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| Marshmallow Clouds |
Having left Dublin via RyanAir at 7:45 and left the murky, grey morning behind us, we flew across a glorious display of clouds which resembled a field of marshmallows having be flattened out perfectly. The the rocky hills of Spain broke through and all I could see was terracotta. The excitement was at a breaking point. I could have been in Miami when I stepped off the plane the place felt that exotic to me despite the short 2 hour flight.
We got a public bus from the airport to Salou where we were to stay in Belvedere hotel. The bus driver was the nicest man ever! Not only did he not make me feel bad for not being able to speak a word of Spanish, but when it came to our stop he stood up and called back to us that this was where we were to get off! Lovely chap. Don't know if I'd often see Bus Eireann do the same in Ireland, would you?
The only set back thus far was my trusty flip flops (or 'thongs' as I've heard Australians call them) which turned out to be not so trusty. I hobbled into our hotel room with blisters on my feet and threw the flip flops to one side where they shall remain for the rest of the trip. I'll stick to sandals, thanks!
The room consisted of two double beds side by side, TV, en-suite with bath and a balcony. A balcony! I find balconies in hot countries amazing. I feel they genuinely serve a purpose other than being a good place to creep on the good-looking locals or have a smoke. Here you can also get some much appreciated vitamin D! The suitcases were unpacked and the airport clothes were discarded, time for beach wear!
Our first mission was to get food. We were all starving with the hunger. As we strolled by restaurants taking in the menu prices and clearly looking like tourists, we were bombarded with menu distributing staff. Their job is to get business by enticing people into their restaurant which all have the most amazing deals in town.
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| Mine? |
I've seen such staff in Temple Bar in Dublin and on the streets of Rome but here, as there were many diners side by side, it felt like they were everywhere. It was like walking through a flock of seagulls from Finding Nemo all squawking "MINE MINE MINE". They see you coming and then dash for menus while never taking their eyes off you and then pace across the path until you're within their designated area. We politely declined many of these 'seagulls' if the menu was too expensive or the place was empty, and then finally settled on a decent looking place.
I thought it was only fitting to start the trip with a Spanish omelette which was delicious! Considering Salou is on the coast, there's a lot of sea food to choose from in every restaurant and very little vegetarian options other than salads or chips. But if you like your meat or your sea food, it will probably take you 20 minutes to choose from all the option you have!
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| Look at all the people! |
After food it was straight to the beach which was AMAZING. This was my first ever
beach I've been to abroad and I loved it. The blue sky called for it to be a busy day but we still found space to throw down a towel. After I got over the shock of the amount of people there were, the next thing to blow my mind was how soft the sand is. In Ireland, there's always a section of the beach you need to tip-toe through with a lot of 'Hoo-Hah-Ow' noises as it consists of thousands of broken shells and sharp seaweed. Here, the sand is so fine! Then there was the water. Oh my goodness. I jumped some waves of the Balearic sea with my nephew and the water was warm. Warm I tell you! For someone who has only ever swam in the seas surrounding Ireland, you can understand how it exciting I found it to finally be able to say I swam in a sea that wasn't Baltic cold. Beautiful experience.
There was an intercom system along the beach which occasionally had a man announce things over it. Naturally, these announcements were in Spanish so we couldn't understand a word he said, so we did nothing. He could have been saying there was a shark in the water for all I know but I didn't notice anyone leaving the water as such so we stayed! Although if the Spanish are anything like the Irish they'd say 'Ha! Shark. That's gas.' and keep swimming.
We spent the rest of the day at the beach, then waddled home having gained an extra stone in weight in sand and salt water. We passed by one more restaurant promoter for Chicago Bar & Grill who's reason for us eating there was they only have 208 plates so we need to go in. I felt sorry for the chap considering his lack of plates and close to empty restaurant but we already had our dinner sorted! After an all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner (which is included in our stay, as well as breakfast), we returned to our room. Myself, my sister and my nephew are staying together and we were all asleep by 10.30pm (9.30pm Irish time).
Tomorrow, we travel to Port Aventura, the gate to adventure. I feel like a child on Christmas eve!
Hasta luego,
Ceara
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