My US Visitor Continued!

(Ok, so I've been really busy- sorry this has taken so long)

Johnny and I decided to take a road trip so he could see a bit more of Spain. Marc and Nuria had mentioned that Costa Brava was fabulous and told us about a tiny town that starts with a C (I could never pronounce it, let alone spell it), but we needed to stop in Girona for lunch first.

Getting out of Barcelona was a bit harrowing, thank God Johnny was driving, I wouldn't have been able to do it. We only made a few wrong turns and we were on the road to Girona. We arrived and were immediately unimpressed. But I've learned town centers can be surrounded by as much suburban bullshit as American cities, so we kept following the signs to the town center. After crossing the river through the town gates, we were instantly in love with the ancient stone village. We wandered through the church (ok, I'm getting a little sick of churches at this point, but it was still cute) and up around the ancient city walls, where we stopped for a kiss till I heard, eeww, gross, and looked down to see two 8 year old British boys being hushed by their mother.

We stopped for a well deserved glass of wine and decided we liked this city and we should find a hotel. The deal was sealed with another glass of wine and we started looking for a hotel. We found one that wanted $150 euro a night, it was a bit much so we told them we'd be back. Couldn't find another hotel that had availability so we went back to bite the bullet. Then a second hotel clerk pushed in front of ours and said- Oh you meant TWO people- That's actually $220 euro. Bullshit, I know when I'm being had, I wanted to storm out but Johnny was in the bathroom. Storming out two minutes later really doesn't have the same effect as immediately storming out. But damn it, I stormed anyway.

We finally found a hotel who had a hysterical front desk clerk (really, if all people had this guys sense of humor and willingness to help the world would be a better place). He didn't have rooms either, but called his friend and sent us over. We paid and asked for the key, and left the bags at the front desk without even seeing the room we were so hungry and went back to the old town for dinner.

We shared the snails in Catalyn sauce (which is an incredible sauce), I also had over done rabbit and nasty french fries as is traditional in catalyn cooking. But we had fun with the owner who was very happy to give Johnny tastes of whiskeys from the region.

We stopped at a little bar that was empty on our way home and ordered a beer. It quickly filled up, complete with a Gironan girl who LOVED America. She latched on to us like crazy, telling us how much she loved New Jersey. Um what, have you been there? No, but Bon Jovi and the Boss are from there, I can't wait to go. Um, yes you can.

The next day we drove towards Costa Brava but noticed the signs that said
France 36 KM. Oh, screw Costa Brava, let's go to France, so we headed north. We landed in Porta Vendres. Just too cute for words, found a very unassuming hotel overlooking the port and went for lunch. The only place open at the point was a pizza place. I was a bit disappointed, but then we got the pizza with carmalized onions, sauteed mushrooms, ham and creme fraiche. God bless the French. It was amazing.

The day brought hail and rain which we watched from our balcony. It came as fast as it went and we watched an incredible rainbow over the port.

Dinner that night, was incredible. We though we wanted to go to a certain restaurant and walked there, but nobody was there, so we went back to our hotel restaurant that was packed. (by the way, screw reviews, just go to the one that's packed). This place was amazing (way nicer than our hotel). We had the menu of the day which consisted of lobster bisque, roasted duck breast with a sauce that was amazing...and then they brought out the cheese tray and set it on our table. It was this huge amount of cheese and we waited for them to come serve it for us. They didn't, finally the Frenchman sitting next to us asked the waiter if he was going to serve us our cheese. No, it's all for them, take what you want. Oh my, now I'm in heaven. They had real Roquefort cheese, that is the most amazing cheese I've ever had. It so lives up to the name, too bad they can't import non-pasteurized cheese into the states. Actually maybe it's a good thing, because I would weigh 300 lbs if they did.

I asked for whatever was chocolate on their desert menu. They brought me a bowl of strawberries. I looked at Johnny like a 6 year old girl whose ice cream just fell off the cone. He quickly got the waiter and rectified the situation. And all was right in the world.

The next day we had breakfast in Couliers, which is just charming. AND I actually got to see a 65 year old man in a g-string- Viva La France! I have the picture to prove it. Then we drove along the cost down to the town that was named with a C. We found it after a bit and were once again thrilled. Found an amazing B&B overlooking the port and went exploring. Found a great bar filled with Spanish fisherman. We asked where there was a French restaurant (we figured we were so close to the border there had to be one- there wasn't). So we went to a cute little Italian restaurant in a cave or a basement or something. Then we walked around looking for something else to do. There wasn't anything.

The next morning I woke up at sunrise hearing people singing and went to the balcony to see crowds of people walking towards the beach singing and dancing. I couldn't figure out if they were like the 7 Dwarfs heading out to sea or had just come from a party.

At breakfast that morning I ask the hotel owner. He said, but I have double paned the windows- I'm not complaining just curious as to what all these people were doing. To which he let out an exasperated breath- Some people in this town only live at night!

I guess Johnny and I weren't out late enough to see the disco. We drove down the rest of Costa Bravo on our way back to Barcelona. It was nice, but I also knew when we got there that he'd have to leave, and that made it a little less nice.