Advertisement
Published: June 20th 2011
Edit Blog Post
BEACH SHOWERS
It is quite neat, they have tall body showers and foot showers that you can use after a day at the beach - saves the sandy clothes, feet and any stink from the sweaty tanning in the sun....offered at all the beaches that I visited and there were many in the hours of walking through Spain. Well, after travelling from Portugal to Spain through 2 buses, we arrived to Vallolidid and figured out that it was cheaper and faster to take the train back to Santander, whoo hoo. We avoided another 2 bus rides and ended up getting a wonderful deal on our return journey at only E9. Our journey previously cost E30 and Begona had told me to expect E20 for the way home...so although our train journey was a little longer than the previous one, it was a good end of the trip. Almost – we caught another train that brought us from the city of Santander to the area where B lives, we walked for a while from there. It was funny for me because B was the one complaining about walking this time. She was always pushing me to walk farther and faster this whole time but we switched roles part way through our time in Portugal (at least in the walking-exercise department)! The weather was half decent so we washed a big load of laundry and weighed my luggage. I am only allowed 15kg for my checked bag and 10kg for my carry-on luggage. It is quite strict about the weight and
Massive Lemons
These lemons were gigantic - the biggest I have ever seen, at least 3x the size of a normal lemon found in Canada. It was larger than my hand in length..very conveniently located in the backyard! size of the luggage. Unfortunately B doesn’t have a weigh scale but uses a weight hook to check her suitcases, well – it was awkward and nearly impossible with my travel backpack, she ended up cutting her finger and I still had no idea what it weighed until I arrived here in Madrid (13kg). We had figured it was around 12kg or so, mas or menos – that means more or less in Espanol. It is used often and for good reason because the estimated times for everything are usually way off (i.e. a walk of 10 mins takes 30 – 40). That night I had my favourite Spanish meal of Paella and after a 2 hour laundry wash, we hung it on the drying racks before I got some zzzz’s. The Spanish people generally do not have dryers, they hang everything outside or on racks indoors if it is raining, good way to save energy too (well, at least the environmental kind).
I was up at 9am the next morning getting prepared to hit the famous market in Cartes. I was pretty excited about going to the market but even more excited to get a sunny day
What does this look like to you?
My first thought was a toilet and a urinal.... in Spain. It was actually hot! Wow, what a change from the weather prior to Portugal where it rained or was quite chilly every day. Marimer, B’s friend drove us to Cartes about a 30 minute drive where we spent nearly that much time trying to find somewhere to park! The market was huge and there were some decent deals, I got a fabulous pair of blue heels for just E6, a dress E5, 2 belts at E5 each....not too crazy. I had in mind to get 2 other things but in the end M and B were browsing other items and I didn’t get back to the dress and shoes...oh well, there are still a few days left of my holiday!!! Smiles. We went to the beach after the market and it was really windy, felt pretty cold but when we got down to the sandy part it felt warmer. Yay. I have learned a bit from my past vacations to use a lot of sunscreen and if i get a tan, awesome but otherwise I will definitely get burned which is all bad. Most of the women at the beach do not wear a bathing suit top so
Paella
You better like seafood when travelling in Spain because it is half of their cuisine, otherwise you will eat bread only! I thoroughly ennjoyed this meal but it was slightly different than previous meals because the shrimp-prawns were cooked whole, you have to peel and take the head off yourself! there is partial nudity nearly everywhere you look – yikes. A lot of the children were completely nude which weirded me out, there are some strange people out there and I wouldn’t want them looking at me or my hopefully future children. After a couple hours of tanning I enjoyed some sea wading, the waves were at their dangerous level so it was unsafe to really swim. After about 4-5 hours at the beach, B thought I was looking pink so we headed to the town where I was hoping to find internet, unfortunately not enough time to update my blog at that point but I was able to get the important stuff done like emailing workplaces and getting the address for my friend Samantha in Switzerland, my next destination. The walk did not seem so bad anymore, I was keeping B going because she was tired and complaining most of the way, probably what I sounded like when I arrived. Our clothes were all dry and B’s mom Teresa had put them upstairs for us, her parents were super hospitable – it was really nice. A couple more things about Spanish:
In the bathrooms there is an extra
wash sink, I thought it was a urinal but it turns out that it is for washing your feet and other parts if you wish...
Bread is delivered Monday to Saturday for most of the people unless they go to the market each day. Fresh bread is necessary to their diet and is eaten at every meal. There are very few vegetables consumed in the Spanish diet but fruit is fairly plentiful. B’s parents have a lemon and orange tree in their yard, convenient.
Fish is eaten everyday in some form. You might have a seafood paella, fried sardines, baked salmon or other fish, bread tart containing fish, etc.
Meals are prepared for lunchtime around 2pm and that same meal would be eaten for the dinner meal at around 9 or 10pm.
Shops are open until about 8pm and mostly everything is closed for 2 hours of the day, generally between 1 – 3pm where people go home for their meals or maybe in the old days, had a siesta. Even the children in schools sometimes get these same breaks!
When all is said and done, if someone Spanish tells you that it is just a short walk of a few minutes, double or triple the time frame! They don’t even walk fast enough to make the quoted time. Mas or Menos, you will learn that quickly...smiles. Off to Geneva, Switzerland until Thursday, June 23.
PS -Sorry, I am a little behind on updating my Portugal stories so I will do this backwards and post later tonight or tomorrow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0671s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb