After the lovely missed-train fiasco in Barcelona, the arrival in Zaragoza was a bit tense. Kristina and I were both pooped, and I hadn’t known it at the time, but Kristina had apparently accumulated quite the collection of blisters in Barcelona. The walk to the apartment was bright and slow-going, but we made it there easy enough.

Luckily, our hosts were positively adorable,and adorable people generally put me in a good mood. They were an older husband and wife, and they both did the double-cheek-kiss thing, which I love. The last time somebody tried to do that with me was in Dublin, and it was with a gorgeous Italian boy. I hadn’t realized what he was trying to get from me, though, as I had just met him, so I swooped in for a way-too-awkward hug and left him extremely confused. Not this time, though! I knew what was going on.

Our little room was cute and had a nice little balcony. We plopped down for a whie, but Kristina wasn’t sure she coud make it out for dinner. It was this time that she decided to show me her blistered feet, and MAN, were they a sight to never want to see again! Bahahaha. Sorry, Kristina. Seriously, though! She had like a dozen little bubbles on each foot! I’ve never seen anything like it!

She talked of popping them (no, please no!), and I talked of casually finding dinner and never discussing the matter again. After some contemplation, we asked our host for suggestions on close dinner, and he said there was a restaurant right on the corner. Well, that walk can’t be all that bad then, I reasoned. I managed to get Kristina to put on shoes and walk to the top of the stairs before she gave up and turned around. ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do about food, but I just feel like this is more important,’ she said defeatedly.

….More important than food??

….Spanish food??

….In Spain??

….Why don’t you just rip my heart out of my chest while you’re at it, Kristina?

Bahaha. Sorry for the drama. But those were my actual-real-live feelings tbh. I was so hungry. And as quick as I am to get a bite to eat in the fanciest, quietest, or busiest of restaurants by myself, at home or abroad, I kind of wasn’t planning on needing to for a while, and I wasn’t in the right mindset.

She went back to ‘take care of the blisters,’ –yuck–, but I didn’t feel like going it alone, so I indulged myself in a quick nap-slash-pouting session.

When she got back from the shower, she said she still wasn’t feeling it, so I all but stormed out and down to the little restaurant, frustrated but too starving to do anything about it.

And low and behold! This restaurant was super cute. I had my book. The menu looked good and the prices were cheap. And the waitress was adorable. She talked me through almost the entire menu before I ordered some sort of special seafood salad, which at the time sounded like an interesting, authentic Spanish dish, but it turned out to be poke with rice. (A raw fish dish – Japanese, maybe?) Hahaha. It was delicious, though, so no complaints.

I also noticed that there was a chalkboard advertising sangria for six euros and fifty cents for a pitcher, which is CHEAP. I ordered some, and the adorable waitress explained there were two flavors. I asked which was her favorite, and she said, ‘I say the red one, and this is because this is my recipe.’ Well, can’t say no to that!

‘Just a glass, though, yes? Because this one,’ she pointed to the chalkboard, ‘is a very large?’

Hm…. I assumed the glass would be at least a couple euros. And I had really been wanting to try a pitcher at some point. But, she was right. I would likely die if I tried to down one of those on my own.

‘Uhm… Just a minute. I think my friend might be coming, so I will let you know what size in a little bit.’

‘Oh! You have a friend! Okay, I will be back.’ Honestly, she acted a little too surprised/ excited that I had friends. Bahaha.

I quickly messaged Kristina. ‘They have cheap food here! And really cheap sangria! I want to order us a pitcher! It’s literally like thirty steps from the apartment, and you can take the elevator down!!!’

It worked. (:

Kristina got a deee-licious egg, potato, and chorizo sausage scramble. The sausage was soooo good! And the sangria was wonnnderful. I actually managed to drink almost half of it! At one point, I remember telling Kristina that things were moving, and I believe that was after my first glass. Bahahaha. No regrets. So delicious. We really wanted to try the other flavor, but again, I just didn’t think it would be the best way to leave this world.

At the end of our meal, we asked Adorable Waitress for suggestions on things to do for our one-day-but-really-more-like-a-half-day stay in Zaragoza, and she went back to one of her co-workers so that they could make a giant list for us! Including directions for transit! Literally the cutest!

In the morning, we had breakfast with our hosts. The wife, Maria, made two different kinds of muffins (so good!) plus fresh orange juice (my fave!) She didn’t speak much English, so her husband had to keep translating for both of us. It was pretty adorable. They showed us pictures of their grandkids (two of the boys had actually been over for dinner the night before, but we hadn’t met them), and talked about their kids. They told us about their own travels back in the day, but they said they were too old and tired to do much traveling now, so they travel by hosting people from around the world! Have I mentioned how positively adorable they were?

At one point, Kristina asked about all the trophies lining the kitchen. Apparently, the husband is quite the chess player! Maria kept shaking her head and smiling while rolling her eyes., as if saying, ‘Don’t encourage him.’ The cutest.

We thanked our hosts for breakfast and set out for the day. We were going to see a castle and then try to make our way downtown to see some squares and cathedrals if time permitted.

The castle was g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s. Kristina and I have both decided we will likely get married here, so start saving up for plane tickets if you plan on attending either of our weddings!

Kristina was really digging the archaeological museum side of the castle (ha! get it?), but I was content to just wander the small halls and admire the courtyard.

Her blisters were still doing a number on her feet, so I eventually bid her ado and made my way downtown while she stayed to admire some more castle-bits.

The walk was mostly through this park along the water.

Very pretty. But no match for the big square and cathedral themselves!

I love giant cathedrals. I think they are positivey jaw-dropping and awe-making and just everything you can want in a beautiful historical building. Some of them took hundreds of years to build, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of them! So huge, with multiple rooms and wings and turns and ah. So great. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the cathedral, but that was pretty, too!

I was sad to see my time dwindling, so I tried fast-wandering a bit (which, unfortunately, is never quite the same as normal-paced wandering) and ran into the tourist streets. Lots of shops, cafes, and people. And ruins!

Not sure what these ruins were from, but the square was called Piazza de Roma, or something of the sort, so maybe the Romans had something to do with this little bit of Spain? I hadn’t known they made it over that far. Will have to fact check later.

Meeting up with Kristina was a bit of a fiasco again because it turned out that the busses back to the castle were kind of non existent, but we managed eventually and had left plenty of time this go around to make sure we didn’t miss another train. We said goodbye to our hosts, took the trek again, grabbed some food to go, and enjoyed the loveeeely views on the train to Madrid.

One of the prettiest train rides I’ve ever been on! We zoomed through giant cliff faces of red rock, like driving through a canyon. We went through tunnels. We flew over barren nothingness. We passed by towns. And every once in a while, we would come across an ancient cathedral or castle or tower that just made me want to stop the train to pop out for a quick second! I was never fast enough with my camera to record these pretty sights, but it was well worth the slow train.

To Madrid!

 

Venlig hilsen/ hasta luego,

Lizzy-wa