Christmas Celebrations

Dec 24-26, 2007, Pueblo Laguna, Spain

The days in Spain have been most enjoyable. I’ve met some nice people in and around the Vera Beach Club in Pueblo Laguna, and discovered a couple of English speaking pubs here. In fact, The Roly’s Too, which is three blocks up the street, is run by Brits and the Cactus Bar around the corner from it is run by a Dutch couple (René and Jill), who also speak English.

I met a very nice woman in the lobby of the resort in the morning of Christmas Eve. (Her name is Rénee also, though the female version, and she has one son – 19 years of age.) We discovered we were both holidaying alone and struck up a conversation. She invited me to come with her to the Cactus Bar that night to hear some live entertainment.

I did some writing on my novel in the morning, and then for the better part of the day, I strolled to the next town of Garrucha and did a little grocery shopping. The town is over two miles away and there’s a promenade that parallels the beach the whole way. I’d taken a walk earlier in the a.m. in the other direction, so I clocked well over 5 miles by foot that day, which felt quite wonderful.

The weather was enjoyable, though the beach is mostly fenced off and has large mounds of sand along it. From what I hear the land has been purchased by hotel conglomerates that will soon be building there and spoiling the landscape.

On my way back, I stopped at a little pizzeria restaurant and had a late lunch outdoors, stopping to enjoy the flowers and the peacefulness along the way.

On my return and upon closer inspection, I discovered that the tree in my complex that is surrounded by poinsettias is an olive tree. I studied the interesting trunk of the tree and discovered that the trees I was so fascinated with back in Cyprus that had the gnarled, relief-like trunks must have also been very old olive trees.

I also discovered that the banks of flowering bushes that I admired in Egypt and again here in Spain are bougainvillea flowers.

I met Rénee in the lobby just after 8:30 pm and we walked over to the Cactus Bar. The entertainment was a ‘one man band’—Brendan O’Dee—from Ireland. He was quite good and we were even up dancing. I think we got home about 1 a.m., though we could have stayed much longer. (The only drawback here is that smoking is allowed in the pubs.)

The pubs can basically be open 24 hours here, though most open at 9 a.m. and go until everyone has left for the night. This can sometimes be until 3 or 4 in the morning or later, of course. Often the pubs are open 7 days a week too, and so the barkeeps don’t get much rest if they are operating a place by themselves as in this pub. The only day they were closing was Christmas Day this year.

A nice young man bought us each a White Chocolate Vodka Shooter, which was similar to the taste of Bailey’s. Otherwise, we only ordered one drink, which kept us going all night. They do not measure their alcohol by ounces here, but rather by the height of ice cubes. They put two ice cubes into a glass and then must (liquor law) pour the spirits so that they are at the same level as the top of the ice cube. (The size of glass doesn’t matter.) As a result one ends up with at least 4 ounces or more of booze. The mix remains the same as at home, so I just kept ordering more mix and pouring it in my drink as it was so strong.

Wine is in great abundance here too. When I arrived in my suite, I had a bottle each of red and white wine, plus a gift-wrapped box of cookies. (I haven’t touched any of them. I’m not crazy about drinking by myself.) I also had one large bottle of water, as one can’t drink the water from the tap here. Unfortunately, they don’t want to give replacement bottles of water, which I find ridiculous. Isn’t water a fundamentally basic human need? To me it makes sense to supply drinking water continually as they don’t provide it through their taps (it’s not that expensive here-except in the restaurants), and if one were to cook and make coffee with it, the one bottle wouldn’t last very long. But they are more likely to give you another bottle of wine in this complex than water.

I asked for another bottle yesterday and the reception clerk was going to make an exception for me, but the water never appeared, so I guess I will have to walk to the grocery store and get another.

Christmas Day dawned bright and sunny and very warm. I dressed in a skirt and headed off to Roly’s bar at noon for my Christmas dinner. I was seated with another English couple, Jewels and Paul, and Adam (Paul’s 19 year old son). Jewels and Paul had just sold everything in England and moved to Spain, though why they chose Garrucha to live isn’t clear as I’m not that impressed with the town. They were lovely people and we hit it off right away. Spirits flowed again…the alcoholic kind, and I had a couple of Bailey’s and shared a bottle of white wine. We pulled crackers, blew up balloons, snapped streamers, etc. and had lots of laughs and good conversation. Towards the end of the meal one of the patrons showed up with his guitar and we sang a few Christmas songs – Jingle Bells, and traditional songs like She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain.” The musician’s spirit was willing but his voice and guitar playing were quite atrocious, but no one cared. They started singing songs without his accompaniment.

The people from my table invited me to join them at the Cactus Bar for New Year’s Eve, but I’m not sure I’ll go. I’ll be staying in the town of Vera (8 kms away) by then at a Bed and Breakfast and I’m not sure if I would be able to get a cab back after the revelries. They’ve invited me to stay over at their place if not, but I have a feeling Jewels and Paul like to drink a great deal and stay out very late, so I might not see bed for many hours.

My traditional British Christmas dinner was excellent. We had a choice of one of three starters and I chose the seafood cocktail-delicious (seafood in a kind of sauce like Thousand Island dressing on a bed of lettuce, with triangles of crustless bread). The turkey dinner came with oven-roasted potatoes, sausage stuffing, carrots, peas, brussel sprouts, gravy tiny sausages, cranberry sauce and large slices of turkey. The meal was huge. This was followed with a choice of dessert – I chose the Christmas pudding with brandy sauce, but the mousse or trifle might have been less filling. The meal was not yet over.

We then had a choice of mince tarts, truffles, or cheese and crackers. All I could fit in was a very rich truffle. Later they seemed to have extra mince tarts to share, so I took one home. I couldn’t fit another mouthful in, and in fact had to leave some of my main course and dessert. I waddled home just before 5 p.m. after 4 ½ hours of indulging myself.

The pubs certainly don’t stint on food here (unlike the restaurant in this five-star resort, where the food portions are small, tasteless and unimaginative. In fact I’m going to cancel my reservation for the Paella meal tonight as I know it will be bad and a waste of money. I’ll have Paella somewhere else where it will be authentic.)

The only drawback to public places here – pubs and restaurants—is that smoking is allowed and this can be quite uncomfortable and make me a little ill. I also have to hang my clothes out over the balcony to get them smelling fresh again. (At least there are a moderate amount of smokers here, unlike Cyprus where I felt like I was constantly in a cloud of thick second-hand smoke.)

In the evening I met René at our resort restaurant (she’d had another disastrous meal there, so we’ve decided to go for supper together somewhere else the following day.)

I went after supper was served to watch the Flamenco dancers with Rénee.

They were fairly good, especially a very young girl, though I’ve decided I won’t be taking up learning how to be a Flamenco dancer. Too much stamping of the feet, and we didn’t have a clue what the dancing was about, though we were sure it symbolized something.

I have decided to take part in some Spanish lessons later this afternoon, and will learn a little Tai Chi tomorrow morning. I’m heading out for a walk soon to pick up my water and I may try the pool and sauna this afternoon. And oh yeah, I’ll maybe do a little writing too.