A geographical oddity

Last night we heard thunder all night long and we woke up this morning to rain. As of 11am it was still pouring. We had to venture out to pick up our wash (which, by the way, was all neatly folded and packaged in a plastic bag), so we grabbed the umbrellas and took off. The hotel owners are so nice, they "forced" us to take their umbrellas because ours was upstairs in the room.

The family that runs the hotel is doing everything they can to make our stay pleasant. They provide breakfast in the morning, they provide heating all day long, if you can believe it! It is an older couple and their adult son and daughter. They all speak English except for Mama. Whenever we ask them where something is located, "it is just 50 meters away". We have to laugh because it reminds us of George Clooney's quote in "O Brother Where Art Thou". He's trying to buy something for his car and its going to take two weeks to get it. Then he asks about some Palm-ade for his hair and THAT is going to take two weeks to get. "What a geographical oddity", he says, "everything is located two weeks away!" (I love it!)

We had a real nice lunch yesterday at a wine bar. It was very nicely decorated and probably had the best bathroom we have seen in all of Europe. The lunch menu was on a board and the waiter translated everything for us. There was fettuccine with white rabbit and potatoes with octopus, and more. We ended up with vegetarian lasagna and spaghetti with ragu. Have you gotten the picture yet that this whole area specializes in seafood? No traditional American fish and chips mine you, just octopus, squid, whole shrimps, whole langustinos, crayfish, as well as various varieties of fish.

Another tradition here is that rather than building ornate buildings, they build them plainly and paint them ornately. You see buildings everywhere and have to do a double-take to see that they have painted windows and sculptures and vases and other details. Print this post