Okay.
Moving ever so slowly along we get to monday, still a holiday, still no markets open, still supplying from the gas station.
BUT... During the morning Chris and I went into town to investigate, as well as get some coffee and tapas (when in Spain...). While we were there we noticed a little shop opened with meats and cheeses so we loaded up on chorizos, blood sausages, Galician cheeses, and some vegetables and headed home where I made a mayonnaise out of the Galician egg yolks and we had a grand old lunch.
What's better is the weather broke and it was suddenly sunny and hot. Which meant pool time!
So we spent a nice leisurely day farting around eating and swimming and decided at around 7pm we would go out for dinner (surely the restaurants would be open, right?).
So with camera in hand we set out into town to a hotel/restaurant that was recommended to us by some new friends Nancy had made in town on Saturday because they for some reason (according to her) kept wanting to speak french (it turns out they were French).
So we set off up the hill...
And walked through town, here's a bunch of "walking through town" pictures...
(what can I say? There's a lot of churches in Spain...)
So we get to the restaurant and it turns out that they're open, but not until 9:30 (stupid Americans!) and with it being 7:30-ish at this point we decide that we can't wait that long with the kids so we walk back across town.
Here are some "walking back across town" pictures:
On our way back we passed by the only open looking place in town, the local bar, and decide to have a beer or four before we go home to our leftovers for dinner...
Boy are we all glad we did, too.
At first the mood was a little tentative, as if we were interrupting something (which in all likelyhood we probably were), but as would seem to happen so many times on this trip, as soon as they saw the girls, eyes and hearts melted and we were welcomed into the family so to speak.
No sooner had we sat down and ordered beers, the table was set with a plate of room temperature tapas followed by another, and then another. Spanish Tortilla plain and one with chorizo and onion, scotch eggs, and whatever else there was were the best tasting things in the world sitting comfortably in an outdoor bar with the sun setting and watching 4 generations of family hang out and try desperately to include us in the goings on.
What was better was this:
One of my favorite beers in the whole world, drank in it's homeland, in a local bar where we were probably the first Americans in god-knows-how-long to sit there and just soak up the culture and fall hopelessly, madly in love with our host country and Galicia in particular...
Here's a couple of pictures from the "bar scene":
As we paid our almost too small bill and waved goodnight to all of our new friends, we stopped by the park that the girls were playing in with about 10 other local kids and we came upon a once in a lifetime dog, that I swear I tried to convince to come home with us, sadly he was too good of a boy to leave his old master for his one true one (me)... But if you see this dog, tell him there's always a home for him in Brooklyn (even though I'm sure he would hate it as much as I do...)
I miss that dog still...
Anyways.
So we walked back home with a setting sun and a belly full of tapas, hospitality, and best of all, Estrella Galicia...
And lo and behold, look who was waiting for us!
Jusby! The (second) best dog of the trip!
As the sun set while I smoked one of the most peaceful, relaxing bowls in my life, I just sat there listening to sounds of Galicia; dogs barking off in the distance, wind blowing, birds and bees everywhere, and blissfully-so-few cars or "human" noises I couldn't help but pause and imprint that moment in my mind as one of the just absolutely perfect moments in my life.
I sat there long enough to listen to the sounds of my children being put to bed followed by the "good-nights" from Chris and Nancy to Liz from the open windows of the cottage fading into a peaceful silence interrupted only by the occasional night bird, or distant animal noise and the screaming in my heart for this moment to never end...
And hopefully, as long as I can remember it, it never will.
However, the next day was ripe with it's own rewards. The stores would be opening then, and that means I could finally get some real cooking done.
And oh, did I.
Read all about it in the next installment of my riveting, yet nary read Chronicles "How to make a two week vacation last 4 months: Lazy blogging wins the day!!"
Until then, me amigos...
n*
