Wrapping up

Not that I am bitter, but my vacation is one that we only dream about, for the most part. 17 days of travel, experiences, and enjoying life, is hard to come by in real life unless you are retired. But this is one for the books. Longest vacation I have ever taken on a cruise and honestly, one of the best. Chris and I always enjoy each other's company, which makes for a better time. 

On the last day, before we left Spain for a while, we decided to walk around the Gothic Quarter. It is what Chris has been wanting to see since we got here. Now I have been limping with a bad knee since day 3, so randomly walking around in an area I am not familiar with, no direction and it is alleys and roads with no end result, half the stores are open, the others were not, and this was not my cup of tea. But sometimes, ya just gotta do. 

So we woke up and got ready, had breakfast in the hotel one last time, and decided to walk to the Quarter. Now just to give you an idea, we were staying in a hotel on the very rim of the Gothic Quarter. We really didn't have far to walk to get into the heart of said area, we just had to walk. 

There were stores open, churches and beautiful architecture, people, and table sales. There were 2 small rows of tables where people were selling their antiques, family heirlooms, and silver jewelry. So much silver!!  But it was nice to see what they had. 

I got my picture taken with a white-faced balloon woman who demanded $5 (I had no idea) and Chris found a shoe store. The lady was very sweet and helped me pick out a pair of shoes that I love. We found a little store with snacks to take on the plane and then we found one of the biggest markets we have ever seen! 5 rows of nothing but meats, snacks, fruits, and restaurants wrapped around the perimeter of the market. Now something I have not mentioned but I noticed the whole time being here and any other place we went, when you pass a restaurant, someone is always outside asking if you want to eat here and has a few menus in hand. Almost like what I have seen in the US for new mom-and-pop restaurants but this is something they do all day, every day to bring people in the door. 

So we have snacks in hand for our trip, we have walked about 4 miles, new shoes in hand, and major exhaustion that I have never experienced before, it's time to head back and take our last vacation siesta before our last dinner in Barcelona.

Now one of the things I try to do is make sure I try local food while I am anywhere. I had Curry goat in St. Marteen, Jamaican beef patties in Jamaica, and plan on an Irish breakfast in Dublin. We had Paella in Spain. When we decided on dinner, we found another local restaurant we had been wanting to try and weren't sure what the local take was there, but I was paella'ed out. Chris said he wanted to order a bottle of wine and I should drink 1 glass. I am not a huge wine drinker. Actually, I am not a fan at all. But I told him I would try. 

When ordering at this new place, (honestly there are no signs anywhere to tell us the names of any of the restaurants we visited.) I again wanted to try local cuisine. Not sure what that meant but the prices were pretty good. We ordered a bottle of wine and I thought we should order an appetizer but I wasn't sure what to order. We decided to order spicy potatoes that were hot and yummy. Dinner was a little less than Spanish cuisine but I had the Spaghetti bolognese with chicken cutlets and an egg. Yep, no misprint here. It was a fried egg. Now it wasn't on top of anything. It was on the side, by itself, looking like it didn't belong. But it did.

That is what I ordered. It was a whole meal, and very good. I have had better, but for sure, it was good. Chris got another menu item. His was grilled chicken, (I already had 16 days of crappy eating. Grilled chicken and salad was not what I had in mind!) a small salad, and a Spanish omelet. Yep, eggs on his plate too!  I do not mind eggs at any meal. Chris is not a fan. Food was good and filling and now to venture back to our "home" to get ready to go back to the states. I have never been able to say that before. Kinda nice now I can.