Yesterday was an off day with training so I had the entire day to do what ever I wanted. But its weird for me not to have things planned out. I spent the last four years being involved in clubs, attending class, and going to work. Without any structure in my day I am a little lost.
I first did not wake up until close to noon, which is something that never happens. I figured it may just be the quiet roommates or the interior facing windows that kept me in a sleep coma for that long. Either way, I got up determined to get something done during the day. I thought it would be smart to eat a light breakfast(lunch) and head to the Orbea bike store that is about 10 mins from my apartment. I have been trying to figure out my training bike situation for the last couple of days and figured I could get some suggestions from the pros but of course when I got there they were closing (damn siestas). Now I had two and half hours to kill. What to do....
I began to walk down Passeig de Gracia, a busy street with lots of high end stores (Louis V, Hugo Boss, etc...) If only I had no intention of buying a bike I may actually gone in a shopped. But something about 200 euro shirts is just not appealing enough. I did however go look at sunglasses. I found a pair that I really liked by Police, but I felt 162 euros was a bit steep when I had seen the same pair earlier in Born for 140.
The grocery store was the next place I went in hopes of finding ideas for dinner tonight. As I strolled through the fruit and vegetables, I had the idea to make a bruschetta or at least attempt it. How hard could it be? I picked up some onions, peppers, mushrooms and cheese. I figured I would skip on putting any meat into the recipe this time.
As I was walking back to the apartment, I decided to call Fred, one of my new friends from Sweden to see what his plans for the evening were. He had a couple of friends in town and they were planning on going to dinner then out for drinks and he was kind enough to invite me along. Well there go my cooking plans for the evening. Now I just needed to kill another 4 hours.
While back in the apartment I realized just how badly I needed to do laundry but I had no idea how to use the machine that is in the apartment. And with it raining off and on outside, I was not sure if my clothes would ever be dried. Icar showed me how to use the machine but I figured I would put it off for at least another day or two. I wasn't that desperate yet.
I eventually made it back to the bike store around 5 in the evening and was lucky enough to talk to an employee from England. It is much easier to talk about bikes when it is in English. The store unfortunately did not have any older (cheaper) bikes in my size but Sam said the used bike I had been looking at was a great deal and I would have no problem reselling it at the end of the summer. So on that note, I headed back to the other store and bought the bike. Now all I needed was a helmet and a new bike jersey.
I made it down to dinner around 9:30 and met with Fred, Nicholas and Joanna(both from Stockholm). They were both very nice and spoke great English. We enjoyed a fun night that started with tapas and a great deal of wine, a pirate bar, a shot bar, and some random hole-in-the-wall with a Canadian bartender. The only hitch in the night was when we left it was raining and the nearest metro stop closed right as I was walking up to it. I ended up paying 8 euros for a taxi ride home.
The funniest moment of the night happened right as dinner was ending. Our waiter came over to our table and ask if we were 'Finished.' Fred, without missing a beat, looked up and said 'No, we are Swedish,' thinking she had said Finnish! Hahaha! I about cried I was laughing so hard!
Enough about yesterday, I already got up today and ran and will be picking up my bike around 5 or 6. I am very excited to be buying it! I will let you know how it all goes. I might even try cooking tonight.
Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment