Breakfast buffet – pool – sun – lunch – more pool and sun – Dinner

For dinner, we decided to forgo the buffet and walk down to a little restaurant we had seen earlier. The buffet was okay in the sense that it was included, but there wasn’t much authentic about it. So we decided to walk down the hill from the hotel and see what we could find for a restaurant. It wasn’t a long walk to a little area not far from the beach that had a small collection of restaurants. It was a few minutes before 8:00 when we entered the first location to ask if they were open. They weren’t, and it didn’t look like the next place was open either. Since we were in Spain, we figured they didn’t open until a bit later, so after a short stroll on the back we decided to try the next restaurant. They had a nice little seating area out front and looking at the menu, they had an excellent selection of tapas.

Walking into the restaurant we could see that the place was vacant, but out back there was another seating area, and we could see a guy doing some cleaning in what I assumed to be getting ready for the evening.

“Hola,” we said to a guy who was working there. “Open?”

“Sí,” he replied and pointed us to one of the tables.

“Out front okay?”

He then responded with a quick barrage of Spanish words that neither of us could keep up with.

“Umm, Spanish muy poco.”

“Ahh, no English.”

So we pointed to the front indicating that is where we wanted to sit. He sat us down at a nice table out front. Handed us a menu and tried to take our orders.

He gestured and used Spanish to let ask us for our drink order after handing us the menus.

“Sí, umm Ron y coke.”

He looked confused

“Rum and coke?”

“No, cerveza y vino.”

“Okay, vino tinto.”

“Sí.” Which was then followed by a quick sentence that we didn’t understand. He left us to look at the menu and slowly decipher with our limited Spanish skills.

The two glasses of red wine he brought back were excellent. Much better than the red we had been getting served at the hotel. We then ordered a series of tapas items that were also better than anything we had received at the hotel. Not to complain about the hotel here, they do have to cater to the European tourist, and also have to cook the food in large batches. Where this little restaurant has the luxury to focus on something a little more authentic.

As we were eating, there was some commotion at the restaurant next door. Out from the front, a guy was following another yelling at him in both Spanish and English. It was difficult to fully tell what the argument was about since they were mostly using Spanish, much to quickly for either of us to catch. When they had driven up and parked earlier, they greeted the waitress at the place as if they knew her, so I got the vibe that they must have been some expats residing in Spain. The first guy got back in the silver Land Rover they had pulled up in and drove away as the other guy continued to yell at him. There were a couple of other people in the restaurant next door by this time as well, and they all seemed to know the guy. He wasn’t behaving violently or anything; he just seemed mad about something that we couldn’t figure out. But it made for a good show as the waiter and cook at our restaurant came out to watch the commotion along with is.

Somone must have called the police at some point as they arrived to talk to calm the situation. This all happening as we worked our way through the delicious tapas we were serviced. Some fried potatoes with a sauce on them, tomatoes, etc. we ordered more wine and by the end of the night had finished a bottle of red.

Feeling happy about making the decisions to get out of the hotel we asked for the bill which came to €33 euros. In Dublin, a crappy bottle of wine at a restaurant would have been €33 euros. This wine was a delicious bottle that probably wouldn’t even be available in Ireland, and if it were, it would have cost three times as much. Happy with the service and food we gave him 40 and told him to keep the change. Or, we waved that he could keep in as neither of us knew the phrase for keep the change in Spanish.

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