Platja d’Aro: Beaches and Shopping

I hate to break our lovely, little town into such narrow categories, but it's true. And I don't think anyone really minds it either. Right now, we are living in Platja d'Aro, which is on the wicked awesome Costa Brava. And it is such a tourist town. Right now there are probably as many, if not more, German, French and English speakers as there are Spanish and Catalan. And why are all these Europeans descending upon this fair city and wearing highly questionable attire? Because of this:

The Big Beach in Platja d'Aro

And this:

The little Beach in Platja d'Aro

The whole town was built, more or less, around the beaches. Apparently, thirty years ago or so there was almost nothing here. No one lived near the beaches except the fishermen, because the land wasn't good for anything. And because of pirates. No really, our Catalan friends told us that a long time ago no one would live near the water because of pirates. I'm guessing this was earlier than the twentieth century, but I don't know. Then in the seventies, when Spain started opening up again after Franco, they realized the tourist potential of their beaches and built and built and built.

This is one of three images that makes up the sidewalks. They are spiffy.

So, some details about Platja d'Aro: We are about two hours by bus north of Barcelona and about forty minutes east of Girona. We take buses anywhere we are going to go, which has limited just how much traveling we have done, because when your options are walk five minutes to the beach or sit on a hot bus with two toddlers, your choice becomes pretty easy. The town is loaded up with souvenir shops, clothing boutiques, cafes, kebab places, grocery stores, and fountains.

A note about the beaches: nude sunbathing was addressed before we came to Spain. And the answer is a huge yes. Well, kinda. There are a whole lot of women who go topless, but I've never seen anyone go completely nude. And when I say a whole lot of women, I mean it. Women from birth to near death are walking around topless on the beaches. And it is almost never sexual, I'll also add. There are moms playing with their kids, old ladies sitting around chatting with each other, and teenagers just avoiding tan lines. I'd still prefer they left them on though. But I do admire how comfortable they are with their bodies. Ninety percent of women on the beach are wearing bikinis and the majorities don't look like supermodels or anything even close sometimes. They're just enjoying the beach. I think that's nice.

Ben running in the sand and loving life

Also, an interesting thing about the beaches is that the sand is very coarse. For some reason I thought the sand would be fine, but it's not. Maybe that's just interesting to me.

The Boys playing in the fountains.

Anyway, we are leaving this little town in a week and a half, and then we'll head down to Barcelona for a few days before we fly home to the good ol' U.S. of A.! It's been an amazing summer and tons of fun, but it is always wonderful to be back in America.

Common Household Toddlers

The people would like to submit the following evidence that the accused Benjamin and Samuel are indeed guilty of having entered their "Terrible Twos:"

Ben after he and Sam dumped out a box of cereal a bottle of olive oil and started cramming it into a pot. Sam fled the (very slippery) scene of the crime, but left a trail of chocolate footprints into his bedroom.

These are toys that they threw off the edge of the balcony in a fifteen minute period. Also their toy box.

Ben after tipping over all the chairs and lining them up.

Sam after pulling the toilet paper off the roll. Does that not look like a lot? There is a fluffy, white pile of T.P. just out of the photo.

This is the footprint an unidentified boy left after fleeing the scene of another olive oil related incident. Repeat offenders. Tsk, tsk.

That jar of jam was still half full when I last saw it.

And these are just some of the things Ben and Sam have been up to the last couple of months since they took on this weighty mantle. The boys want me to let you know that there is a lot of pressure on them to come up with new and terrible things to stay ahead of the curve. They stay up at night thinking of ways to outdo themselves. And sometimes they just stay up at night.

The following is a list of things that they've come up with to keep us on our toes. Some of these are also to further endear them to us ensure that we keep them around. And it works.

• Rubbing Banana guts on the furniture (Sam)
  
• Pretending to be puppies and licking me (they think this is hilarious)

• Taking off their shoes and throwing them out of the stroller
  
• Pretending my eyelash curler is a motorcycle
  
• Pretending that rolls and bread are cars, boats, and planes
  
• Pretending that chicken nuggets, french-fries, and any small boxes are cars, boats, and planes
  
• Throwing anything they get their hands on off the balcony
  
• Taking off their diapers
  
• Running away from us any time they are free to run away
  
• Chewing up food and then throwing it on the ground
  
• Scowling at anyone who comes and says hello (Ben)

• Bringing us fingers, knees, and toes to kiss better
  
• Moo-ing when they see tractors (this is thanks to the movie Cars)
  
• Air Guitar. Lots and lots of air guitar
  
• Pretending spoons, bike pumps, and straws are guitars
  
• Declaring that things are happy or sad
  
• Pretend to be Robots (Thanks to The
  Incredibles)
• Calling me Mommy-Mom (Ben)
  

Sam

What do you think? Guilty as charged? Ya, me too.

Back in Spain

We got back to Spain on Monday evening and today we are heading up to Platja d'Aro again. Since we got back to Spain we have seen a man walking completely naked down the street, Sam called a guy on the Metro a chicken because he had a pink mohawk, we saw Spain beat China in Olympic Basketball, and had fresh fruit drinks in La Boqueria Market.

It's nice to be back in Spain.

Half-Way Day

Actually, we are past our half-way day, and I just completely missed it. This summer is going by so quickly and it feels like we have been here forever. Does that make sense? Time is so weird. Anyway, we are over half way through this summer and our trip here. And I thought I would give a little list of things that I currently miss about America and things that I will miss about Spain. So here goes:

Things that I miss about America:

• The Internet
• Getting mail (we can’t get mail at our house because there is no mailbox. Seriously)
• Our Car
• Television
• Being able to communicate
• My well stocked Kitchen
• Our Dryer
• Talking on the phone with my family
• Wide aisles
• Walking around our neighborhood
• Going to Church in English
• Root Beer
• The Dollar
• Libraries
• Our house
• Non-Smoking Sections and the low levels of smoking in general
• Delicious Milk
  

Things that I will miss about Spain:

• Freshly Baked Bread
• Our Jardin
• Zach not being in class
• Caffeine-Free Coke (It’s everywhere here. And they use real sugar and not corn-syrup. It’s so much better!)
• Girona
• The beautiful old towns
• How helpful people are with the boys
• How much people like the boys (usually)
• How friendly people are (usually)
• Experiencing the European way of life
• Siesta/Mediodia (this would also go on a list of things I won’t miss about Spain. It’s a love/hate relationship)
• Rebaixes! Or Sales in English. They have some awesome sales here and some sensational clothes.
• Going to Markets
• How all the kids at Church want to play with the boys
• The Beach and the Ocean
• The beautiful old buildings
• The History
• Manchego Cheese

So, there are probably more for each list, but that’s all we have time for right now, folks.

Lisboa

Zach and the Boys at one of the many awesome parks in Lisbon

One of the nice things about traveling with kids is you have to take things a little easier than if you are traveling with proper humans. You get to rest and take naps and relax a little more, without that pesky traveler's guilt of not seeing and doing absolutely everything. It's nice. Of course, you only get to actually relax when they are asleep or distracted by watching the DVDs that your husband bought so he could listen to Portuguese. And eating out is a bit of a challenge, as are quiet museums, but there are gives and takes with everything.

Lion Fountain at the cloister in Belem

For instance, we are experiencing a lazy Sunday afternoon in Lisbon. As I type these words Zach and Sam are taking a nap and Ben and I are watching Portuguese bullfighting on TV. It's crazy. It's similar to Spanish bullfighting, but they are on a horse for the majority of the time and they don't kill the bull in the ring, which is nice. Actually, what we are watching right now is one guy who literally grabs the bull by the horns and then another group of men try to stop the bull by piling onto it. Then after they stop it and jump off, another guy is holding the tail and runs around in a circle with the furious bull. One guy kept missing the bull's horns and was trampled under the bull three times! Its lots of fun to watch.

Katie admiring the awesomeness of the Belem cloister

Anyway, I digress. We've been here about half the time that we are going to be in Lisbon, and it has been a very interesting, fascinating, frustrating, and wonderful trip. It's frustrating because while Zach is in class I'm slightly stuck in our hotel room (our home away from home, away from home) because the stroller just barely fits into this hotel and it is pretty challenging to get out by myself. Also, once I'm out there's not really anything to do close by with the boys except shop. And besides the obvious deterrent of slowly running out of money, Sam has taken to shouting "No! No! No!" every time I walk into a clothing store. I'm really not joking. So, we spend the mornings in our little hotel room watching DVDs and making a mess. Then when Zach gets home from class we'll have lunch and head out to explore.

Zach, putting his awesomeness up against the great Portuguese explorers.

And there is a whole lot to explore! Lisbon is a winding, twisting, glorious city, with statues and parks and fountains everywhere you turn. Or climb, more accurately. We've hit most of the major tourist sites, some several times. And they are fabulous. We are pretty much smack dab in the middle of the city right by the water and it is a good starting point. Of course because we are starting at sea level, that means we have to climb up to everything. And because of all these hills that one has to climb up to get to everything this is the city of the beautiful views. As long as you are willing to climb up to them. We've had several adventurous walks that took us off the beaten track because Zach is determined to find the next Twilight book New Moon in English for me. It's very sweet and funny. Every bookstore he goes in he looks for it. And Zach goes in a lot of bookstores. We found the 3^rd book, Eclipse in English, but that wasn't terribly helpful. Anyway, we have searched out two English bookstores looking for it, but so far with no success. In the process we did find the Portuguese Parliament building, the Institute of Industrial design, more bookstores, the coolest McDonald's we have ever seen, an amazing park with great views and fountains, and all kinds of other things that I don't remember at the moment.

The Belem Monastery from the outside

We also went up to the Castle, but we forgot the camera. Can you believe that? So, we are going to go up again and get some awesome possum pictures for us and to a lesser extent you readers.

(P.S. We never ended up going back to the castle. We tried once, but there was a HUGE line, and it really didn't feel worth it. At all.)

(P.P.S. When we were at the Castle we saw a Peahen walking around, strutting it's not really that impressive stuff. Ben looked at it for a few minutes then said, "I'm gonna eat it!" Funniest. Thing. Ever. I guess we don't have to worry about raising vegetarians.)