The Rain in Spain

Heading off to Spain tomorrow, taking a weeks summer holiday with my neighbour Leon. We are heading first to Barcelona, then to Figueres, then to San Sebastian then finally to Madrid (where I’m looking forward to catching up with Sacha).

It has been 7 years since I was in Figueres, with my last visit there being a very memorable one. Scott and I were on a tour through Spain and France and decided we should check out the Salvadore Dali museum, as we are both fans. While there, I of course needed to use the Internet, so we headed into the library. There we found just one computer, and a young Catalan women hogging the access. After a period of time she realised we were waiting, turned, and I guess because of Scotts red hair, asked “Are you English?”. With reflex we responded, “No, we are Australian”, proud that this made us just that little bit more exotic. She replied “Well, since you speak English you can help me with this translation?”, so we did. I learnt a lot about boats while massaging the words into perfectly formed, almost artistic sentences. When complete we were invited out for some drinks with her friends, starting at midnight.

We spent the rest of the day chilling out, before about 11:00pm putting on our party frocks, already we were marveling at the Spanish culture for late nights. We did ask the women for her name, but neither of us could say it, we never imagined letters could be put together in that order. Anyway, upon arrival we were greeted by some cold beers and a collection of other Catalans. We spent the first minutes learning how to pronounce Meritxell, her name, finally getting to a point which all present deemed acceptable. We chatted and drank for an hour or so before Meritxell asked if we were ready to go out. Looking at our watches we could see it was approaching 1:30am, leaving us wondering what we had been, if not out, for the last hour and a half. 

At this point Scotty, who was on the end of 3 months or more of traveling bailed, leaving me alone with the Catalans for a night of clubbing. We drove out to what seemed like a strip of clubs in the middle of nowhere, and proceed to crawl down it. Meritxell seemed to know everyone, and therefore supplied copious amounts of free drink. The last I remember is dancing in this huge bar, and watching Meritxell jump into the swimming pool. Yes, there was a pool in the club.

Anyway, its Meritxells 30th birthday, and this is just one of the great memories I have of her friendship. Its going to be fun to return to the town where we met 7 years ago, and its really amazing that we have kept touch over the years like we have.

During the time I have known her I’ve lived in Melbourne, London and now Amsterdam and she has lived in Barcelona, Paris and London. The great bit was that we had over a year of overlap in London, with a particularly memorable summer of 2005, (which I think was the first her and Thomas lived there).

Well, anyway, Meritxell, cant wait to celebrate your birthday, and thanks for dragging me off the couch as often as you have! <grin>