everything is so well-kept and beautiful. And then I came home and typed this!
It's really nice to finally be actually CouchSurfing with someone! It was really fun having company almost all of the day, and it's even nicer having regular conversations in Spanish that depart from "I would like one ticket for the museum!" On Thursday I'm leaving, though, and taking the 5-hour train ride to Zaragoza, in Aragon, where I have another host, so wish me luck!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0351s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Shari Ulrich
non-member comment
Nate, it sounds like you're having an awesome time. I'm glad you've found some people to hang out with and to take you around and show you stuff. You've found some great hosts! The dinner sounds really interesting and from what you ate, it's hard to believe you're the same boy who would eat nothing but french fries and breakfast cereal! How brave to ask him to order for you; I could NEVER do that! Is your 5 hour train ride overnight or during the day? I'm glad you have another host there. The pictures are really nice and I like your descriptions of everything. Now that you've done that kiss on both sides of the face thing, you could appear on the Real Housewives of NYC, which I'm sure is a goal of yours! You've been there over a week already and so far your trip sounds exactly the way I had imagined it would be. I'm glad you're having fun. Not too much going on here. Alison's been home since Friday, but is leaving this afternoon. She has to be out of her house in 2 weeks and it looks like she'll move her stuff here for a little while as she's trying to find a place in Atlanta. Scott's been picking up some motorcycles for dad; one in Pensacola last week and yesterday he picked one up in Athens for Grandpa Ken. I think next week he's going to meet Gpa Ken in Kentucky or somewhere to give him his bike and to get one that Gpa has for dad. Abby has been taking some swim lessons with Katie Mara and she's swimming all over the deep end. We've been to the pool nearly every day, there are tons of kids there again and she's having a blast. Lauren arrives on Sunday. On Monday she, Scott and I are leaving for a hike from Amicalola falls to the Len Foote lodge which is a 5 mile hike to the lodge, spend the night and hike back out on Tuesday. We're going with the Venturing Crew and believe it or not, I am the adult registered leader and the adult listed on the tour permit!! Who would have thought that could happen? Saturday we're going boating with Mr. Eddie, Miss Susie and Rachel at Lake Allatoona. We miss you!! Keep up the blogging. Love, Mom