Yesterday, I spent the morning waiting for my suitcase. It had not made the last leg of my journey with me and remained in Madrid. The aiport offers a service to deliver the delayed luggage to you to your residence. I left the address of my friend´s apartment in Santiago de Compostela. I received a message around 10 am saying that my suitcase was on its way and I could expect it between 10:30 and 23:59. Nice little window of time for me to hang around the apartment waiting. I maintained a hopeful attitude that it would arrive at 10:30.
Right.
I got to know my friend´s girlfriend, which was actually wonderful. We spent the morning drinking coffee, we made brunch with home grown eggs, watched some cartoons on TV, I was able to write on my blog. In other words, it forced me to do nothing, which for me, is very difficult. Eventually, my friend came home from work and we had lunch. My suitcase came! It was around 4 but it came nevertheless, I had resolved to leaving the house in the afternoon if my suitcase didn´t come and if they came to deliver it, well oh well, I wasn´t going to spend an entire day waiting for a silly suitcase.
Woo hoo! And none of the 5 glass bottles (wine, beer, etc) were broken!
I napped, and then got up and went out on the town. I walked around the old city and went in various hole in the wall shops. To be completely honest, everything in the old city is hole in the wall. The buildings are stone and stuck together, so, inherently they are hole in the wall. I was looking for a purse. I wanted something made here and handmade. I went into many shops to no avail. Finally, I stumbled upon a leather shop. The owner was inside working and all of the things she sold were made by her or her team of 2 other artists. Jackpot. I looked around and she explained to me how leather is made, cleaned, prepared, dyed, etc. I tried on several purses and finally bought one I was happy with. She told me to take good care of it so that it would last me a long time. I plan on it lasting 20 years. I´ll get back to you on that. She said to put hand lotion on it. Just a hydrating lotion keeps the leather soft and hydrated. Makes sense. I made my purchase and was out the door with little skip of glee.
I went into a bakery and bought a slice of tarta de almendras (almond cake) and continued along my way to Hotel Costa Vella. This place is beautiful. My friends brought me here about a year ago. It´s definitely a hidden gem tucked in the corner of Santiago de Compostela, it´s a typical hotel but it has this amazing, enchanted garden with a view of the steeple of an old church as the backdrop.
I ordered a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and had my slice of cake as I wrote in my journal. It was 8 pm and I had a coffee. For those of you who don´t know me very well, that is huge. Spain is really getting to me!
I went back home and we ordered a tortilla. Not to be confused with a Mexican tortilla, the tortilla española is a round omelette, so to speak, made with potatoes and eggs. I think it´d be safe to say it´s the token Spanish dish. It´s like take out pizza, you order your tortilla online, choosing what fillings you like (for example, we got cheese, lomo (pork tenderloin), bell peppers, and of course potatoes and eggs) and then they deliver it to your house. It was actually really good but my friend´s mom later made fun of us for ordering it and not making it at home. It´s like ordering scrambled eggs...why wouldn´t you just make it? Because you can order it...we are so spoiled these days.
Our friend came to pick us up and we went back to the old city for a concert. It was pretty cool. We bar hopped for a while, which is very Spanish and finally went home...
xoxo