adventures of an american housewife in the south of france

Roses, Spain: Back to the Costa Brava

A few weeks ago, we headed down south to pick up our friends Marq and Dawn , who began their European Adventure in Barcelona.  They invited us to spend a few days in Barcelona with them, but with all we've had going on lately and the fact that we just went there about 6 months ago, we decided to let them have some privacy, and pick them up for a night on the Costa Brava instead.
(As a side note:  I know I still owe you guys a City Guide on Barcelona.  It's very high on my list of upcoming blogging topics and I'm hoping to publish it after I get through all these recent travels, so for those of you who have asked me for it, please hang in there!  It's coming soon!)
The 3.5-hr drive to Barcelona is really beautiful, so it was hard to be frustrated by the traffic or the heat (no AC in The Pony!) when we had the breathtaking Pyrenees Mountains as our backdrop.  The last time we went to the Costa Brava, we spent the day in Cadaqués.  We decided to try a different town this time and picked Roses, both for the name, and also because it was slightly closer to Figueres, where we were headed the next day to visit the Dalí Museum.  Roses is a bit more built up than Cadaqués (although, to be fair, we went to Cadaqués in the middle of January, so maybe we were just seeing it during its slowest time?), definitely bigger, and closer to the main highway.  We checked into our hotel, and began the 15 minute walk along the beach to town.

gorgeous beach in Roses

We spent our afternoon walking around the little downtown, exploring shops while looking for ridiculous sunglasses, and trying not to get pelted by sand.  Seriously.  It was so windy by the beach, it was hard to walk along the water!  There were many little paddleboats you could rent, which could have been fun if we weren't two pregnant ladies trying not to get knocked over by the wind.

downtown

2 besties with some booze

the streets of Roses

dipping our feet in the Med

That night, we decided to try a restaurant right down the street from our hotel, Jabalí Grill as opposed to walking back into town.  Not only was it a mere 1 minute walk from our hotel, but it was fabulous!  We had paella, whole fish, roasted chicken, and gazpacho.  The staff was so friendly and brought us lots of free after dinner drinks.  Then they realized half of our group was pregnant so the boys drank them all.

digestif

Now, I have a little bit to say about the hotel we stayed in, Hotel Maritim, because it was pretty bad.  It was clean and in a great location with good sized rooms, but the beds were like sleeping on a wooden board and our rooms were above the dining room.  Which means that from 7am - 11am when they served breakfast, we were serenaded by a constant cacophony of scraping chairs, clanking plates, screaming kids, and tables being moved.  What the hell were they doing down there!  Not fun when you've barely had any sleep because you spent the night on a wooden plank. And if that wasn't enough, there was this.

"Daniela"

Daniela.  Wow.  She was some entertainment.  Basically a one-woman karaoke show that left Michael repeating, "Seriously, maybe they'll just let me up there.  Do you think I could take the mic from her?"  I mean, really, when we first got back to the hotel after dinner and saw everyone outside by the pool, and heard the singing, we really thought it was karaoke night.  But no.  Just Daniela.  Performing songs like, "Can't Get You Outta My Head" with her Muzak machine in her thick (Russian?) accent.  She kept trying to get our table to get up and dance, but lady, we were not nearly drunk enough for that.  Finally she dedicated a song to our table in a final attempt to involve us in a way that didn't include stifled laughter.  As she sang, we all said to each other, "What song in this?  What the hell? What is she singing?"  Turns out it was "Simply the Best."  Nothing like a little Tina Turner to impress the Americans.

Daniela performing

me and Dawn and our terrible faux beer. really wishing this would take the edge off of Daniela's performance.

Ah Roses, you were weird and windy, but beautiful and yummy.  Thanks for the strange night.

5 Responses to “Roses, Spain: Back to the Costa Brava”

  1. Molly says:

    Oh, Daniela! Was she sporting a sheer dress? Woah there.

    Fun visits with friends make my heart glad for you.

  2. Shannon says:

    Hilarious! Who doesn’t love sleeping on a plank! Thanks for the shout out too, I’ll stop bothering you regarding LA RAMBLA!

    • Natalie says:

      Ha! Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who has asked for it :) and you would have LOVED Daniela. She looked like she came straight from the youknowwhat-about!

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