SURPRISE!
- Estel
- Sep 14, 2017
- 5 min read
About two months ago, when we were still in the US, I booked a one night getaway in Spain for Alex and me. Alex probably did the dishes and cleaned the whole house, or he was working really hard or something (he deserved it, I don't go giving away free getaway weekends).
I found out that a Catalan band we both like was playing a concert at a summer festival up in the Pyrenees, and I thought it would be the perfect excuse. Call me psychic, but I also assumed that by the end of a month of living with my family, we would be needing some alone time far away. I wanted to keep it a surprise until the day of, but when I saw Alex making plans with the mountain biking crew (although he threw up after eating a ham sandwich right before their first outing-- I guess throwing up on the first date is an Alex Baker signature move) and I decided to tell him the day before. He loved it (and he didn't throw up).
We headed up towards the mountains early in the morning, taking a train from Barcelona straight to Puigcerdà (a town at the border with France). You can totally drive there, the roads are beautiful too, but the train ends up taking the same amount of time and you avoid traffic and unexpected cows crossing the road. Also it's nice to go through the mountains in a train, sitting comfortably and enjoying the views. I get nervous in the car when the driver looks away from the windy road to enjoy the views. I want to tell them, "you look at the road, I'll describe the landscape" (I get that from my mom).
We passed all the ski slopes and charming mountain towns en route to our destination. We stayed at a hotel called "La Parada" (The Stop), which was built in the old train station. To our surprise, as we walked out of the train onto the platform, we almost walked into the check-in office. It's right there. The hotel is small, with a very modern interior but keeping the essence of the old station. There's black-and-white pictures everywhere that show you how the place used to be, and the number of every room is an old school train ticket.
They let us check in early, so we dropped our bags in the room and headed out to explore! Let me tell you something about Puigcerdà: getting around is tiring. The train station and the beautiful square/garden/playground in front of it are in the lower level. The rest of the town is built up the mountain progressively, like a very steep rollercoaster. It is not like the other mountain towns where you get all winded because of the hilly streets. It is elevator high-- literally. They have elevators and a railcar (funicular) that take you "downtown" (or uptown in this case), but if you're feeling active you can also go walking up a gazillion stairs. If you choose the second option, you'll experience the meaning of instant regret. Either way, the views are so beautiful that (I guess) it'll be worth it.
It's very easy to move around in Puigcerdà. It's like a grid, and since the hill makes an easy landmark, it's fun to walk around without a map and get lost without being afraid of ending up in France. If you feel like the street you're on is going abruptly downhill, you are leaving town. If you get to a big lake, you are about to leave town. If people are speaking French and all the signs are in French-- well, you definitely left town and are now in France.
One of the many things I love about Spain is that in almost every restaurant, you can enjoy the popular "menú migdia," which is a fixed-price menu for lunch (you know we take our lunches seriously, with two courses, bread, wine, dessert, and coffee). You can usually choose between 4 first courses, 4 seconds, a few desserts, and it also includes wine, bread and coffee because...you are in Spain. The price is fixed, usually between 7 Euros up to 20-something. It's a great way to go to restaurants that you normally couldn't afford for dinner with the full-price menu. We had lunch at a restaurant with great views. Our waitress was a little bit dry and quiet, but you could tell very deep inside she loved us because she brought us allioli. Also, it's so refreshing to be ignored by your waitress after feeling overwhelmed during almost four years in the US with waiters who ask you things while you are chewing on your food. And because you don't have to tip, nobody feels bad. She gets paid, we get fed. It's a win-win situation.
We walked all over town and headed back down to the hotel to take naps. It was sooo quiet. Unlike home, nobody came to bring bread over, or to ask about whose funeral they're celebrating today at church, and there were no questions about how to attach a file on an email (little paper clip at the bottom, mom)... just peace and quiet.
We came out of the cave conveniently at dinner time. We walked (climbed) up to our restaurant, El Caliu (Warmth). Since it was a little bit too early for dinner (remember, the sun cannot be out while you have dinner), we walked to the square to enjoy some cider and patatas bravas.
El Caliu honored its name, because the owner of this cozy little mountain restaurant made us feel at home from the moment we walked in. We enjoyed amazing, locally-sourced dishes. It was like going to eat at grandma's house (if said grandma knows how to cook and how to plate stuff). After that, we walked (slid) down to the concert across the train tracks and partied hard.
The next day, we literally walked to another country (France) to buy "the most amazing drink and snacks ever." Alex stayed in Cannes for almost a month for the Film Festival (if you didn't know, you must be the only one), and he and his coworkers apparently survived on those items. Running down the aisles of Carrefour like a kid on Christmas morning, Alex ended up finding his treasure:
We practiced our almost perfect French in Bourg Madame for the rest of the morning, and then walked back to the train and the side of the border where people talk normal. We boarded our train and headed back to home base, waving "see you soon" to our beautiful neighbor mountains.
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