April 11-15, 2011
As most of you know Rachel and I went to Spain for the first week of our amazing two and a half week holiday.
As most of you know Rachel and I went to Spain for the first week of our amazing two and a half week holiday.
Day 1: We left on Monday and arrived in Ibiza, in San Antoni do Portmay (an island off the coast of Spain). Once there we took a taxi to our hotel the Marco Polo Hotel. Which we loved considering Rachel and I use the marco polo game to find each other in stores and what not lol. The first room we were given was room 227 which was located in the second building of the hotel. When we got up to our room (which I thought would be a good room because 27 is one of my lucky numbers) we realized there was someone doing work in the room fixing a door. We went back to the lobby and were given a new room. This time room 315 (which Rachel liked because it is here area code back at home) which was located in the main building. We got to our room which had a tv, dressers, two double beds, a bathroom with shower, and even a bidet (low-mounted plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing the genitalia, inner buttocks, and anus- according to Wikipedia J ) And even a balcony! We decided to look around the shops that were located just down the road from our hotel. We were walking around taking pictures and looking in all the shops when we found the love of my life. It was love at first sight and I have no idea how I left it behind. A cherries shop!!!!!!! (a.k.a a Pacha shop) Everything in it had cherries on it. I didn’t know how I was only going to buy one thing from there so I ended up leaving and going back another day. Too much overload of excitement for cherries to buy anything that day. A lot of the shops/clubs were closed because it was off season for the town. Which worked out for us because it meant less people (especially less drunk people) and a quieter time at night (although not always). We found a restaurant Koppas and ate dinner there. We ended up eating tapas ( the name of a wide variety of appetizers, orsnacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as chopitos, which are battered, fried baby squid).) Ours consisted of mushrooms, sausage, meat, and chick peas. I ordered the breaded chicken with vegetables and a bottle of wine. It was really yummy. After dinner we went to the supermarket to buy lunch foods like bread, peanut butter and jelly, and of course more wine J Then we walked to the pier to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous. The water was so pretty, two different shades of blue then the sun setting in the background. We also found a place we wanted to explore the next day. It wrapped around the beach. We took some pictures on the pier then walked back to our hotel. We ended up drinking wine out of Dixie cups (after we eventually got the wine opened as at first we didn’t have a corkscrew then we couldn’t get the bottle uncorked!) and playing cards out on the balcony, while deciding whether the people down below were going out to party or not. We listened to music and had a really good time.
Day 2: This morning we attempted to sleep in and really felt like we had, when in reality we woke up at 8:00 am. We were also spooning as Rachel was freezing the night before and wanted to cuddle J We decided to dress warmer as it seemed a little chilly and we walked towards the beach. We ended up stopping and eating breakfast at S’avaradero. I had scrambled eggs with toast. It was really good. We people watched as we ate outside and starting playing little games. We counted the number of shirtless men we saw (as it was definitely not warm enough to be shirtless unless you were on the beach,) we counted the number of murses we saw (yes I said it, murses. Apparently a big thing over here is for men to carry purses), and we also determined whether people we saw were British or not (surprisingly there were a lot of people who were British). After breakfast we walked to the beach. We did the walk we found yesterday. On the way there was a little cove with a little beach that we would have stopped at if it had not been for naked old people being on the beach. We decided to keep going. We walked on rocks and the docks and took lots of pictures. We found another beach, a bigger beach. And I walked on the sand (not realizing the part I was walking on was like quick sand and I ended up losing my flip flop and having to go back and get it!). It started getting hotter out and we wanted to sunbath on the beach so we walked back to our hotel. We stopped along the way to get some souvenirs. I also got my cherries towel!!!! That was the item I decided to buy. I really wanted a jacket with cut off sleeves that was really cute but super expensive. So I went with the towel as I do not have a cherries towel. We changed into our bathing suits and went back to the beach and layed out in the sun reading/ listening to music/ watching stupid girls act like porn stars taking pictures. Again there were also topless women however this time not super old. We went in the sea a little bit and wrote our names in the sand. It was very relaxing. Despite this we ended up going back to our hotel to take a siesta ( a short nap taken in the early afternoon, often after the midday meal.) It was very nice. When we woke up is when we realized what had occurred during our afternoon of sunbathing and little preparation…major sunburn. We had attempted to put sunscreen on, although obviously not doing a very good job as the entire back of us was beat red and my front was a little red. I also had the pleasure of a white T down my back because of the way my bathing suit was tied. At first it was a little funny as we looked ridiculous, but we soon learned this was no laughing matter. It was soooo painful. It felt like razor blades on your legs and after laying down for a while trying to stand was like having your legs waking up after being asleep for days as the skin stretched to allow you to walk. Rachel bought some soothing spray that helped a little bit, but nothing but time would help this sunburn to feel better. After our nap we went out to dinner after the challenge of trying to put jeans on which were my only pair of full length pants as the inside of my knees (renamed knee pits by me) were burning every time I walked. We bought some wine at the store (hoping if we got drunk we wouldn’t feel our sunburns) then went to La Catina for dinner. I ordered the ribs with bbq sauce, coleslaw, and chips (a.k.a. fries) and a sex on the beach. Yum! It was a little cold out as we were again eating outside, so we froze a little bit but the food was good. Also next door was a Ben and Jerry’s and today was free ice cream day! So we got our free ice cream. I got chocolate macadamia. Really good! We went back to the hotel to lie in bed and get on facebook while watching Spiderman in Spanish. We decided to make up our own words to fit the characters when they spoke in Spanish which was pretty funny. We played trivial pursuit and went to bed. We decided against drinking and ‘partying’ as our sunburns hurt way too much. And for those of you wondering, the final count for the day was 31 murses and 10 no shirts!
Day 3:Needless to say, even after putting the soothing spray on ourselves throughout the night, we woke up in immense pain. However, we did not want this to ruin our vacation. We did stay in bed for a while though. We kept waking up and trying to go back to sleep; although there were not many ways you could sleep when your whole body hurt to lay on it. We ended up playing cards in bed trying to get the energy to move. We finally got up and bought some real aloe and showered (which surprisingly felt good as long as the water was somewhat cold). Then we got dressed in our bathing suits which was the best thing we could wear as those didn’t hurt us. We started to leave (mind you we had to walk down three flights of stairs….when I realized just how evil stairs can be when you have burnt your legs/knee pits!) We walked to Stephans restaurant and again sat outside (this time in the shade) and ordered Mixed Seafood Paella (There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella (Spanish: paella valenciana), seafood paella (Spanish: paella de marisco) and mixed paella (Spanish:paella mixta), but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (rabbit, chicken, duck), land snails, beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, vegetables and sometimes beans. Most paella chefs use calasparra[2][3] or bomba[3]rices for this dish. Other key ingredients include saffron and olive oil.) and sangria and olives as an appetizer. Let me just say that this dish was absolutely amazing. My new favourite food! It was so delicious even though it was a little hard to eat as we had to peel the head and legs off of our crawfish. But it was soooo good. After our amazing meal we walked to the small cove we found the day before (hoping this time there were no naked people) and found a shady spot to lie in. This time the naked people came after we were there and they weren’t old. We went in the water a little bit, then would go read our books. Rachel was brave enough to actually swim in the sea. Bad idea as it was freezing! The water did feel good on our sunburns though so we would occasionally walk in a little ways. There were two guys sitting on the beach speaking Spanish so I ignored them, then I hear one of them call Miss to me. So I looked over and they wanted me to take their picture for them. So I did and then the guy asked if I spoke English and I said yes and he got so excited he wanted to take a picture of me with his friend. So I did. Another instance of feeling like a celebrity because I am American and can speak English! J After a while we went back to the hotel and took a siesta J Then we got ready and were going to go to the store to get some wine when we spotted a pizza place. We decided we would eat pizza for dinner instead of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had intended on eating. We ate at Sa Clau and had pizza with mushrooms, peppers, artichokes, and ham. It was delicious. Then we went to the store and bought snacks and wine. On our way back to the hotel we decided to walk down the pier by the beach and found a few clubs. They weren’t very busy and most of the people in them were old. We took some pictures of the water at night and walked a ways down just talking and listening to the water. It was really nice. Rachel also took a sweet picture of my shoe which is now my facebook picture if you are curious. Then we went back to the hotel and drank our wine, ate our snacks, listened to music, and played cards. We then watched a Spanish dancing show to put us to sleep. Another great day/night in Spain.
Day 4: Today we slept in then got ready and walked to the big beach and layed on the sand. This is a new beach that you can walk along to the clubs and everything. It is really cool because it is really shallow and you can walk really far out and not have the water even go past your knees. We tanned (sort of as we were already burnt) and then we went to a restaurant that had just opened the day before called Villa Mercedes. We got a three course meal which was awesome. I had mushroom risotto with asparagus for my starter. Best part of the meal. Then for my main course I had grilled sea bass with vegetables (by vegetables they really mean two little tomatoes on the side with a portion of an onion) and then for dessert I had dark chocolate mousse with coconut on top which was pretty good. After lunch we went back to the hotel but instead of taking a siesta we went out by the pool and layed on the chairs by the pool occasionally dipping our feet in and tanned and read our books. It was very nice. There was shade and sun so we could alternate so we didn’t burn again! Of course after this we went back to our room for a siesta. We always managed to get our siesta in we just usually had it later than the normal time lol. After our nap we changed and went into town to buy wine and walk around for the last night we could. Then we went back to our room to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drink wine. Classy, I know. We also played cards and listened to music. Halfway through this we decided we were hungry and decided to go the little café across the street. We got hot dogs with chips (French fries) which were amazingly good and some popcorn to take back with us. We were a little tipsy at this point. Before we left I took my ipod and speakers out of the desk drawer explaining that if it rained while we were gone they would be okay. Once we got to the café I then realized that I had left my camera in that exact same desk drawer therefore, if it did rain my camera would be ruined….but not my ipod! After our littler excursion we finished the wine and popcorn and went to bed.
Day 5: Today we actually had to set an alarm to get up. This was very sad. We got up and left our hotel at 9 am. Then we went to the beach to lay out in the semi sun (as this was the one day it was cloudy) and read. Then we decided to eat breakfast because of course I was hungry. I had eggs, toast, and beans. Then we went back to the beach to enjoy the last few rays of sun we could before heading to the airport. We finally got to use the taxi line though as that was our ride to the airport. Once there we had to wait forever! We finally got on our plane and got back to the UK. Then we had to take a bus into London (mind you we live only about 25 minutes by car from the airport but neither one of us has a car) then a train back out of London, then another bus to our place. We left the airport at about 7:30 and didn’t get home until almost 9:30. Again we only live 20 minutes away. Ridiculous! However it was cheaper. And as Rachel put it though we were ‘homeless’ for about 12 hours that day. We finally made it home and went right to bed as soon as we got home. Overall it was a great, relaxing, beautiful vacation!
And now for the differences between the UK and Spain:
· The biggest and bestest reason: They drive on the RIGHT side of the ROAD!!!!
· The second biggest and bestest reason: They have STREET SIGNS including a STOP SIGN
· They have huge houses and they are made of many different interesting things.
· They have LOTS of TREES!!!! And Mountains!!!
· And the funniest reason: They have a bidet in their bathrooms hehe
· They are also really polite to you and care about talking to a tourist.
Until next time,
¬D¬
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