Magical Girona

And although we spent less than 24 hours there, we really do feel like it is a magical place we hope to go back to one day. We arrived around 10pm, with tons of rain to greet us. Very unusual for this time of year. We took a taxi to Esther’s place, and I fell in love with the house before we even walked in the door! Esther is another friend of Omar’s; they met in yoga teachers training in Kerala. In fact, just the next day she was leaving for India for a one month vacation! What timing.

She is actually from the Basque area, but she came to Girona to visit a friend once upon a couple of years ago, fell in love with the place and moved here. The place she currently lives in is dreamy! There is a rooftop with a hammock and plants. It’s an old house with lots of wood, lots of windows, a wrap around balcony, and wonderful energy.

Their yoga and meditation room became our room for the night. We slept with the window open, listening to the rain and watching the lightning dance across the sky and reflect off of the surroundings. We connected with each other that night in a way we hadn’t since India! Thank you Esther and your wonderful house and Girona and the rain storm!

The following morning there was no question about it, we were definitely spending a few hours walking around and taking in Girona because we were due at the airport around 1730. I say around because Nisarga had bought the tickets on line but didn’t print a copy, said we didn’t need it. But he also didn’t write down the flight info. So we were guestimating based on the time we were supposed to arrive in London and taking into account time difference. We figured we’d be departing around 1930 or 2000. Esther offered to take us to the airport and we joyfully accepted.

So we started walking towards the old town, just 10 minutes from Esther’s place. There was a lovely river and it was a bit overcast still from the previous night’s rain storm so we could easily walk around without feeling like we were melting or fainting. We didn’t see many menu’s though. So we decided we would just keep walking until we found one I liked, since Nisarga was still fasting. A quick side note, this was our last day in Spain and his 7^th day fasting and he was sure he wanted to continue. Crazy kid. Of course he could still have sangria! But I was hungry, and this was the last day in Spain (I think I already mentioned that) so unlike most days I wanted breakfast… 4 scoops of delicious Spanish ice-cream for example!!! Yes!!! That’s right, a champion’s breakfast. It hit the spot just right.

With that boost of energy, and Nisarga laughing his ass off at me, we made our way to the Cathedral and the gardens. It occurred to Nisarga to go into the miniature museum, he was fascinated. Sure, why not? Unfortunately the sex shop did not let me in with ice-cream in hand, but the piercing shop did so we bought Nisarga a few pairs of new earrings. We climb up a few towers to see the mural that stretches across the old part of Girona, and to look over this charming city set in the backdrop of hills and next to a river. Very very charming. Then we stumbled upon a few menus. Ok! It was lunch time. We sat outside and I dramatically ordered my last meal in Spain and my last glass of wine. Of course I ordered the appetizer that had ham, and the main dish that had meat. It was like my last supper! The sangria Nisarga ordered was potent! See the pictures in Picassa to get a better idea.

So it was time to pay… and we didn’t have enough. That’s right… we were about 1.20 Euro s

hort. We were embarrassed as hell! And drunk. So we figured, we go return one of those earrings and then we could have the money we needed. So I, with the worst sense of direction second only to my mother, took off running trying to find the earring shop. I walked up and down and all around and I couldn’t find the shop. I almost couldn’t find my way back to the restaurant even. I had to explain to the owner that we were short, and I offered to give him one of my silver bracelets in exchange, which was worth much more than 2 euro. He said it was ok, that next time we are in town we could come again and leave a tip. How kind!

Embarrassed but relieved, now I was particularly worried because Esther was waiting for us to take us to the airport and we had 15 minutes to make it back to the house. Yikes!!! This time I let drunk Nisarga lead. And guess what, the earring place was just around the corner a few minutes. He found it! We dashed in and made an exchange, which we had wanted to make anyway since Nisarga had picked out 2 left earrings instead of one right and one left. And we speed walked to Esther’s.

We had a lovely talk all the way to the Girona airport and said goodbye with the hopes that we would see her in India. We were there before 1730, our estimated check in time. And guess what? We were at the wrong airport!!! That’s right!!! Our buzz wore off real quick when we were told that easyjet does not fly out of Girona, ryan air does. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We remembered almost instantly that when we were back in Cordoba, looking at different tickets, we had considered the ryan air ticket leaving from Girona because it was slightly cheaper. But just before hitting the purchase button on the screen we checked the luggage weight allowance. With ryan air it was 15kg with something like 10 euro for each extra kg and I knew I needed the full 20kg allowance that easyjet gives. Otherwise, the ryan air flight would turn out to be more expensive. So we scrapped the idea of flying ryan and bought the easyjet ticket out of Barcelona! That’s right… good ol Barcelona! Where we had been the day before. Where we could have left our huge ass backpacks at the train station locker room, come to Girona with just a purse even, enjoyed it and gone back. Yes, THAT Barcelona. The one we rushed through twice on this trip. Yes, THAT Barcelona. I was LIVID!!!

Speaking of getting back… now did this mean we were going to miss our flight??? Well, we didn’t know. Because Nisarga had insisted on not printing the tickets. So he ran from one end of the airport to the other, trying to find somewhere to check his email. He found it, and luckily for us, our flight was not departing until 2200; so much for those calculations of ours. This meant we had 3 hours to get to Barcelona airport somehow to check in on time. I was a little less livid, just slightly. Now I was also thankful that we could at least still make the flight. Little did we know that the rest of the evening would be a small adventure in itself.

for the picassa album go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/nisargaanddeepa/Girona#

for more on girona in english: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girona

for girona in polish: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girona