Indian food!

Well, I had Indian food for lunch, and it almost killed me - in a good way!

I saw this place last night, after supper. It's called Punjabi, and it's about a block off the beach.

At lunch today I wandered over to see what they had.  I stopped at the sign and the waiter came over to me, speaking English.  It looked good, so I decided to eat there.

First course was papadams, with 3 different sauces/chutneys.  I asked if I could get naan instead of the papadams, but he decided I should get both.  Next was a little tidbits tray.  A piece of tandoori chicken, a piece of what looked like tempura chicken, and what looked like the filling for a samosa, in a flat shape with a crust.  

The waiter saw I hadn't really tried the chutneys, so he said I should try them all together.  He scooped a little of each onto my plate and mixed them all up.  I dunked the samasa-oid in it and it was pretty good!  Mint, a little sweet, a little hot.

Next was my main dish.  You had the choice of chicken, prawns, or lamb.  Anyone who knows me knows which one I had!  I got the King Prawn Curry! After I finished my tidbits, the waiter brought out a little bitty bowl of the curry for me to try, in case it was too hot or not spicy enough.  It was just right.

Then the prawns came out in a little metal pot on top of a heating element (I think), with an oval bowl of basmati, and 2 pieces of plain naan.  There were 8 prawns in there (yes, I counted, I'm a weirdo), and they weren't little shrimpy things.  I cut them in half for my curry.  There was also a lot of onions and some other stuff.  There was a hint of sweetness too, which I liked.

So I stuffed myself with curry and dunked my naan in it, too.  I sat for a while, then I finished my water and asked for the bill.  The waiter asked if I wanted coffee or ice cream.  I had totally forgotten about that!  So I had some vanilla ice cream with whipped cream on top and a spritz of cherry sauce or something.

I sat for a while after that too, then got the bill.  They brought it out with a bowl full of those little candy looking things and a shot of what I think was mango juice.  They also brought my leftovers out in a to go bag.

So, let's recap.  The plate of the day:

1) papadams

2) tidbits plate

3) chicken/shrimp/lamb curry/korma/whatever

4) basmati or naan

5) coffee or ice cream

Cost: 12.95 Euros.  Drinks were separate.  My bottled mineral water was 1.80 Euros.  

Total Cost was under 15 Euros.

I may go back in a few days!

Fanta

I have been dealt a low blow. I've been looking forward to getting some Fanta naranja.  It's orange Fanta made with real juice and it's awesome!

Went to the supermarket, and found diet Fanta and 45% less sugar Fanta.  The guy there said that was the normal one.  It's 45% less sugar because it's got aspartame!

Nooooooo!!!!!!!!

Breakfast

Ham: 1 Euro
Baguette: 45 cents
Breakfast: Priceless

Hotel

It's been a long day.  I made it to Alicante.  I knew this was a tourist area, but damn!  Walked out of arrivals and there were about 20 people there, at least 15 holding signs.  And a man with a black lab. A couple of signs were for tour buses.

Didn't see my name so I followed instructions and walked another 20 feet to the kiosk.  A nice British lady was there.  She said my plane was early and my driver was on his way.

My driver took my bag and we went off in a big Mercedes van, which isn't quite as big a deal because this is Europe.  He was middle-aged and played an excellent 80s mix from his USB stick.  It was great!

We drove past Benidorm.  He said they have an excellent beach, but the Brits come in for 3 days and 3 nights and party.  Said he used to live there but had to move because it never shut down.

He recommended I visit a really cool church in Altea, the town next to Calpe, so I may try that. And said I had a really nice hotel.

Got checked in, then passed out for about 4 hours.  Got up with plenty of time to spare.  The hotel restaurant opens at 8 pm.  It was a buffet and it was okay. Got to make my own ensalada Valenciana!

Madrid Airport

I am not that fond of the Madrid Airport (sorry Madrid!).  When you arrive from outside the EU, you're at the "foreign" terminal.  You have to walk, and walk, and walk uphill, and that's just the freaking jetway!

Then there's a loooong hall with a bunch of moving sidewalks, to get to the escalators.  There's like 3 long escalators to get to the bottom floor.  Then you hit the customs line.

We got here around 7:30 am so it wasn't that bad.  Then a walk, and security again.  They have turnstile things where you scan your boarding pass, which helps. And I didn't have to take off my shoes.

So, security, where I got swiped for explosives.  I'm not sure if it's random or some weird sweat thing.  Then it's another long escalator down, to the tram. 

The waiting area was packed.  I had to wait for the 2nd train to come through.  Then it's up all those escalators to get to the main terminal. 

From here it splits off, assuming you know which terminal you need. If it's more than about 2 hours until your flight leaves, then it just says HJK, which are the 3 terminals on this side.

I have 3 hours, so I looked for food.  I stopped at this pastry/sandwich place and got an egg and bacon croissant.  It's not what you think. The bacon was more like ham cut off the bacon bits of the pig.  I took it off.   The egg was more like a really chunky egg salad/deviled egg.  It was pretty good!  Frank - I ate eggs and they didn't make me sick.

So now I'm on the backside if the K terminal, which is quieter because the gates are on the other side.

More later.

On the way!

Holy fucking crap!  I'm on my way to Madrid, then Alicante.  The plane is an A-350, and the very last row has 2 seats across instead of 3. So of course, I got the window side. And there's no one next to me! Wow!

Dinner was pork in gravy with mashed potatoes and zucchini.  Yum!  Then an orzo cold salad thing? And a roll and brownie. 

So far, so good.

Last Night

I liked the lunch place so much that we went back for supper.  Frank said he was still kind of full and only wanted a chicken caesar salad.  I asked if he could help if I got the dinner menu, and he said yes.  So I got the night menu thing.  It was 2 appetizers, an entree, and dessert, for 18.90 euros.

This is another OMG moment.  For appetizers, I got what was described as mini fried squid.  I also got the mussels.  That was an appetizer!  The squid was actually hunks of squid, lightly fried, and delicious.  The mussels were the same as earlier.  I ate about half and was getting stuffed.  Then my main course came out.  I had ordered what looked like a shellfish platter.  Well, a plate full of all kinds of little fried things came out.  It seemed to be squid, mussels, maybe clams and oysters.  The frying kind of overpowered these, but they were still good.

I made a mighty dent in the mussels and fried stuff.  Frank tried to help a little bit.  We'd eaten the squid since it came out first.  So imagine my surprise when a plate of shrimp came out!  Not those tiny ass shrimp you get in a lot of American restaurants, but what I call shrimp.  Frank asked if I had room, then laughed as I tore into the shrimp.  I love shrimp!!!

After the shrimp, I was even fuller.  But I still had a dessert course to go.  It was a rich, dense chocolate cake, with chocolate icing, and some real whipped cream on the side.  It was so rich and I was so full that I couldn't finish it.  Yes, I left chocolate cake on the table.

This was a fitting end to our trip.

Last Day

I slept in again today.  More Castle in Spanish.  Frank wandered around and hit the souvenir shop by the post office.  He found me a t-shirt!  I've been looking, but there aren't that many fat Spaniards, so they didn't have many big sizes.  After he got back and cooled off for a while, we set out for lunch.

OMG!  We stopped at yet another random cafe, but this one had a menu de dia, like in France.  You got an appetizer, entree, and then a drink/coffee/dessert for about 9 euros.  I got my ensalada Valenciana.  This is the one that had a piece of white asparagus on it.  Frank got something, we weren't sure what until it arrived.  It was a bowl full of steamed mussels!  I counted and there were about 2 dozen of them!  They were so good and rich!  Lightly cooked in butter and something, maybe wine.  Wow!

Our main course was sort of a fish and rice soup.  It had fish, clams, squid, and shrimp in it, with rice, and saffron, in a soup.  Also really good.  After that we went to the supermarket and took pictures and got some candy.  Then back to the hotel to wait for supper.

Still Here

Sorry I didn't post last night.  I was tired and my blisters hurt. We didn't do much.  I slept in and watched Castle in Spanish while Frank wandered around.  He went back to the main post office and mailed our postcards.

After he got back, and rested from the heat, we set off down the Turia towards the Arts & Sciences stuff.  It's really cool!  There's a Gulliver park, which is basically stairs and slides in a vague man shape.  So kids can pretend they're Lilliputians and walk on Gulliver.  There's tons of water features and trees.  There was mini-golf and a cafe.

We finally made it to the Arts & Sciences stuff.  First there's the Opera House.  They have this thing called "culture" here.  I've heard of it, but it can be hard to find in the US.  Next is the Sciences building.  They had different exhibits, but we just rested and I had a chorizo sandwich at the cafe.  Chorizo here is more like a peppered salami.  It was yummy!

There's a walkway down the side of the Sciences center but we went on to the aquarium.  We didn't get in.  The aquarium is big and had dolphin shows and stuff, so it cost almost 30 euros.  We balked at that and headed back.  There's a long "walkway" down the side of the Sciences building.  It's got a pool on the bottom, and palm trees on top.  It's hard to describe, you'll have to see the pictures.

We headed off towards the restaurant section and found a cafe for lunch.  I had ensalada Mediterraneo!  It was similar to the ensalada Valenciana I've had at a bunch of places now.  Valenciana is basically lettuce, tomato, olives, and tuna.  Variations include carrots, egg, and asparagus. For dressing, you get oil, vinegar, and salt.  This cafe had avocado in the salad and it was great! Frank had some kind of chicken, bacon, and cheese sandwich. His was good too.

After lunch we rested up until supper.  My feet hurt a lot, so Frank went to the kebab place to get takeout.  It was closed, so he went to the one around the corner.  It was okay.  The fries were good. So was the taziki.  But the chicken was kind of charred.  Oh well.

More Driving

Today we went back to Denia, since we didn't get there yesterday. We really liked it.  It seemed like more of a water sports town than just a place with a beach.  And it was much less crowded than Alicante.  The beach wasn't pristine, it had seaweed on it, so that may have been one reason.  But we thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's a little touristy, but in an okay way, not in an annoying way.  There's a ton of apartments and villas, and a section of cafes and shops along the beach and marina.

We did have one adventure there.  We were only a block or so off the beach and wanted to go see it.  We kept seeing these red signs saying access point or beach access.  Finally, at a red light, there was a left turn towards the beach.  There was a wall where the left turn would take you, but a road just behind that.  And it said beach access.  So we turned left.  We realized it might have been a mistake almost immediately.  It was a dirt road, not much larger than the car.  We kept going, hoping to turn around at the beach.  It got narrower and curved.  When we finally got to the end, the beach was right there.  And there were people, looking at us like we were crazy.  There was no way to turn around, so Frank had to back up all the way to the main road, in a standard, in a tiny curvy lane.  I got out and tried to direct him, and eventually we made it out!

We found parking in Denia itself, and had a snack, then walked around and took photos.  There was a sign about the flora and fauna of the region.  The borders were defaced with graffitti, but there wasn't any over the pictures or words on the sign.

After our break, we headed back to Valencia.  We rested up and then set out for dinner.  We went to place we'd seen the first night, on our way home.  We got empanadas as an appetizer and they were amazing!  I got a tuna salad and Frank got gnocci.  The salad was good, and came out in a huge bowl.  Frank's gnocci was okay.  The sauce was good, but the gnocci weren't quite done correctly.  The empanadas were so good that we got some to take home for breakfast in the morning.

Not much to post about today.  We tried to take it easy.  My blisters were still sore and Frank's need hurt from the driving.  We're hoping to see the sciences building, etc. tomorrow.

Paella Valenciana

We really liked the place from a few nights ago, and they had Paella Valenciana, so we decided to try it.  We went back, and the lady remembered us.  We ordered the paella, which takes about 40 minutes.  It was at least an hour.  They give you chips when you sit down, so I ate chips while I waited on our appetizer.  We got the fried calimari again.  It was really really good.  I even tried some of the mayo that came for dipping.  It was good too.  And this time we weren't so hungry that I forgot to take pictures!

Finally, our paella came.  OMG!  It barely fit on the table.  This was the real Paella Valenciana with chicken and rabbit, and the harricut (sp?) beans and green beans.  It was amazing.  It was so rich I couldn't each a whole lot of it. I ate a hunk of chicken and a hunk of rabbit, and the rice and beans, and then I was full.  The beans were really good.  I thought they tasted funny at the organic place.  The whole dish was seasoned well, and the chicken and rabbit were also seasoned well.  I stopped eating, but Frank was determined to finish it all.  He had red wine, which really helped cut the richness.  So after a valiant effort, he finished the paella!  This was the best paella we've had in Valenciana.

After that we sat for a while and then asked for the bill.  We were both completely stuffed. But the lady brought us more shots.  This time I asked what was in them.  It's kinshasa (sp?), a white rum from  Brazil, and passion fruit.  The other night it tasted like half rum-half passion fruit.  Tonight it was like all rum with a bit of passion fruit thrown in.  I drank most of it, and Frank drank most of his.  Then we wadded our way home.

Yummy Dinner Again

Like I said before, here all the yummy food is just regular old food.  We found another place to try. We're starting to get used to restaurants not opening until 8 pm.  We go out in the morning, have a snack mid to late morning, then lunch around 1 pm, then back to the hotel to cool off and nap.  Then get up and go to dinner.  LOL.

We split our dishes tonight.  We had ensalada Valenciana, Galician style octopus, and iberian pork loin.  They also brought us a little tapas dish of salami on bread when we sat down.  It was really good.  Everything was good.  If you had told me I would go to Spain and eat tuna salad, I would have laughed.  But I did!  The salad was tuna, lettuce, tomato, onion, and olives.  There was a little oil on it and they brought out oil and vinegar.  The vinegar was wine vinegar and really good.  And the tuna was from a fish, not a can.  The tuna Frank had a few nights ago was so good I wanted to try more.

The octopus was great too.  I was thinking little octopi like you get in sushi.  Not so! It was 1 or 2 tentacles cut into bite sized pieces, with potatos, in paprika and butter.  The octopus was chewy and had a generic seafood taste, but it was good.  And, again, it wasn't overcooked, it was just big and chewy.

The iberian pork loin was more of the thin jamon they serve here.  Think Spanish prosciutto, but better.  There was a rectangular plate layed out end to end with the pork loin slices.  It was good, but we had to ask for some bread to cut it with.  It's really strong and a bit salty, so the bread is helpful.

After that we just went home.  We'd hit the mercadona before dinner and got some Cokes and water.  I took some pictures that I'll post later.

More Touristing

Today we went a little slower and left a little later.  It was supposed to be about 90 and it felt it!  That's unseasonably warm, so I'm blaming it on all you jealous haters out there ;)

We did our normal winding around and ended up at an outside exhibition of columns at the MUVIM.  They were neat. There was also an arch and statue.  Maybe of Zeus?  Frank commented on how the metal pillars around the arches had graffiti, but there was none on any of the old stone work.

We finally  made it to the Mercat!  It's awesome!  Unfortunately, there's no seafood on Mondays.  So that sucked.  I only took a few pictures because it was crowded.  It was also warm to we got fresh squeezed fruit smoothie drinkoids.  I got strawbrerry-watermelon and Frank got orange-banana.  They were so good!  They were in half sized plastic cups and cost 1 euro each.

Since it was about lunch time, we stopped at the Lebanese place I'd spied yesterday.  Unfortunately, no shish taouk (chicken kebab).  But I did get a nice fatoush.  Fatoush is a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and pita chips or crumbles in it, in a vinaigrette dressing.  Mine also had lots of radishes and black pepper.  It was nice and cool on the hot day!  Then a guy with a saxophone started playing in the nearby square.  At one point he was playing the Pink Panther song.  (I don't remember what it's really called.)

We also hit a pharmacy.  I forgot to get new insoles for my hiking boots and I could feel it.  And I had a few blisters around my toes.  Got some good gel inserts and now I'm much better.  It seems like there's a pharmacy on every block.

We did some more souvenir shopping and got some postcards to send to people.  So some of you will be getting postcards!  I also passed a paper store and bought another journal.  I got one yesterday too.  I just can't help myself.  After that, I noticed a few paper stores here and there.  Not a lot, but they were there.

By this time it was really freaking hot and we wanted to go back to the hotel and rest. Betweeen the heat and my feet, there were many stops on our way back.  Even Frank was feeling it.  He got a little heat exhaustion.  So we took it easy until dinner.

Dinner

We knew where to get dinner after our first evening here.  We headed back over to that area and looked for tapas.  We didn't find any real tapas, where you get the little portions for a few euros.  And there were a ton of pizza places!  We walked up and down the street, sometimes being acosted by waiters trying to get our business. We finally stopped at a little place with a nice woman who showed us the menu.

At first, Frank wanted to get more Paella Valenciana, to compare.  It's an order for 2, but Frank said he could eat both.  But it would take 40 minutes, so he decided against it.  I ordered shrimp in garlic, calamari, and fried potatoes.  Frank got a meat plate with 2 kinds of iberian ham, chorizo, and something like salami, and some cheese.  OMG!  One of the hams was so freaking good.  We have pictures of the meat plate but were so hungry we don't have any others.

The lady asked if Frank wanted some bread, so she brought out a bread plate with 2 slices of white, 2 of wheat, and tomato aioli.  Wow - that aioli was amazing!  The bread was nice and chewy.  The calamari rings were big and chewy too.  Not rubbery, but chewy because they were so big.  They brought mayonaise instead of marinara, and it wasn't bad.  This is not your mother's Helmann's!  When my shrimp came out, there were 10 of them.  The biggest one was about as thick as a Twix bar.  We were really happy with the meal!  Even the fries were nicely fried and salted.

When we finished the lady brought us some shots, on the house.  They were some kind of passion fruit juice and maybe peach juice in a small glass bigger than a shot glass, with ice and a straw.  It was really good.  I actually drank the whole thing and you know how little I like alcohol.

That brings me to another topic.  Almost every place we've eaten at has given us something extra, for free.  The place where I puked gave us the 2 tapas dishes.  The museum gave us the bowl of peanuts.  The dinner place gave us shots.  It's really nice.

That brings me to my next topic.  We're not eating in fine dining establishments.  These are just random cafes on the street.  The food they serve would be in trendy or upscale restaurants in the US.  Here, they just call it food.

We Act Like Tourists

Today was our first real day in Valencia.  We set off around 8 am, forgetting that it's Sunday.  It was pretty deserted.  We wanted to go to the Mercat Central, and headed off up the side of the Turia.  Then we found a huge pedestrian bridge across and took it.  There were stairs down from the bridge to the Turia that had a sign saying they were from the 15th century and you should use the banister. When we got to the regular auto bridge over the Turia, there was a pedestrian walkway on either side that had beautiful flowers separating the cars and people.

We got to the roundabout to make our turn towards the market, but didn't quite make it.  We took the first left turn instead of the left on the far side of the roundabout.  This put us on a main road through a clothing district.  Lots of shops and boutiques and opticians. 

I finally realized we were on the wrong road because we saw lots of people with luggage and came upon the train station.  It's really nice!  There was a panaria nearby so we stopped for a break.  For 6 Euros we got a ham sandwich (like an unpressed panini), fresh squeezed orange juice in a beer glass, and coffee.  Coffee in Europe is often espresso.  Frank's coffee was about 2 espressos worth and cost 1.2 Euros.  The orange juice was really freaking good.  And large, about 300 ml.  The sandwich was more jamon on a really nice chewy bread. We may go back tomorrow.  The kid running it was nice.  When I didn't understand something he said he just pulled out his phone, talked into it, and showed me the translation.

We wound our way up the street to a plaza with the city government on one side and the main post office on the other.  Really cool buildings!  There was some kind of talk about stopping sex trafficing in front of the city hall.  Then more winding and we got to the Mercat.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  But there were stalls and blankets on the ground, and lots of stuff to look at.  We hit a few souvenir shops and got stuff for people back home.

We headed north towards the Museum of Fine Arts.  We passed a church and maybe a basilica on the way.  There was a violinist and cellist playing on the side of it and they were pretty good.  We got some gelato and sat and watched (and gave them money).

We had to cross the Turia again to get to the Fine Arts Museum.  It was free!  I think it's because it was Sunday.  I seem to remember reading that lots of museums are free on Sundays.  Because, you know, they want you to have culture.  It was a little cooler in there too. We were sweating a lot with all the walking and heat.  The museum was mainly Spanish artists and church paintings:  Jesus, Mary, apostles, martyrs, etc.  There were a few seascapes in the main hall and a small Flemish section, and some portraits.  And, of course, Goya.  There were some really cool alabaster carvings, and some stonework from the Roman era.  Our favorite was a bunch of writing desks and cabinets.  Some had tortoise shell or ivory inlays, and they were pretty cool looking.  No pictures in the museum though.

There was a cafe at the museum so we went for lunch.  Except lunch didn't start until 1 pm.  So we got water and a Coke.  They gave us a bowl of peanuts too.  The water was really good!  It's Salon de Cabras, and it's a Spanish mineral water in a blue glass bottle.  I'm hoping to bring one home.  The Cokes here are really good too, because they're made with sugar.  There are only 4 ingredients in them.

After cooling off we decided to head towards home (the hotel) and find a cafe along the way. Eventually we made it to Mercat Colon, which has been made into a bunch of cafes.  At that point my feet hurt and I was really hot and sweaty so we stopped at one of the first places that had a free spot and a breeze.  It turned out to be organic, and we both got the plate of the day, which was Paella Valenciana.  It just had chicken in it, the real one has rabbit too.  And there were some harricot (sp?) beans, like big lima beans.  It was really good.  The rice was so rich.  Frank said it was definitely made with chicken stock.  

After that we went home, cooled off, and napped for about 3 hours.  Frank thinks we walked 6-10 miles, with all our winding around and going the wrong way.

Supper Quest

I had looked up the area on Google a few months ago, so I knew there was a restaurant area across the Turia from us, so we headed there.  The Turia is awesome!  More on that later.  They eat late in Valencia, so we thought everything would be open by 7pm.  Not!  There were a few places open, but most seemed to be waiting until 8.

We passed a fruit and vegetable store, and another one that was closed.  There were bread stores and pastry stores!  The few cafes open seemed to be winding down.  And nobody had air conditioning.  There was a slight breeze outside, but no AC inside.  We were sweating trying to read the menus.

We finally found a place to eat at.  We went inside and the lady there didn't speak English, which was fine.  I asked for the menu and we looked at it.  It was 5 pages long.  At this point, I'm over heated, sweating, and in the past 12 hours I've had yogurt, a few peanut butter crackers, and 1/3 of a small sandwich.  I was not in good shape.

I took a quick look at the menu and found hamburgers.  I hate the idea of going somewhere in Europe and ordering a burger, but I felt crappy and my stomach didn't feel too good either.  I figured a burger would sit best.  Frank loves looking at the menus, so I went outside and grabbed a table while he kept reading over it.  It was a really good menu!

Eventually he came outside and then went and placed our orders, and we waited for dinner.  It was a square table with 4 chairs and Frank sat across from me.  I had a Coke, and Frank had an Amstel. I didn't realize that's a Spanish beer.  They had several on tap and he said it was quite good.

When the lady brought the Coke and beer, she also brought out 2 little dishes of goodies.  They were stuff on bread, kind of like bruschetta.  The first one was some kind of chopped shrimp-fish stuff with cream sauce.  The other appeared to be lamb, cheese, and berry stuff.  I took pics, so you can see those later.  There were 2 of each.  I took a small bite of each, but my stomach wasn't happy so I waited on the burger.

Frank had gotten a salad, and it came out first on a golden plate.  It was pimento (roasted red bell peppers), a salad of greens with corn and tomato relish and vinagraitte dressing.  That was also on the peppers.  And there were 2 pieces of tuna, about 3-4 ounces total.  I took a bite of tuna and it was really good!

Finally, my burger came out.  It was on a big square slab with a small dish of what looked like cranberry relish, and a few fried potatos.  The burger bun was ciabatta-ish, but not actually ciabatta.  The burger was thick and had lettuce, tomato, and on top was a bunch of pieces of actual bacon.  Not slices, but pieces, stacked high.

One thing I had forgotten in my crappiness, is that they tend to cook burgers differently in Europe.  It looked about medium, and very pink.  Later, Frank said that could be because they cooked it with the bacon.  And there were lots of herbs in the meat.

I wasn't too concerned about a medium burger, because the quality of meat is better in Europe.  And I like my steaks medium rare.  But I wasn't sure how my stomach woud handle the medium ground beef.

I used my knife and fork and cut off a small bite.  It went down, but not that well. I tried another small bite.  I felt worse.  I drank a little Coke, and tried to let the food settle down in my stomach.  I felt kind of nauseous, so I turned my head a little to the side, and all of a sudden I vomited.  Mostly on the chair next to me.  Which is where Frank had set his hat.

So I puked everywhere.  Just once, but everywhere.  The chair had puke, the sidewalk, my shirt, my jean shorts. There was even a puke stain over 5 feet away. I tried to dab myself off with some napkins and did the same for the plastic chair.  The lady came out and I was like "Lo siento" but she seemed more worried about whether or not I was okay.

There was a mercadona a few doors down, so after dinner, Frank went there to get some Cokes, and maybe something I could keep down.  I stayed at the table with his pukey hat and paid the bill.  Also got my burger to go (Frank ate it later and said it was really good).

Frank got the Cokes and stuff, and one of those clear veggie bags to put his hat in.  It's a felt fedora, so he hosed it off in the shower and it's fine.

We went back to the hotel and cooled down again. I tried to eat a peanut butter cracker and that made my stomach feel bad, so I stopped.  Later I got down some Coke and a few pieces of chocolate.

And thus concludes our first day in Valencia.

Day 8: Our last hurrah

So, it's our last day in Ljubljana :(  We're taking it easy and packing things up.  We left the apartment about 10 am to head towards a good restaurant we'd looked up:  Sokol.  We got there about 10:20 and the church bells across the street were ringing, so we headed inside.

Inside looked kind of like what you'd think a German restaurant would look like, with lots of wood, and the light fixtures were clay pots hanging from thick rope.

I got a Coke and Frank got a house beer, then we settled down to the menu.  My goodness, there were a lot of choices!  Frank decided to get an appetizer, but I wanted a dessert, so I didn't.  He got the Mushroom Soup in Bread Bowl.

It tasted amazing!  And there were at least 6 different types of mushrooms in there, including fungus.

Frank got the Country Feast for lunch.  It had sausage, black pudding, "bacon," roast pork, dried pork chop, sauerkraut, pickled turnip, buckwheat mush, and bread dumpling.  He made a mighty dent in his meal and finished all the meats!

I got the Venison Goulash in Bread Bowl.  Mine was in a rye bread bowl and it was delicious!  I could only eat about half, though, because I got full.  This bowl was shorter than the mushroom soup, but a lot bigger around.

Sorry for the crappy picture.  This was my dessert - Gibanica.  It has become my nemesis.  As I type this, it is sitting next to me, staring me down, daring me to eat more of it. Frank was so full he refused to help me, so the Gibanica followed us home and may even be here tomorrow.

After that, we walked back via the flea market and took a nap.  Now it's time to pack.

Day 4: A brief dinner excursion

About 6 pm we headed out to dinner.  There was a neat looking restaurant I'd turned up during my research, called Pod Verba.  It seemed to be pretty close to our apartment.  You go out to the street, go right, then turn down the next street a few blocks.

We went out the apartment, and went right.  The first street seemed like an alley, so we went to the next one which was a major street.  After a block or two, we saw shops and restaurants and thought we must have arrived.  But no Pod Vrba.  We kept walking.  Another few blocks, and then we saw a man walking down the sidewalk and he turned into a yard as we came up.

We asked for directions and he said to go to the semaphore and turn left, and it was about 500m down.  We started down and then heard footsteps behind us.  It was the man.  He said "Sorry, I was wrong, turn right at the semaphore."  They are very friendly here.

Now the problem became, was a semaphore a stoplight or a stop sign?  We assumed it was the stoplight.  So we went by the stop sign and all the way to the light, and turned right.  The main road seemed to have a huge wall on the right side of the street that went for more than 500 m.  So when a smaller road forked off, we took it.

The smaller road took us through a subdivision, so we turned left and got back on the bigger road.  And walked.  And then we saw a little old lady coming up, carrying what looked like a small milk pail.  I asked if she knew where Pod Vrba was.  It took her a minute to understand, because of my accent.  She said I should learn Slovenian.  But then she said she was going by there and we could walk with her.

So we followed the little old lady.  She went around the block, and then I think we got back on the main road again, because we passed the milk machine.  We went down to the end of the block, and turned on a smaller road, which wound through the subdivision, and kept walking and walking.  And finally there it was!  We thanked her profusely and went to the patio to find a table.  We sat down and realized we were staring at the backside of the complex where our apartment building is located.  It only took 45 minutes to get there!  Doh! 

Dinner was soooo worth it.  This was one of the places that I had looked at the menu online and used their English descriptions to translate words for my word list.  (Yes, I have an Excel spreadsheet of Slovenian:English words that I made up from menus.  I can't help being a geek.)

I had Veal Medallions in a Cabernet Sauce with Herbs and Homemade Gnocchi.  Frank had Pork Fillet with Prunes and Grilled Polenta.  (See the Menu.)  Mine was 11.50 Euros, his was 10.90 Euros.

The food was amazing!  My veal was more like 3 cutlets of beef, with an amazing gravy and gnocchi.  Frank's fillets were round medallions of pork, about 1-1/2 to 2" tall, stuffed with prunes.  There were 3 of those and 3 polenta "loafs."  I couldn't finish my food.  I was stuffed.  Frank had room for the Sour Cherry Strudel, which I took a few bites of.  It was good, but too sour for me.

After that, it was only a few hundred feet to our door, through the back of the apartment complex.

Day 11: Sarlat Market

Wednesday was the fruit market, but it was pouring rain so we didn't go.  We'd waited all week for the main market on Saturday, and it delivered!  

The day started out cool and breezy, a little overcast, but no rain.  We were told the market closed at noon, but by the time we got everyone ready to go, it was almost 11.  We finally set off walking to the market.

The center part of Sarlat is the medieval part of Sarlat.  There are small windy streets, some one-way, some stone, and a lot of it is just off limits to cars.  There were people everywhere! Quite a few were speaking English. 

The front part of the market, from where Chips lives, is more clothing and just stuff for sale.  Everything from bras, underwear, shoes, socks, hats, table cloths, towels, decorations, and every manner of tchotchke you could think of.
 
Farther back, you get more into fruits, vegetables, foie gras, sausages, olives, meats, and fish.  There were two booths selling paella, and several olive vendors.  I couldn't count the number of foie gras vendors.  We're pretty much in the middle of Foie Gras Central, so you can't spit without hitting one.

I found a few presents for people, who are reading this blog, so I can't say what they are.  But they're cool!  I'll try to remember to put photos up after I give away the presents.  I also found a summer hat for me.  I've been looking at home so I thought I might as well look abroad too.  It's like a small straw fedora with a brown ribbon around it.

We thought about eating at a cafe in town, but we didn't find one we liked.  Eventually we ended up with half a rotisserie chicken and a pile of fried potatoes.  One of the specialties here is sliced potatoes fried in goose fat.  The rotisserie chicken was really good, and almost falling apart.  And it didn't have that weird flavor that the ones at Sam's have.

After lunch, mom and I went for a drive.  We saw a few chateaus on the hillside, but sometimes couldn't find how to get there.  We went to Domme, which was up in the hills, and we went somewhere else in the hills near Carlux. 

On our way back, we drove to the other side of Sarlat to get gas.  On our way back to Chips' place, we took a wrong turn around a barrier and drove down our normal road in Sarlat.  Which was still full of vendors packing up from the market!  There were one or two other cars coming the other direction, but I think they may have been allowed to do so.  Luckily we made it down the road and around another barrier, and made it home.

Smoked Salmon Salad

At Chez Cathy et Paulo.