I woke up around 8:30 and we all got ready to find some churros, the amazing fried dough strips that Spain is very well-known for. People dip it in a very thick and very beautiful chocolate sauce, or coffee with milk. Alas, after much asking and walking around, we discovered that there were not any churrerías this time of year (after tourist season, and in Cataluña). So, we went to a pastelería instead and bought some goodies.
Breakfast
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| OH YEAH. Fried egg, chorizo, and a chocolate croissant :) |
Beach
We went to the beach with our mats and sunbathed and read for a while. We were really hot after a while, and decided to get some refreshing drinks at the beachfront bar. We went to the Bar Chillout place and discovered an absolutely ingenious idea: a beach bed--a foam bead with foam pillows that you can lay on and eat/drink. We all enjoyed the luxurious situation, and V and I drank a virgin piña colada and ate some fantastic patatas bravas and olives.
Terrassa
It took forever to get to Terrassa, the city where my mom´s cousin on her dad´s side and her family live. We finally got there and went to Estefania´s apartment. Her children are sooo cute and already bilingual: their dad is Cataluñan and Estafania knows the language, as most people do in the region, so they know that and Spanish. As my mom and Estefania talked, my dad, sister and I played with Claudia, the eldest, at 7 years old. Her adorable brother Eric, 2 years old, followed and watched us work on a puzzle and run around getting chased by a lunatic Mickey Mouse riding a bike.
We all went to the hospital to see Estafania´s father Pepe Luis. He suffered from a stroke a couple months back and then got a throat infection in ICU. He had a tube in his throat, thus couldn´t speak, but he utilized a marker and whiteboard to have a conversation about how he was doing. The other patient in the hospital room was awesome. He and my mom got along really well, and he was really interesting, talking animatedly about soccer. He must of been a good guy too because he got a lot of caring visitors in the short span of time we visited Pepe Luis.
Dinner
We walked back the way we came (UPHILL), and saw some incredibly dark storm clouds. Of course we were walking directly towards them. With rain threatening to drop, we met with Ampáro, our grandfather´s half-sister, and her boyfriend and went into a restaurant. Just in time, we heard the storm raging outside. We got some tapas to eat: chicken kabobs, chocos (squid), fries, chicken wings, olives, and patatas bravas. We had a really interesting conversation with Ampáro and her boyfriend Paco about their travels by cruise to Italy and up the Mediterranean, Ampáro absolutely loved Pompeii. Vanessa and I told them about our gap year and bird banding and Nicaragua. Saying goodbye was hard. By then it was 10:30, so we walked Estefania and her kids to their apartment.
We went to a bar close by so that my mom and sister could go to the bathroom, and I ordered a cafe con leche for my dad. We both watched the soccer match between Barcelona and a team I had never heard of--los Ave. The patient by Pepe Luis had been hoping that Barca would win. Here they were though, down 2-1. That´s basically unheard of for Barca against such a lower-ranked team. Everyone collectively sighed when a poor shot was made by Barcelona. We decided to watch the rest of the match (there were 5 minutes left), so we stayed to sadly see the few minutes of Barca´s loss. I loved the unified feeling of everyone though.
We drove home, getting lost of course, because the Spanish roads take a while to get used to. The inky black sky was beautiful.
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| Storm's a-comin' |
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| Storm frenzy |
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| View from the hospital window |
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| Aaaah thank goodness we got to the restaurant before the rain came down |
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