18.8.06

Gee, but it's good to be back home


Oh, the joy.
It's been the best holiday ever, but I have a theory that says that a holiday isn't a proper holiday unless by the end you're itching to get back. That is the true test of its therapeutic power.

And so it is. I was desperate to leave, and I'm so glad to be here, with my darling goose-down pillow and my kitchen and my blog.

Now I´m going again, which sounds a little stupid, after all that, but it´s only for two days and to the country, to stay with my family, so it doesn´t really count.
I´ll have all the trip report on Monday, but for now, I want to celebrate Spain, in all its dusty glory. We´ve been driving on Baltic roads for fifteen days, and yes, they´re beautiful, don´t have too much traffic, and sport those really cool "beware of elks" signs.

But they don´t have road bars like we do. They don´t have any road bars, as far as I can make out.

Ours are oddly likeable in their crumminess, their loudness, the clank of the slot machines, the crushed paper napkins and toothpicks on the floor. The shrill blast of the espresso machine, and the snappy shouted orders for dos de bravas y un carajillo.
I love to sit at the bar,and look around at the posters of local bullfighters, the parsley and lottery tickets tucked behind an image of San Pancracio, and the various calendars from trucking and fertilizer companies,while listening to the locals growling about football or the harvest as they drink their coffee with brandy and their anis.
There´s a lot of commercial enterprise, too. You can buy cassettes,mostly Manzanita and Azúcar Moreno, with a couple of Julio Iglesias thrown in. They´ll usually have gallon bottles of local oil, and boxes of doubtful looking almond pastrires, chorizos in oil, cheese, keyrings with ferrari logos, or their patron saint.

Yep. I really like them. The only difficulty is in making J stop at them. He´s just as bad as my father about pushing on til we arrive at our destination. Let´s see if I can make him stop this time.

13 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

q bien q estes aqui!!!!
2 admiradoras de candeleda

Jen dijo...

YAY you are back! Glad you had a great time away. I agree with you, a holiday needs to allow you to miss home and it looks like your did that for you.
Welcome back!

Anónimo dijo...

Oh, that sounds like you had a really grand time. Wonderful.
Funny you say "push on". On our honeymoon, that was my husband's pet phrase Let's push on.

Anónimo dijo...

So glad to have you back! I look forward to your stories and impressions about the Baltic - a place I've never visited. And suddenly I'm regretting terribly that despite the thousands of kilometers we've driven in Spain, I don't think we've ever stopped at a real Spanish roadbar...

lobstersquad dijo...

Jenjen: thanks, it´s really great to be back and having nothing to do all morning but laze around and browse the web. so great.
tanna: I think it´s pretty clear. men are driven creatures, with no appreciation of the finer points of driving ( that it, pulling out of the road now and again)
Melissa: I don´t know, maybe they´re an acquired taste, but they´re really authentic, at least, and worth a look. Try them next time.

Anónimo dijo...

yay to be sure! (about you being back that is!)

those roadside bars sound so much like the truckstops scattered about the highways of the American midewest
i loved them as a kid, the grittiness, the grumbliness, it felt so authentic...

Anónimo dijo...

Welcome back!

I was thinking along the same lines that ann was -- those bars sound like roadside diners more than bars, but something about the espresso machines and brandy in the coffee make them sound more elegant.

In a roadside diner there'd be no espresso and no brandy, just a waitress with a coffeepot in her hand saying, "More coffee, hon?"

Raquel dijo...

Hola!!!! My breakfast hasn´t been the same these days ... I´ve missed so much your morning blog entries! Thank God you´re back!!!

Anónimo dijo...

Welcome home; we missed you! I know what you mean about your own goose down pillow - I can't sleep without mine and take it with me whenever I can. I'm sitting here in a hotel right now in fact leaning against my own pillow. Hotels and motels are notorious for having those super-hard rubbery pillows that give me a sore neck.

Looking forward to your new entries!

Anónimo dijo...

I am really happy to know you back! I cannot wait to hear your stories. Do not know the place, but want to know more about it. Always looking for more destinations to visit ;-) Welcome back!

Anónimo dijo...

weird..I've just been away for two weeks as well and then had a day back before a weekend away...totally agree that the sign of a good holiday is that you're excited to go but just as excited to get home

lobstersquad dijo...

Ann: I always thought Castilla very much like the Midwest as seen in road movies. But I´m movie crazy, so maybe I romantize it
Julie: not elegant. the exact opposite, I promise
Guru: hey there
Rebecca: I know. I´ll have to start taking my pillow with me from now on
Bea: great, I´ll post the baltic thing straight away
Jules: good we´re all back now.

Anónimo dijo...

You forgot to put that you can also find Camela cds or tapes which are amazing with that techno-rumba sound...
Glad you're back!

Share