Costa Brava 2
Saturday January 1, 2022
Yesterday (New Year’s Eve) was a gloriously sunny day again, so we went to Calella de Palafrugell, yet another beautiful coastal town with magnificent clear aquamarine waters. It was decently busy with beach goers but we stuck to the coastal walk for the most part. The path used to be a patrol route in the times that they had to look out for marauding pirates but now it’s used by tourists to hike from one town to another. From the path you can see the full glory of the green hillside dotted with white houses with orange roofs.
For lunch, we headed to Doskiwis Brewery, owned by a couple of Kiwis. This was a recommendation by the New Zealanders I met in my last blog post, and both Marc and I were very impressed by the casual atmosphere of the outdoor dining area, as well as the quality of the food and drink. I had a good yarn with Mike, the owner, who was cooking, as well as his wife, who was inside handling the drinks.
We knew the restaurants would be closed over New Year’s so we stocked up at the supermarket and started driving to Far Sant Sebastia, one of Catalonia’s best sunset spots. However, after passing through Pal, we noticed a massive cloud coming in from the coast, shrouding the entire area in dark fog. We quickly reevaluated and turned around, heading north back to L’Estartit where the fog hadn’t reached. We managed to find a small park on the hillside leading up to Castell del Montgri to watch the final sunset of 2021.
After cooking dinner, we watched the festivities around the world and start preparing our own. The Spanish have a tradition where you eat a grape every second for 12 seconds to welcome in the New Year. Each grape gives you good luck for each month of the coming year, and it’s a hugely popular practice for all Spaniards wherever they are celebrating in the world, and this is even a tradition that my Mexican friend practices too! There’s a very particular way it’s presented on television, so I was sure to follow the instructions carefully, lest 2022 be another year of awfulness. We finished the night with some Catalonian sparkling wine, cava!
2021 for the most part has been mediocre. It’s had its highs and lows, and the fact that we still haven’t really beaten COVID19 is worrying. I’ve been quite anxious about the state of the pandemic but thankful that Canada’s rollout of the vaccine and the subsequent booster was swift, even if it was horribly disorganised and chaotic. The chance to travel to Europe, as well as Banff and Jasper earlier in the year, has been a huge boost to my mental health and general outlook on life, despite the complications of doing so. I’m hoping to go back to New Zealand to visit my family sometime this year, it’s been too long, and every expat I’ve talked to has lamented the managed quarantine rules that the country put into place. If not New Zealand, then hopefully Malaysia to see my relatives there. It’s too difficult to plan so far in advance though, so we’ll just have to see how this pandemic works out.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:43am on Saturday January 1, 2022 :: 0 comments :: 