Day 6 - Enough Pig Already

Day 6 - Thursday May 17th - Enough Pig Already

Don't worry,,,, I'm not complaining.  Let me tell you about the day first then I'll get in to the pig comment.  We woke up at 9:45,,,, 15 minutes before our 10 AM appointment.  We hurried to get ready and we made our way downstairs to meet with Pablo, our guide for the next four hours.  Pablo took us on a 10 minute taxi ride to the La Alhambra.  The La Alambra is an old fort that was used by kings in the 13th century and Christians in the 15th century.  It was a nice tour, great views, very interesting, etc --- but after four hours the tour was over and we were on way back to town.  You might be saying "he just summed up a four hour tour in three sentences",,,, yes, you are correct.

We said our goodbyes to Pablo and went on to explore the town some more.  Just one problem,,,,, siesta time!  Everything was closed.  A little piece of advice to you future Spain travelers,,,, schedule your tours from 2 to 6 vs 10 to 2.  This way you can explore the town while everything is open and do the tours while everything is closed.  Katie and I walked around a bit but wile everything was closed but ended up deciding to head back to the hotel for our siesta.

Back at the room I wasn't ready for sleep so I put on the running gear and hit the town.  4.3 miles later I realized this town didn't have anything more to offer than Barcelona.  Back at the room we both got cleaned up and headed out for the night.  First stop, Vodaphone.  It turns out that the Internet isn't "unlimited" and my uploading of pics isn't free.  The Internet at the hotel is beyond slow so I had been using my phone to upload pics.  It worked well but it sucked down 200 Euros fairly quickly.  We recharged my phone and bought Katie a sim card of her own to use.  After that we walked around for a short bit and decided it was time for dinner.

Back to the title,,,,,, Enough Pig Already.... We were done with Jamon (Ham),,, We decided it was time for some sushi.  I was skeptical at first,,,,, Sushi in Spain??? But our guide had told us earlier in the day that the sushi here is very good.  We gave it a shot.  We walked in to a little hole in the wall (seriously, a very tiny place on a back alley).   We woke the only server and she quickly, and very happily, let us choose our table,,,,, they were all empty.  Hmmmmm, starting to look a bit sketchy but ok,,,, we were told it was good.  We sat down,,, ordered some cold sake,,, cold beers and some cold water.   She looked at us like "crazie mericans" --- but oh well,,,, we were determined to have "good time."

Four beers, a few hand rolls and two more sake bottles later,,,, the place had four or five more tables filled (about 40%) and we were having such a good time she thought it best to bring us another bottle of sake on the house,,,, or, as she said,,, "uno mass sake,, no denaro."

After our departure from "everything ham" we headed back to the hotel but, on our way, we found a cute little hole in the wall which was all but packed.  There were two seats at the bar which were calling our names.  We sat down, ordered two beers and struck up a conversation with the people next to us.  They were two girls, one 19 and one 24, both sisters.  The elder is an english teacher here while the younger just started college and is here for a quick trip to visit her sister.  After chatting it up a bit (and enjoying the free tapas), we paid our bill and headed back to the hotel.  Time for bed,,, but wait, the bar is still open,,,, two more glasses of wine (dos vino tinto por favor).

Biff, our waiter, was happy to help us.  It was almost 1 AM,,,, closing time,,, but he quickly grabbed us two glasses of wine and stood around to chat about life in Spain.  Biff speaks four languages and hopes to one day be an actor.  I told him he should be a salesman,,,, he said "that's what my father does" --- hopefully he'll figure out,,, Biff would make a killing as a salesman.

After our wine we headed up to the room and off to bed.  Tomorrow we figure out how to rent a car and we head to Seville (say-veal-ah).  Stay tuned,,, more to come.... -J

BTW,,,, the Internet is "no bueno" in Spain (much better in Cambodia) but here are all the pics I could upload as of this posting:

https://plus.google.com/photos/113169248147362226921/albums/5743533771220223105?authkey=CJSQyajE4PPQ0QE