Santi's Birthday in Salou

July 13, 2012

Today is Santiago’s birthday and the Martinez family has invited me along with them to Salou for the day to celebrate.  I am SUPER excited to spend time with them and honored to be included on this special day.  We head out along the coast line to the south of Barcelona and it is extremely beautiful.  A little over an hour later, we arrive in Salou where we then spend the next thirty minutes trying to find parking.  Santiago races to an open spot and manages to squeeze their tiny European model into a parking space better suited for a motorcycle.

OBSERVATION:  Europeans are the best drivers that I’ve ever seen.  They drive extremely defensively and quickly, but they rarely have an accident.  The best of all is watching them park a car.  It is customary here to parallel park by bumping into the car both in front of and behind you in order to find just the right position in a parking spot.  After being here for two weeks, I finally understand what the big white and yellow buoy-like contraptions are on many car bumpers here in the city.

Once in Salou, we  first walk along the beach a bit (there is a lovely boardwalk that follows the entire coastline of Salou) until Teresa declares the perfect spot on the beach.  The formula for Teresa’s perfect beach spot is as follows:  Find a shower station;  look in front of said shower station; approach the beach and proceed all the way to the edge of the water; look for small children and innocent by-standers who are not fully occupying their space on the beach; insert beach mats and direct Santiago to put up the umbrella.  At this point, a discussion will usually break out about how Teresa can’t conduct herself in this manner and that we will block other peoples’ sun if we put the umbrella up where she instructed.  Teresa’s reply is always the same:  “The beach is free.  I have just as much of a right to put my umbrella here as anyone else”.  The discussion always ends the same:  Teresa gets her way and people gradually move farther and farther away from our beach area. 

OBSERVATION:  Here in Spain, the woman is most definitely the boss.  They truly live by the phrase, “If Mama isn’t happy, nobody’s happy”.

After spending a few hours on the beach relaxing by the shore, we decide that it is time to eat lunch (this is customary here in Span at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon – it is now nearly 4).  Although it is Santiago’s birthday, he has been married long enough to know that the best way to choose a restaurant is to send Teresa ahead of him.  Teresa grabs my arm and we head off into the city center where we talk to what seems like hundreds of restaurant promoters before Teresa deems a Japanese steakhouse buffet as the best deal in town.  We sit on the porch and wait for Santi and Javi to arrive.  Once there, I am told that I must eat EVERYTHING today since it is a buffet.  It is a common joke that buffets always make money on me since I can’t eat nine pounds of food in one sitting like the Spaniards seemingly can.

After lunch, we take a walk around the city. It’s really charming, but as the afternoon goes on, it seems to get hotter and hotter in Salou and that’s when Santi decides that it is time for the day’s treat:  An incredible ice cream creation from a little ice cream shop that has been in business for nearly 200 years.

Santiago and Teresa's birthday ice cream creation.  I don't know what's in it, but doesn't it look DELICIOUS?  =) 

Me and Javi's ice cream tower =)  Do you think we can finish it all? 

Of course we can!!!!  And it was FABULOUS!!!!

As we finish our GIANT, INCREDIBLE ice cream creations, the sun begins to set and we walk along the boardwalk until we reach our parking spot.  We arrive just in time as it begins to rain as we near the car.  It pours rain the entire way home and I spend my first rainy night in Barcelona (these are few and far between as Barcelona has over 300 sunny days a year).