Market day!

If you’ve been a semi-frequent reader of this blog you may have noticed a pattern lately – instead of a full day report I’ve been discussing the previous evening as well as the current day. This is because (due to our lack of wi-fi) we’ve been frequenting an internet bar where we have become ‘regulars’! We’re going before dinner each night (around 6-7 pm), ordering a drink and a few tapas and generally trying to look like we’re not just using them for their wi-fi (although that’s exactly what we’re doing). I’m sure they are catching on, but then again if it was a problem they wouldn’t have an ‘@’ sign in their logo and they wouldn’t have given us their wi-fi code in the first place. Regardless, the kids enjoy doing a little surfing on their iPods while we take turns with our netbook and all is well.

Last night we decided to try some of their tapas on a stick – not sure if they have an official name, but a lot of bars have snacks that you help yourself to and they simply add up the number of sticks you have at the end. To be truthful I have no idea how much they cost but I’m assuming they are about 2 euros or so depending on the place. The kids ordered their usual croquettes and I mosied on up to the bar and chose a few sticks. One of them looked (and tasted) like a piece of toasted baguette with a chicken finger on top smothered with egg salad. I know, I know, sounds gross. I don’t know why I chose it but something about it’s ‘rustic-ness’ (??) appealed to me. It was surprisingly delicious! I don’t know that I’ll try and replicate it in the future, but it was most definitely interesting.

We came to a realization last night that our ‘early’ dinner time has really been working to our advantage. Last night we attempted to find a restaurant around 9:30 pm and everything was fully booked. We ended up finding a pizza restaurant that had a single table left and it happened to be in a busy walkway in front of the bar with very little airflow. The pizza was actually delicious and it worked out well in the end but we’ll make sure to have a reservation somewhere tonight or else stick to our ‘early’ eating schedule.

Today was market day so we got up and started to get ready to head into town and check it out. We’d been noticing the occasional small ant in our house lately and this morning I saw a lot of them tracking through the living room. I encouraged the girls to clean their stuff up off their bedroom floor because I didn’t want ants to be crawling in all of their stuff. I went into the closet to pick out some clothes to wear and when I lifted a tank top I screeched! Aaraharrrghghghh – there were a zillion little ants crawling through all of my things!!! I may have freaked out a little bit. Jeff found some ant traps under the sink and some white powdery stuff that we’ve used at home and he attacked the house. It’s working because we have hardly seen an ant since – but I’m not putting my stuff back in the closet! It’s now all piled by the dining room table and that is where it will stay until we leave. Ick. Luckily the cuteness of this house is making up for it because otherwise it would definitely damper my experience!After recovering from the ant shock we hit the market. I love Mediterranean markets, well, markets anywhere really. Such cute and interesting stuff and it isn’t forced upon you which is so nice and relaxing. Julia bought a cute little sundress, both girls got Spanish fans, and I bought a scarf and a shirt. We also bought some much needed nail clippers and a bunch of fresh fruit. Oh, and churros! All in all a successful outing and excellent people watching. Then another ‘pool party’ as the kids like to call it. We had lunch at home by the pool with the food from the market and just chilled out. We are getting really good at this!

PS - no photos today, I didn't download them before we came to the bar and I didn't bring the cord - I'll do my best to put some on tomorrow.
PPS - I had to note the insane roads here - I had 3 minor heart attacks in the 5 minute drive from our house to the town. The people here are nuts! (And that is saying a lot if anyone knows what my husband drives like!) The roads are extremely narrow with hairpin curves and the people drive at mach speeds. I can't imagine this being my 'normal'... definite premature aging!