A short trip out
Wine groves for Penedes wine on the way to St Pere de Ribas
Having been for a coffee this morning, we decided, (largely because of a requirement to make a purchase from me), that we wanted to find a local market. I had looked on a well reputed website to find out when Sitges market took place and had found it to be Friday. Being Friday, Captain Clarke and I had trekked up to the Plaza Catalunya, which transpires to be half way up a mountain to the back of the town of Sitges, only to find that the website was wrong and that the market takes place on a Thursday. We decided to head into town for a coffee and then we would visit the Tourist Office, (no Spanish required!), to find out if there were any other local markets on. It turned out that there is a small market in the next town called St Pere de Ribas and then another, bigger, market in Vilanova i Geltru tomorrow. The very nice lady at the tourist office told us that there was a bus leaving for St Pere de Ribas in just a few minutes from outside the office. So we decided to go.
The market at St Pere de Ribas
There are a couple of things I should point out at this juncture. 1) I don’t do buses, and 2) I have decided that I can’t drink too much coffee here in Spain because it has too much milk in it and milk does not like me! When we alighted the bus I felt decidedly queezy and had dreadful burps. However, we meandered into the town and arrived at the market. It transpired that the lady in the Tourist Office in Sitges was not wrong – it is small! That said, it did give us an opportunity to see another town, more people and another sample of life. You may be wondering what the purpose of this mission to visit a market is. It is all to do with loose coins. I cannot bear having loose coins in my pocket and I find them to be very uncomfortable. There is no way that you can practically carry coins in a gentleman’s wallet, (careful you lot who are practically on the keyboard now to say I am no gentleman!), and so I have a very small leather keyring pouch that I bought in Spain previously. It is perfect. I don’t use it for keys, but it is ideal for loose change. However, my last one has fallen apart. The zip went and then some of the stitching came undone. I have been looking for a replacement for ages, (even tried in Tenerife), but to no avail. The same was true in the market this morning – nothing there. What is particularly irritating is that the last one only lasted for 30 years!
Some of the stalls at the film festival in Sitges
And so, we returned to Sitges on the bus. By the time we got off, I was feeling bloated along with a feeling of cramp in my stomach. Now, at this point Great Uncle Bulgaria is sitting in his hotel room in Reykjavík all smug and happy because he now knows exactly what is going on. I, however, did not. I shall come to more medicals a little later, (only because I finally worked it out!). However, we returned to San Sebastian and had a quick walk around the stalls for the film festival – we decided that, since they are dedicated to horror and science fiction films, they are not really our cup of tea and so didn’t stay long. We decided instead to walk back into town for a spot of lunch.
Streets adorned with Commerce de Sitges banners
We decided on a seafront bar for a change. I don’t recall the name of the bar that we chose, however it was not memorable for any of the right reasons. I didn’t really feel like too much and decided that some bread might help my unhappy stomach, (I know, Great Uncle Bulgaria, I know!), and so I asked for some P’amb Oli con Jamon Serrano. No, I was told, I could not have P’amb Oli with Seranno ham, I could either have P’amb Oli, or Serrano ham. I said I would have both. Captain Clarke fancied a salad. He chose a local salad called ‘Xato’. It is a salad of romesco dressing with anchovy and cod, (I think it is reconstituted salt cod or ‘bacalao’), and Captain Clarke was having trouble remembering if he had had it previously and liked it. The answer is emphatically no – he did not like it! Frankly, it looked as horrible as he said it tasted! I had to buy him an ice cream afterwards just so that he could get rid of the taste, (none for me, I can’t eat ice cream even when all is well with my stomach!). I’m afraid I don’t have a photo of lunch, so adjacent is a photo of the ‘Commerce de Sitges’ banners which are suspended across every street in Sitges at the moment. They are heavily promoting spending money here!
Selfies are improving
Following lunch I took a Zantac to try and settle my stomach. I had managed to eat about half the Seranno ham that they had brought with my bread, (why couldn’t they put it on top of the bread?!), and had had to ask Captain Clarke to help with the rest. He didn’t mind on account of his awful salad! We had a short walk along the sea front and decided to attempt another selfie. This time, we were a bit more pleased with it. I think that by the time we leave this wonderful town we might even have mastered it! We enjoyed a short meander along the sea front and looked at all the ‘hookie’ bags, trainers, jewelry and other stuff that the, mainly North African, traders setup on the streets on a Friday and Saturday evening. They rarely seem to sell anything, but they are always there!
Sitges Church in the background
We returned to our hotel for a rest, but on the way we couldn’t resist just one more attempt at a selfie with the church in the background. The church is so iconic in Sitges and we just had to try again. David Bailey I am not, but at least we achieved something near to the result we were looking for. We arrived in our hotel and Captain Clarke took to his bed for a ‘siesta’. He is actually remarkably good at the concept of a ‘siesta’ and has managed one almost every afternoon since we have arrived in Spain. It is, frankly, remarkable that he manages to get through a whole day’s work without one in England! That said, he doesn’t usually wash down his lunch with a couple of glasses of wine. (I was, by now, on water only!) In fairness, we have been fairly active on most days and we have done a pretty reasonable amount of walking.
San Sebastian beach looking down from the Church
Before we went out in the evening, I was still suffering, (nealry last medicals for today!), and I decided to take a tablet for my stomach cramps. Hey presto, half an hour later, I felt pretty much OK. Strangely, I still hadn’t worked out what the problem was, but we went back to the Indian restaurant Chai which we had enjoyed so much earlier in the week. We thought this would be good on the grounds that a) I can eat Indian food at any time, b) it would be less embarrassing if I didn’t manage to eat very much as it is less visible and c) the spices used in Indian cooking are superb for settling the stomach, (particularly cumin, turmeric and corriander, should you care to know!). As it was, it wasn’t a problem – I ate every morsel. It was delicious! This time I had the Chicken Balti that Captain Clarke had had last time. It is stunning – nothing like a Chicken Balti that I have ever had in England, but more flavour, more depth and absolutely mouth watering.
One of the Americans on the table next to us in Restaurant Chai
As we were sat in the restaurant two American chaps came and sat on the table next to us. They started chatting and were quite amusing for about 10 minutes. The trouble was, they were everything that epitmises the word ‘queen’ to me and not my cup of tea at all, but amusing for 10 minutes to observe! We ordered a bottle of Indian wine to accompany our meal. It was genuinely from India and was a rosé wine but, unfortunately, it was a Zinfandel which is not my favourite grape as I find it too sweet. In any event, I still didn’t really feel much like drinking, so Captain Clarke stepped into the rescue. Following our meal we decided to take a nightcap in our, now usual, haunt which we have finally found out is called ‘Voramar’. The owner is very friendly, (his name is Alex), and we usually have a chat with him when we go in. Although I have been feeling a little under the weather, I have never turned down a ‘Ballantynes con hielo’, (whisky with ice), in as long as I can remember, so we ordered our usual tipple and sat back to watch the world go by. Unbelievably, I couldn’t drink mine and had to ask Captain Clarke for his help once again!
He’s a painter apparently, but I know no more!
Now, my main reason for reporting in such detail on my ailments is not to bore you with stuff that is irrelevant and not interesting to you. As I have said previously, one of the reasons that I write this rambling is so that I can look back and remember in the future. I awoke at about 02.30 this morning with dreadful stomach cramps and a real feeling of being bloated and generally unwell. I had to find something to relieve it! It was then I realised, (and yes – I know you worked this out ages ago Great Uncle Bulgaria!), that what was wrong was that I was suffering from a bout of IBS, (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). I remain convinced that I caught it from Great Uncle Bulgaria as he suffers with it too, but the medical experts say you can’t catch it! I hadn’t recognised the symptoms at all because, thankfully, I have not suffered with it too many times before, but was diagnosed as having it about 18 months ago. My reason for writing it all here is that hopefully if, or when, it comes back in the future I will recognise it much earlier and do something about it! I had all the right tablets with me all the time, but hadn’t even considered it as a probability. Two tables at 02:30, another two when I awoke and a couple more at lunchtime, (they are 4 times a day tablets), and hey presto, I am pretty much as right as rain! I am eating again – sticking to water for the time being on the liquids front – and feel about 1000% better than I have for the last couple of days. What an absolute plonker! I should have worked it out sooner! I blame the initial outbreak on the dreadful Pepito de Lomo for kicking it off, but the signs were all there all the time. Sometimes it is better to listen to your body and analyse what is going on – its RudyMenTerry!
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