Bumming around and doing nothing

Mila has brought her computer, and the hotel comes with high-speed internet, so apparently I will be able to update this blog as much as I have interest. I do not promise daily updates.

Today was the designated bumming-around-and-doing-nothing day. We bummed around and did nothing. Eli and I had massages (Mila and Eric’s come tomorrow). Lunch was thrown together from various items purchased at a grocery store – I had bread, bonito del norte, and lettuce. Quite nice.

We had a little walk around the beach at the resort. It’s quite lovely here: well-groomed tropical landscaping.

In the evening we drove to Marbella for a nice dinner in the old quarter. We had a little difficulty finding it – and then when we thought we’d found it, and had parked and gotten out and begun walking, still couldn’t figure out where we were on the map I was carrying. We found a public map, but it lacked a “you are here” spot, and so it wasn’t very useful. So I gave in and asked for help.

Have you ever wondered why it is that men won’t ask for directions? I’ll tell you why. Asking directions doesn’t help much, because the world is full of yabbos. I asked a guy, working in a trinket shop, (in Spanish), “where are we on this map?” He stared at my map for a while before offering useless general information: this street here is back there (we knew that). He didn’t seem to think the map showed anything remotely near where we were. Except it did. I think he must not have ever looked at a map of Marbella. How else could you explain not recognizing it at all?

We found the old town my way: heading off in the most likely direction and getting lucky.

Dinner was not at either of the recommended places we were thinking of, but instead at a place that looked promising and had seating outside on the narrow pedestrianized streets of old town Marbella. It was called El Cortijo, and proved to be quite good. We started with country bread with olive oil, tomate, and jamón iberico; baked sheep’s milk cheese with blueberry sauce; and fried baby calamari (so cute, so tasty). For entrees, Eli had duck breast with cherry sauce, Mila had roasted lamb, Eric and a pork joint, and I had grilled sea-bass. It was all good, but I felt Eric and Eli had the best ones. Eric’s pork was more like a ham cooked until it was falling over the bone. We skipped dessert and headed back, taking a short detour through the beautiful old town.

Alas we had push Yelena’s bed time to far. Arriving at the hotel, she woke up and would not go back to sleep again for quite a while. Poor thing. I confess I went to sleep myself anyway.

Labels: journal, personal, spain

posted by Tony at 11:30 PM