08 July 2005

Day two brings a little drama

Suddenly I'm Dust - I want to post everyday. You guys are going to be like enough already! But here goes anyway.

We forced ourselves out of bed relatively early to try to make the adjustment. We watched the water, read on the patio and waited to be picked up for a lunch appointment. Thankfully they haven't made us drive yet. The roads are narrow, and you have to drive kilometers out of your way to make a left turn by making a right and changing direction on the road...hopefully it's easier than it looks.

They took us into Tarragona's town center where we walked the new ramblas. Ramblas is apparently a major walking/shopping street that every town has. I had heard of the cool-ancient ramblas in Barcelona and didn't realize every town has something of the sort. They drove us through the old city - roads not really wide enough for cars but maybe one can squeeze down it. We drove on the sidewalk twice to get past things.

So we got to lunch at a Chinese restaurant on the new ramblas. (There's an old one too.) We got to try out our fledgling Spanish, ordering Chinese food, and saying thanks in Chinese. Where am I?

We were two tables from the open doorway. Two ladies came in and I didn't look at them but noticed they were standing behind the lady I was talking too, not taking a seat or anything. In my peripheral vision, one of the ladies standing reaches over and I see the purse strap of my dining companion swing into full view. The ladies talking over their cell phone leave the restaurant. I said, "Is your purse okay?" to S. Nope, the purse if gone.

S. gets up and chases the ladies who I am yelling went left out of the restaurant. S. catches up to them, says in English, "hey give me my purse back." She grabs it and makes it back to the restaurant - suddenly feeling shaky after the instinct to go after them wore off. We were all very thankful it was resolved that well.

On a lighter note, we visited a Roman aquaduct. The Roman soldiers built them in the winter to stay in shape and bring water to new areas. They said when Paul, the apostle came to Spain he probably came to Tarragona the then Roman seat of power here. Paul drank water from an aquaduct I walked on today. How weird is that? IT was very high in the air and I got vertigo and Dar pretended to fall off, so I could get completely freaked out.

8 comments:

  1. Kind of makes Kansas sounds boring. Who ever thought that Kansas would sound boring? :)

    I try to keep Mrs Dust away from heights because she often has an urge to jump. Nothing to do with ending it all, she just gets that urge.

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  2. Oh, by the way, I think T is becoming more the daily poster than I am.

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  3. What fun!
    A purse snatching and a chase, aquaducts and vertigo, darwin and a nude beach. The adventures begin.

    Vernal and I had a good time walking the Rhamblas in Barcelona back in '99. A lot of street theater...life is interesting.

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  4. Was there still water in the aquaduct? Can you see it in Dust's sat picture of Tarragona?

    coe to think of .... where's that beach..... zoom ... zoom ... zoom .. zoom.

    ...darn

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  5. I don't know about the sat pic but we got an eyeful tonight walking on the beach...actually only a couple of, ahem, underdressed people.

    No water in the viaduct, just a puddle or two and people walking on it. And me freaking out a little.

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  6. Lesson learned-if I come to see you do not bring a purse. One might have to resort to a fanny pack. Nah...

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  7. I think Vernal is on to something!
    -What do you think guys - wanna go to the mediteranian?
    -now for the sunbathers.....

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  8. I have to say that I am really glad for this blogging thing...it will be fun to visit Spain through your eyes! Maybe one day I will get to travel abroad as I have always dreamed of doing.

    Thanks for the updates! It's great to read about your experiences.

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