Our time with friends in Zaragoza

In Zaragoza for only 1 full day and 2 nights, such a short time which went by very quickly. Most of the time we spent with the people that I'd got to know and became friends with - Sergio, Lourdes, Irene, Yolanda and Jose Antonio - I couldn't have met a nicer bunch people and finally they got to meet Barry, having met Thomas, Robyn, Wayne, Emma and Sam when they visited me in Zaragoza. I also got to say "hi" to a lot of the teachers, staff and students who were a big part of my life there, have a morning cafe con leche in the local teacher' cafe, no staff room for these teachers. Surprisingly, I managed to remember quite a lot of the Spanish I'd learnt and it seemed ok, well, nobody fell about laughing although, for a while  I was telling people that "we are driving to Azpeitia yesterday". I did feel rather foolish when I realised that I should have been saying 'mañana' not 'ayer'. Must have been confusing for a few people. 

We didn't do any tourist 'stuff' so we'll have to go back for a weekend or two so Barry can visit the Goya exhibition and the underground Roman ruins.

We spent a little time with Yolanda on Tuesday night and it was almost like old times Friday afternoon walking, Spanish/English chatting and maybe a coffee or a beer and then we met Sergio and Irene and walked to the river with them, again, just like old times for me.  Central Zaragoza is such a fabulous place to walk about in - no traffic is such bliss.

On Wednesday we had lunch with Sergio, Lourdes and Irene and  afterwards Sergio and Irene went back to school and we walked with Lourdes back to her school but on the way - PAIN in my right calf  - A PULLED MUSCLE, I couldn't freakin' believe it!  Fortunately not too bad and I managed to hobble slowly to Lourdes's school and say Hi to Jose Antonio. So then it was on the bus and back to the hotel, pick up some ice and that was that for the rest of the day until it was time to meet at a bar for dinner - at Spanish dinner time, 9.30pm. 

What a fabulous dinner -1st came juicy and tender calamari, 2nd came  'huevos rotos' which is a traditional Spanish dish of soft yolk fried eggs on top of hot chips. It comes in one big dish for the center of the table and then the eggs are chopped up and mixed in with the chips. Everyone has a fork and tucks in and then mops up the remains with fresh bread - really delicious. 3rd came the'bocadillos' - like breadsticks with different kinds of meat etc in them. All this food was accompanied by beer, of course! 

Our huevos rotos

And then it was time for the goodbyes to Yolanda and Jose Antonio. They said they will visit us in Azpeitia so more like "hasta luego".  My 'stuff' from my Zaragoza apartment was in Sergio's car so we drove, well, he drove us, to our hotel and unloaded us and it. More goodbyes, never gets any easier to say goodbye although they also said they will come see us in Azpeitia so again "hasta luego" was more appropriate. Zaragoza people, if you're reading this -"hasta pronto".

The next day was 'driving to Azpeitia day' not that we were beginning to feel nervous, or anything,  about driving on the 'other side of the road'.