Day 19 – to Spain, to Vigo
Jun 15 – New Country Day
- I filled a paper bag with treats for our breakfast-on-the-go. We had an early train becuase the choices were either 8am or 8pm.
- Our 2* Uber driver was too swervy getting us to the station. I suspect he had back pain; he couldn’t sit still.
- The train was already there even though we were early. It was also ultra quiet. People used their ear buds or headphones and kept their voices down. It was so nice. The train was older, though. There were no charging ports, no tray tables, no desks. It was an older (electric) commuter train, but it was in great shape for our 2-hour journey.
- As we followed and then crossed the river, we did our little chant: Portugal, Portugal, Portugal, Portugal, Portugal – Spain! (totally stolen from Kara & Nate and their van life days)
- Vigo technically has Uber, but none were running. So, we walked 1km to our hotel, all uphill. During checkin, we met a slightly crazy American woman who was on our same train and staying at our same hotel. They also walked over and heard us talking in American English. It felt like she’d never met another American before. They were leaving the next day for Madird where she would have to work, but her husband was on vacation. She was clearly jealous of our retirement. WTF lady? We just met you and are in the middle of checkin. Finally, we were able to check in early and cool off (mostly naked, starfished on our bed). Maybe I should have said to her, “I’m sorry, but we need to get naked, so we need to finish checking in. BYE.”
- He also looked up our next train and went ahead and bought tickets. Good thing! There were only 6 seats left!
- We walked (again, uphill) to a nearby Indian place for lunch. My food wasn’t very good (or much of it) so we headed to a tapas place for a drink. They brought us a small nibble plate. This is going to sound awful, but it was very good: it was like a tiny slice of a potato and corn casserole on a piece of bread. My wine was also good. When we sat outside, we made a new bar friend and chatted in my “muy mal” Spanish and his also-very-bad English for a little bit until the place closed at 4pm.
- We then spied a small store and used the chance to get a couple of cokes for the fridge in our room. On our way back to the hotel, we saw our new friend at the “next” bar, having another beer. We all said “Hola Amigo” and waved to one another. It was very cute.
- And then our lack of sleep caught us. We both took naps.
- For dinner, we found a nice joint—Porto Sando—where we had Caesar salad and burgers. We made the decision to walk up hill to dinner, so we’d be walking down hill after. I got to practice a little Spanish, which was good because they do not speak English. It was also a lot cooler. And, at 10:30pm when we left dinner, it was still very light out.
- And now, our little blog is caught up to real time! We fought another glitch (a curly quote this time) and fought the weak internet in this hotel, but we are caught up! whew!
Day 20 – Vigo
Jun 16 – the Halo
- For our only real day in Vigo, we found a place called VIPs for breakfast, but it was after 12:30, so we had lunch. It turned out to be a chain owned by the same people as TGIFridays. Despite that, our food was good and they had Coke on tap with free refills. LOL! VIPs is in a mall, and that is also where the train station lives—different from the one we arrived through). So, we next found our train departure platforms.
- We then wandered around through mall until we found the Halo. It’s part short cut, part observation deck. It’s at the top (2-3 floors up) of the mall, but ~10 floors up from the ground below. Had we known, upon arrival (and with our spinners/backpacks), we could have walked blocks to the Halo, taken the elevator up, and then walked the block and a half downhill to our hotel. Oh well.
- Seeking refreshment, we found a smoothie and vanilla shake waiting for us at a cafe.
- Despite it being a fishing village, we had seen plenty of IG “models” and content creators in Vigo. On our walk (only about block and a half) back to our hotel for siesta, we saw what we think was a grandma taking photos and videos of her granddaughter’s booty in a short flouncy skirt. The younger woman was doing a catwalk, and strutting, and posing, and tossing her hair…and the whole nine yards. I still can’t decide if grandma is progressive or if the whole thing was creepy.
- On the way into town, he spotted Ramen Shifu, so we had to go there, despite it being down hill from our hotel. Again, it was another chain, but our food was very good and there was a lot of anime art everywhere. And, we had walked far enough down to continue on to the lower entrance to the Halo (with only one block of a hill up to its base) and walk downhill to get back to the hotel.
- We also passed a casino, but it was so subtle, we didn’t realize what it was until we were past it and saw “no -18” and Bingo signs. I looked them up and found a couple of dozen of them in town. That’s a pretty big industry for a small metro of less than 300,000 people. It’s densely packed and feels bigger than that, but it’s really just an old fishing village.
