platja d’aro Posts

05Jul
1

Ancient Ruins

Xavi offered to take us on an adventure during one of my last days in Spain. The quest: see the ancient Greek (6th century BC) and Roman (1st century BC) ruins. These excavated cities were only a short drive up the coast.

I love archaeology so when I heard ruins I was hooked. Petra too. We decided to avoid the heat and lazily spend the afternoon at the shore. Of course I had not planned for this and had not had time to douse myself in SPF so I did get bright pink, but it was worth it. Especially since this bright pink decided the next day to be a part of my “tan” rather than a burn. Sweet.

For lunch I had a cheese and bacon sandwich on a baguette. YUM! I also rediscovered Fanta Naranja, and that they make a Fanta Naranja Zero.

YUM!

YUM!

After more swimming it was time for the ruins. I should also mention that the port-a-potty system here rocks. They flush!! Anyway, the ruins…

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Posted by Caro in cool, Discoveries, interesting, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with ,
05Jul
0

A Tan Caro?

I am fair skinned. Maybe that´s too generous. I´m extremely fair skinned. Despite being 25% Italian, I look 25% albino (and no, I am not actually an albino, thank you). Moreover, I do not tan. I might be out in the sun for hours and turn red, but I certainly do not tan.

While in Spain, I´ve had the opportunity to go to the beach on several occasions. Keep in mind I´ve been wearing my Neutrogena Sport Suncreen, spf 70. Since that´s almost gone I might switch to my regular Neutrogena, spf 100. Apparently yes they make spf 100. BTW, these products are AMAZING and I would absolutely recommend them to others. So, I was anticipating getting some color, hopefully not red, but maybe darker shades of white on this trip.

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Posted by Caro in fun, Random, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with , ,
04Jul
0

People Watching

On the 4th of July I had hoped to go out and do something. But due to a lot of factors, by the time I made this decision Petra was already in bed. I decided that rather than sit around the apartment by myself, I would hit up the streets of the Costa Brava and find some entertainment.

It didn´t take long.

I just wanted to sit somewhere and maybe have a drink while watching the people go by. However, I have a fear of going to a restaurant, particularly one in a foreign country, and sitting down at a table by myself. Not to mention that here you seat yourself at most restaurants, but not all of them. So I was definitely nervous about it, but decided I just had to conquer the insecurity and go out and do it.

I finally found an ok, non-intimidating looking restaurant and had a seat. I ordered a glass of wine and started watching the people. I realized I hadn´t picked the best of locations, but it would do. And oh were there lots of people to see!

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Posted by Caro in cool, Fears, Food, Hilarious, interesting, Random, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with
02Jul
0

Lost In Translation

I was just in France now it’s after midnight and I’ve arrived back in Spain. Maybe I’m exhausted from my 4 very long days in Paris, or maybe it´s late and I’m tired, or maybe I have just lost my mind?, but I can no longer speak.

In Paris I got so confused. I started answering questions in Spanish. (In my defense though Petra did slip in some Italian). Now that I’m back in Spain where I more or less speak the language, at least well enough to get by, I find myself mute. Our driver met us at the terminal and I wanted to greet him. How is this done? Bonjour? Hello? Merci? No that’s not right. Several seconds later…Oh! The word I’m looking for is HOLA lol. Then I thanked him in French. I just got too overwhelmed so I sat in the back, silent, while P slept.

Just when I was getting my Spanish back I seem to have regressed to my infancy and can see things I want to respond to, but lack the language to communicate my thoughts. Rad.

Posted by Caro in Random, Rants and raves, THE trip 2009, Travel, weird and tagged with , ,
28Jun
3

A Nutella and Pants Sandwich

Petra and I were all set to head to Paris, or so we thought. I booked our flights there and back, set up our hotel, and despite arriving I to the cuttiest of the 3 Parisian airports, I found us an amazingly priced shuttle service. 36 euro roundtrip per person. I figured it was cheaper because it dropped us at the Arc di Triumf rather than our hotel. In all my planning, I neglected to get us to and from the airport in Spain. I guess I assumed we would take the bus into Girona? Either way our flight was early and that wasn’t an option.

We were pretty frantic the day before so we went to the library to book a shuttle. How expensive could that be?

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Posted by Caro in Fears, Food, Hilarious, interesting, Random, Rants and raves, THE trip 2009, Travel, weird and tagged with ,
27Jun
1

El Mar

The ocean – or rather the Mediterranean Sea – is absolutely AMAZING! I’m pretty sure that at many points in my journey I would have gladly taken a dip in any body of water, but I was certainly blessed with what I got.

The sea is impressively clear. I could always see my feet. And it is cold. Not like frigid so you need a wetsuit, but refreshingly perfect on a sweltering day.

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Posted by Caro in cool, interesting, Random, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with
25Jun
1

No Me Molestes

P and I slept in a bit today and then decided to have a relaxing day at the beach. It was overcast but we didn’t care. In fact Petra said it had been raining pretty hard before I got up (at the bright and early time of 1:15pm. Life is great).

We headed to a beach we haven’t been to and set up our stuff. Much to our liking the beach was pretty empty. We took a dip in the water and watched as a woman came over with presumably her two young grandchildren. They set up their stuff directly next to ours. As Petra observed, there’s an entire beach! Apparently there is no concept of personal space here. Then much to our shock and horror the younger of the two boys sat on Petra’s towel and took off his shoes, which he left next to her stuff. The grandma just watched.

Later on as I was tanning a lot of families decided to come to the beach. Of course they parked right next to us and their screaming children kicked sand (or rather pebbles as is the case on the beaches in our town) all over me, repeatedly, as they ran to and from the shore. Irritated, I moved. With their path now widened in my absence, they started bothering Petra, who moved by me. An hour later, we had to move yet again.

Seriously the beach isn’t that crowded and we aren’t in like the “best” spot or anything. Maybe as Americans we just have a different, bigger, concept of how personal space is defined. It kind of makes me want to put up a fence around my stuff with a sign that reads, “¡No me molestes!”

Posted by Caro in Random, Rants and raves, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with
23Jun
1

The Festival of St. John (the Baptist)

June 23 is a very important day in Barcelona. It’s the festival of St. John the Baptist. Xavi had been invited to his friends’ house for a dinner party, so he invited Petra and I to come along with him. Excited to meet some other Spaniards, we jumped on the opportunity.

We drove out to the town where his friends lived, and were introduced to everyone. I had forgotten about the traditional salutation in Spain, where you kiss the person’s cheeks. There were about 10 people, so this introduction took some time. Everyone was very friendly, and the food was delicious. The only problem I had was that all the Spaniards spoke Spanish, English, and Catalon. Petra and I speak English and some Spanish, yet these people all chose to have their conversations in Catalon. It would have been nice if they had switched to Spanish to include the 2 visitors, but I guess when you’re crashing a party you can’t be too picky.

Xavi had promised us fireworks, and I must admit this was the greatest display of fireworks I’ve seen. (more…)

Posted by Caro in Food, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with , ,
22Jun
0

Viva Espana!

I’m in love. It’s been 10 years since my last visit to Spain, and after arriving in Barcelona I found myself wondering why I haven’t returned sooner. I guess I am on a mission to see as many cities in as many countries as possible, so those have taken priority. But Spain is just so pretty, I really should come back more often…

I arrived at the airport around 10pm. Petra and her friend Xavi were there to meet me, and Xavi was gracious enough to give us a ride to Platja d’Aro, which is about an hour away, or 2 hours by bus. This is where Xavi has 2 apartments: one for himself and one that gets rented out. Petra rented the upper level one for the entire summer.

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Posted by Caro in cool, Discoveries, THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with , ,
17Jun
0

Starting Out on THE Journey

Ok I’m super late to the game, but I’m going to start posting retroactive entries that chronicle the highlights (and low points) of my journey through the east coast and select parts of Europe. Hopefully I will catch up by the time I leave! Haha

Anyway these posts will mostly be from my phone and will more or less lack photos. I’ll try to add pictures as I can. Otherwise I will just edit from home.

Let the fun begin!

Posted by Caro in THE trip 2009, Travel and tagged with , , , , , ,