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Published: August 2nd 2012
Ahhh water
Nena bobbingOur visit to Costa Brava didn't start all that well. We got off the bus, grabbed some items from the supermarket and waited for our host to pick us up. After a few minutes we saw an older lady riding towards us on a bike. Nena joked "hah - here she is". Turns out it was her and she then rode next to us back to her house. When we got there we were shown our room which was in the attic, and was full of stuff. The bed was one single fold out bed with another base kinda sitting on it but slightly across so that it was wider. The second base had no legs and if you lay on one side the whole thing flipped up and dumped the sleeper onto the floor. Also it had metal bits which stuck up through the mattress into whoever was sleeping there. She had helpfully balanced a HUGE tv in the room on a cabinet that felt like it was going to fall down and was shocked when we said that we probably wouldn't watch TV anyway.
Our host then drove us with her son to a 'friend' of her's house
blue
Chris gives the Japanese salute who was British so we could have a swim and then eat dinner there. When we got there the British guy was really nice and friendly but didn't really seem to know what to do with us. He clearly hadn't been told he was feeding us all and we realised our host had just hoped that by rocking up at dinner time we'd get a free meal. He had already eaten anway, so after a bit of a chat we left so our host could show us around Costa Brava which involved driving through Pedestrian only areas, parking in the middle of streets and confusing runs into hotels to see photos on the walls. We did go up to a great lookout though and got to see the coast from up high - it's pretty beautiful.
When she drove us back home we cooked up some food and then attempted to find some alternative accomodation for the next few nights. Unfortunately the Internet wasn't working so after rearranging the bed we went to bed. We were then kept awake for ages by our host talking loudly at her computer two rooms away, and then her son coming home late
Paella
And a large amount of it too! Yum and yelling up at the window to get someone to let him in.
The next morning we got up early and took the laptop to the Tourist Info place which had free Internet. The tourist info place told us about a Pensione Hostel in Llafranc (a beachside town) so we gave them a call, confirmed there was room, went back and packed up and left as fast as possible. Oh well - first real Couch Surfing fail!
The hostel was 1 block away from the beach and if you strained over one edge of the balcony you could see about a centimeter of water (yeay, water views! ha). The owner of the hotel, Enrike, was very relaxed and super friendly. An extra bonus for the hotel was that because it was not quite holiday time yet, it seemed almost empty, hence very quiet. We dumped our stuff and headed straight down to wander around the town and the beach. After deciding it was silly to be wandering, we went back to get our swimmers to go for a swim! The water was crystal clear and surprisingly colder than expected (given the air temp of around 35) and kinda
took the breath away for a moment after diving in.
In the afternoon we decided to go for a bit of a walk and walked up and up a very steep hill to get to the lookout we had been drived to yesterday. This time we had a camera with us which was helpful. We saw a pretty keen cyclist powering her way up the hill. It was a good 15-18% gradient Chris reckons. We came back down and decided we needed a refreshing drink after all that exercise. A nice chilled glass of sangria seemed the best choice, but we didn't count on the Spanish idea of a "reasonable drink". We asked for two glasses of sangria and the waitress bought us two glasses and a HUGE jug of sangria! The bar was in a stunning location - out on the harbour wall. Add in a nice sunset and the pleasant sound of boats creaking and flags flapping in the wind and we were sorted for the next hour or two while we tried to finish the jug and work out how on Earth we were going to walk home! The only other people in the bar were
Colours
Golden and blue and green. Lovely pretty drunk and the waitress spent most of her time laughing at everyone. It was a very relaxed atmosphere (and it's not just the alcohol saying that!).
In the morning we had a bit of a slow start and then wandered down to find some breakfast and to do a bit of searching for couches for Rome. After that was done, we booked a two person sea kayak for the day and headed south along the coast checking out different beaches and rock pools along the way. The water was so blue it was amazing. We had been told that one of the best beaches was a nudist beach, but we weren't sure since the Spanish don't seem to bother too much with clothing on the beach anyway. We stopped a couple of times for a bit of a swim and some food (we packed a baguette and salad bits for lunch) and also just to enjoy drifting on the sea. On the second stop Nena noticed that Chris had forgotten to put sunscreen on his thighs and feet (he had done his knees for some reason!?). This resulted in a bit of a nasty burn by the end
Pose!
Random old bit of a wall on our walk up to the lookout. of the day. There were a lot of other people out and about on the different beaches but it was still very pretty. On the way back up the coast we stopped for some gelati and a quick paddle at another one of the seaside towns.
After the kayak we went back up to our room for a shower and a rest and then came back down for dinner and had some expensive but pretty awesome pasta. Nena attempted to order a lemon, lime and bitters but we couldn't explain bitters (or see any on the shelf). We decided against ordering sangria again!
The next morning we eventually found the manager of the hostel (so relaxed he had popped out to get a paper before we had even paid), and then went and caught the bus to take us to Barcelona airport to fly to Rome!
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