Our First Guests - Day 2

The next day, we all slept in a bit, since we didn't get home until 2:00 am.  We decided to head up to Olot, about 1/2 hour west of us to hike in the Garrotxa Volcanic Park.  The Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park is a natural park area covering a Holocene volcanic field (also known as the Olot volcanic field) in Catalonia, northeastern Spain. The volcanos, of which there are about forty within the park, are no longer active, with the last eruption (Croscat) occurring about 11,000 years ago. However, the region is still seismically active, and a large earthquake in 1428 caused damage to buildings and twenty deaths in Barcelona, 90 kilometres (56 mi) to the south.

We took all the dogs and headed out.  It was sunny and a lovely day.  We hiked for about 4 hours. First we hiked up and then down into the Santa Margarida Volcano crater.  The volcano has a perimeter of 2 kilometers and a height of 682 meters. The hermitage of Santa Margarida, after which the volcano was named, is inside the crater of the volcano. The building was destroyed in 1428 during the 1428 Catalonia earthquake and rebuilt in 1865.

Then we hiked back up and down and around to visit La Fageda d'en Jordà, which is a forest of beech trees.  We stopped and had lunch in the forest and then continued our hike back to the car.  A perfect day.

Our First Guests

Our good friends from France, Mike and Nicci came down to visit us and see our new place for a few days.  It's their first time down to this area, they have never been to Girona or Barcelona.  They stayed 4 days and we had a great time.

The first day was beautiful (well actually all the days were beautiful).  We took the dogs to the beach for a long run.  Mike and Nicci brought their dog Skipi, who gets along really well with all our dogs. It was so great to be running on the beach in December/January.

We then headed to the ruins of Empúries.  Empúries, formerly known by its Spanish name Ampurias, was a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Catalan comarca of Alt Empordà in Catalonia, Spain. It was founded in 575 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea with the name of Ἐμπόριον (Emporion, meaning "trading place", cf. emporion). It was later occupied by the Romans (Latin: Emporiæ), but in the Early Middle Ages, when its exposed coastal position left it open to marauders, the town was abandoned.

It's hard to get excited about an excavated site, but the location was beautiful and we tried to imagine what the buildings looked like and how they lived their lives.

Then we came back and took a long siesta as we were going into Girona to celebrate New Years Eve. We had a great dinner of fresh llobado (a spanish white fish), grilled calamari, potatoes and asparagus.  We have decided to start eating more fish since moving here, it's so fresh.

Our night in Girona was so much fun.  We arrived about 10:30 and went to an Irish pub (there weren't many things open).  The pub was packed and really fun.  Then at 11:45 we headed over to the steps of the church to await the stroke of midnight.  Catalan tradition is that each time the bell rings you must eat a grape - 12 grapes total.  You have to finish the first grape before the 2nd bell rings and so on.  If you can do it, you get good luck all year.  We all did it!

Nicci and I

Heading up the steps

Mike and I - Happy New Year

A bit dark....but celebrating the New Year

  There were so many people there and a band with live music.  Everyone was singing and dancing.  We had a fantastic time.  Actually our best New Years ever...normally we stay home and are in bed before the clock strikes midnight.

The memory jar

For the past 3 years we have had a memory jar.  We start it January 1 and during the year we add little "memories" to it.  We opened it this year a bit late, since we had guests, but it was great to remember some of the fun and exciting things that happened in 2014.

The first one I pulled out was this one.  Back in the spring when we we were thinking about moving to Spain.

We also had some of the teens who came to visit over the summer for an art retreat write some of their memories too.  We loved reading things that they remember of the time with us.

Yes in 2 weeks 12 girls went through 10 jars of Nutella.

This wasn't just a little note...it was a letter and so lovely.

We have 2 cars, mine only holds 4 girls.  I had the same group each time in my car.  We would sing songs (most from the movie Frozen) and laughed a lot.

Bibi is from Russia, this was her 2nd time come to us during the summer.  We love her.

Sunny but the winds!

Yesterday we lost power.  It was about 5:30 pm and everything went black.  Right now our house is on the same electricity as the castle.  Yes, the castle.  We are part of a 1,000 year old castle, we are only connected by a small terrace, other than that we are separate.  But we are still on their electricity until our new meter box comes, which should be next week.  Because of that we have to be careful not to load it too much.  I forgot yesterday and had the dryer on and then I turned on the electric oven to start dinner. That's all it took.  Our landlords who live in the castle are so lovely, they tried to get it working, but couldn't. The electrician couldn't come until today, so we decided to jump in the car and go into Girona to our favorite pintxos restaurant.  We came home to a very dark house.

This morning still no power and it was starting to get a bit cold.  Our landlords told us the electrician couldn't come until 4:00 pm.  We wanted to go climbing, but it has been very windy the last 2 days, so not ideal for climbing outside.  So, we jumped in the car and went into Girona to pick up our NIE card, which is basically our residency card and then we headed to the inside climbing gym just outside of Girona.  For 5,00 euros we could climb from 11-5 pm.  What a deal.  We spent about 3 hours there, climbing and getting a great workout.

We came back around 4:00 and still no electrician.  But at 4:30 as we were sitting in the house with coats and hats on, the electricity came back on.  YAY.  The house doesn't take long to heat up, so we'll be good in a few hours.  I just need to remember that if I'm going to use the dryer, nothing else can be running.  Once we get our meter, everything will be fine.

Little things like this can either be a huge hassle or a "oh well".  We choose "oh well", such is life. It's not a big deal.  You've got to learn to just let things roll off and not stress.

A visit to El Lleó marketplace in Girona.

"El Lleó marketplace is the city's centre of distribution for fresh quality produce. It houses a total of 60 stalls selling diverse products: meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, groceries… The market is a vital destination for many of the city's chefs who shop there for their restaurants, and is a daily meeting point for the citizens of Girona."

That's what we read online.  So we decided to give it a go.  It was pretty cool and so much to offer.  We decided to get some cheese (sheep) and also some calamari and chicken. The fish monger was really nice and we picked up some amazing, fresh calamari.  We both love calamari but we have never cooked it at home.  Time to try.  The chicken stand was crowded and I don't read catalan, but I figured it out. Ordered some chicken legs and drumsticks. They were sold out of a lot of stuff, I guess we got there a bit late (at 11:00 am). I was looking for fresh eggs, it seems that the supermarkets only sell eggs from the factory farms, which seem to be all over Spain.  I have no desire to eat those eggs and want ones that are organic and free-range, and by free-range I mean really free-range.  I couldn't find any, maybe I was there too late, or maybe it's not the place to find them.  My search continues.

We cooked up our calamari and it was fantastic.  Could be a once a week meal for us.  We are pretty boring with our food. Some type of protein (chicken, pork, fish) and veggies or a salad.  But this night we mixed it up and actually had some rice and lentils. It was a nice change and so easy, fast, fresh and inexpensive.

I'm getting to know the area, but I'm sure there are better places to get certain things.  I just need to ask around and get the inside scoop on where to shop.

Ikea again, but with Barcelona thrown in too.

As you might have read, last week we had to drive down to Barcelona and visit Ikea for our new couch, bed, mattress and miscellaneous stuff.  Well, we were putting our new bed together and realized that we needed 6 feet instead of the 4 that we bought.  Argh!  Why couldn't they tell us that? What that meant was, we needed to drive down to Barcelona again to visit Ikea to buy 2 more legs for the bed.  We decided that we'd make an adventure out of it.  We'd go to a different Ikea, closer to Barcelona.  Then we'd park the car near the metro and take it into the city for dinner.  The last time we were in Barcelona was 15 years ago.  Bruce's first trip to Europe.  It was our 1 month trip to Spain.  4 days in Barcelona and then 3.5 weeks on the island of Mallorca for climbing.

Bruce at IKEA

15 years ago we ate at an amazing restaurant called Les Quinze Nits, we decided it would be fun to go back.  Sounds like a good plan, yes?  Well, actually it wasn't.  Once we left Ikea we couldn't find public parking and we couldn't find the metro that we were told was across from Ikea.  So we drove around and around, not really knowing where we were or where we were going.  I had a tiny metro map and finally we saw a metro station, yay!  So now we needed to find parking. Parking that didn't close at 10 pm, as it was now 7 pm.  We found a great place to park, underground, that was open 24 hours.  It was a bit pricey, but we decided to go for it.

We easily found the metro station from the underground parking and off we went to the restaurant. We got off a bit early and wandered down Las Ramblas.  15 years ago it was very different.  There were no Starbucks, Urban Outfitters or other chain stores, I was a bit disappointed with all the changes, it didn't look at all like the Las Ramblas I was on 15 years ago.  But, things change, get over it.

Crazy Las Ramblas

We found the restaurant and easily got a table for 2.  And then we sat there, and sat there, and sat there.  Nobody came over, nothing.  It's not like we were hidden in a corner either.  15 minutes go by, nothing.  I said to Bruce "5 more minutes and that's it, I'm out of here".  5 minutes go by and still nothing.  We didn't have water, wine, menus, nothing.  So, we left.

Me outside of Les quintze nitz 

We walked around a bit and finally found a great restaurant where we settled in, had great service, and a great meal.  It wasn't the "same" place from 15 years back, but we had a great time.  Then we jumped on the metro again and headed back to the car.  1 hour later, we were home.  It was 12:30 am....way too late for me.

Toasting our new life

What did we learn?  Many things.  First, don't visit Las Ramblas - it's just tourists and pricey stores.    Second, we need to do some research and find the best neighborhoods in Barcelona, get off the tourist route.  Third, research the restaurant you're planning on going to, before you go to it....we found out that Les Quinze Nits was sold a while back, to a Chinese company that also has 10 other restaurants and many office buildings in Barcelona.  It's not the original owners and they don't care about customer service, just feeding the masses.

We need to visit Barcelona a few more times to get our bearings and to figure out the best areas to visit and some of the best (local) restaurants.  It's a beautiful city and I'm looking forward to getting to know her a bit better.

We should have stayed home and unpacked.

But...we've been packing, loading and unloading.  Driving to Spain, back to France and back to Spain. We are tired but when we arrived here in Catalunya, but it was sunny and warm, a big change from the cold and wet 2 weeks we had in France.  We decided to go climbing instead of unpacking. We needed to get outside and feel the rock.

We headed west past Olat to Santuari de Montgrony, where is an old monastary.  This is a fantastic place to climb, so many routes and so beautiful.  In France we were spoiled, there were 4 great climbing cliffs within 10-15 minutes of us, here we have to drive a bit further, but it's worth it.

K climbing hard

We met our friends K and H, they are from the states too, but live in France.  We met them last year here in Spain, climbing.  They are closer to us now, only 1.5 hours away.  And they know this area very well.  We had a great day of climbing and feeling the sun on our faces.  It was worth the break from unpacking.

Since we don't have family here, we'll probably go climbing on Christmas day.  We did that last year in France.  I think we were the only ones at the cliff.  We'll see how it is this year in Spain.

But wait....it's only been 2 weeks!

8-12 weeks.  That's what the Spanish Consulate told us.  But we were in Spain, again, and we got an email from the Spanish Consulate telling us that our VISA was approved and we had 30 days to come and get it.  WHAT?

We were so excited and thrilled, but we just got back from Chicago, what happened to 8-12 weeks? We do have 30 days to get it, so it's not like we have to go back tomorrow.  Now comes the tricky part.  Once you pick up your VISA and return to the EU, you have 30 days to get your empadronamiento (basically a census) and your NEE card (like a social security card in the states - and you need that card to do anything in Spain - rent a house, get a phone, open a bank account, etc.) and show that you have accommodation set up (lease or deed) for Spain.  Since we are already living in France, we'd return there, so the clock would start immediately.

So, 3 weeks later we were back on a plane to Chicago to pick up our VISA.  Not much to report here, it went very smooth.  I didn't have any pages left in my passport and it expired in 2016, so I needed a new one.  Because of the timing I had to use an agency and get it in 2 days.  That was very easy too, we used an agency in Chicago and everything worked out great.  We went to consulate and picked up our VISA and headed back to France.  Now we'll be heading back to Spain (thank goodness it's only 3.5 hours from our house to Girona) to register and make a decision on a house.  We did give notice to our landlord here in France.  We'll be moving mid-December.....so Christmas in Spain!

Back to Catalunya

Old Town - Girona

We took a trip back down to Catalunya to look at some rental houses.  We saw a total of 5 houses. We loved two, liked two and didn't like the 5th.  Now the decision.

We had the dogs with us and decided to take them to the beach one afternoon.  Then we stopped in L'Escala for a great lunch of fresh seafood. We also went to visit a local climbing area, and they came along that day too.

Dashell loving the stream

Happy Dog

The Med.

Girona was having it's Les Fires de Sant Narcís Girona, a week-long festival.  The city was full of vendors, music, people and great food.  It was so much fun to have a city near that is so lively. Where we are now Toulouse is the closest lively city and it's over an hour away.  Girona is 15 minutes from all the houses we looked at.

Music everywhere

Girona

Placa de Independencia, Girona

Brebis Cheese

Walking over one of the bridges to old town Girona

Our next trip will be to the states.  We haven't been back in over a year, last time to Los Angeles to see Bruce's family.  This time it will be to Michigan to see my family and then to Chicago to apply for our Spanish Visa.  All that will be in the next post.  We've had 2 French long-stay Visas,  it will be interesting to see if Spanish is any different.