I woke up late, as did the rest of my family. We all went to find what Daddy was craving for breakfast: fries with fried eggs on top. We eventually found a bar/restaurant (have I mentioned yet that literally every restaurant or café is also a bar?) whose waitress offered to cook us whatever we wanted. We got four servings of fries with fried eggs, and all of them, except for my dad's, also contained jamón serrano. Yum!
After doing a lot of walking around the beautiful town, my dad went back to the same restaurant at which we ate breakfast to journal. Meanwhile, Mama, Olivia, and I found a kitten! God, he/she (I'm going to say it was a boy) was adorable and shy, with one of the loudest meows I've ever heard from a kitten. We spent time with him, giving him bits of ham leftover from breakfast. The poor thing was a bit timid, though, so we were never able to pet him.
Later, Mama and Daddy went and sat on benches overlooking the Bay of Biscay that we had discovered earlier that morning. Olivia went to a café to journal while I chilled in my room, then bought a journal and pen and joined Olivia at the café. I bought a moon-shaped cookie that was half-dipped in chocolate, which was delicious.
Once O and I had joined our parents again, we met one of the best people I have ever had the pleasure to have a conversation with.
Okay, I have to preface this: Last time my family and I were together in Spain, which was six years ago, we visited Getaria for the first time and fell in love with the tiny town. We stayed for a few days, during which we visited an artist's workshop that was right across the street from our hotel. The artist was an amazing sculptor, and while we were there, he was carving himself, complete with curly hair and glasses. This morning, we visited the same workshop, only to find that it was now a store that sold clothing and crafts, and that the artist no longer owned the space. The nice employee offered to call the artist, whom we learned was named Manuel, and said that he was actually already planning to go to the store to set up some of his artworks to sell. So, we said that we could meet him at the store's entrance at five in the afternoon.
Back to the conversation: we met Manuel at the front of the shop at about 5pm. Mama explained that we had come to Getaria six years before, and that the first thing Olivia and I had mentioned when we arrived this trip was that we wanted to see the artist that we saw last time, and we wanted to buy some of his artwork. He was, in a word, delighted to talk to us about his work. He showed us the paintings that he had brought to sell at the shop: incredible seascapes bleeding with color, all of his treasured Getaria from memory. Manuel is from Portugal, and spoke with a pretty thick accent, but he had lived in Getaria since he was in his twenties. I think he's in his mid- to late-sixties, and I could tell how much he was enamored with Getaria. I'll tell you all about his descriptions of his other artworks in the next post, because you will not believe what he offered to do: he offered to show us his workshop, taller, and an exhibition that he had in a town near Getaria. I could not believe it!
After our fantastic conversation with Manuel, we went to eat at the Mayflower restaurant. Kinda weird name, I know, but I have dreamed about the food from this restaurant since we ate lunch there six years ago. Tonight did not disappoint. Unfortunately, we had to wait until 8 to eat, so while we waited, we ate a couple of tapas at a nearby restaurant and started a Jason Statham movie in our parent's hotel room. When we went back at 8:20, we got a few appetizers: calamares, anchovies in vinegar, and, of course, bread. I ordered grilled hake while Mama and Daddy shared grilled sunfish. Olivia got a tuna salad with tomatoes and onion. My grilled hake was mouth-watering, smoky with crispy skin. For dessert, we got cheesecake and chocolate mousse. Our leftover fish we saved for our sweet, loud-mouthed kitten. When Daddy went to give him some of the food, he found that the cat's mom was with him! Yay! The poor thing was probably crying for his mom all day.
We went back to the hotel room to finish the movie. Mama fell asleep, as happens with most movies, and the rest of us couldn't bear to finish it, it was so bad. This was unfortunate, because every other Jason Stathan movie I have watched, I have enjoyed. Bedtime!
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