We have discovered a new linguistic law: it is incredibly easy to find out how to say the word "poop" in any number of languages. First we experienced this outside Sagrada Familia while waiting to buy tickets. Then we experienced it on our walk from the ruins at Sant Martí on the way to the beach. Here's all you need to do:
1. Place excrement (any source will do) on the sidewalk where many people will pass by it.
2. Stand by and listen. The word "poop" (Scheisse, merde,caca, etc.) will be spoken by everyone who passes by, to warn his/her companions of the impediment in the path
But back to the walk. We got up at 7:30 so we could shower, dress, pack, breakfast, and buy lunch. We knew we didn't want to set off before 9:15 am, because our first stop (ruins) didn't open until 10 am.
After breakfast at Le Roser, we walked to the grocery store that we discovered the night before. There we bought 3 1.5L bottles of water for 0.35 euros apiece (we bought bottles of that size in Barcelona for 1.80-2.50 euros), a dried sausage, and a small loaf of bread (like a demi-bagette). Then we headed back to Le Roser, deposited our luggage in the entry, paid our 3.60 euros for our drinks the night before (1 euro for each glass of wine and 1.60 for the bottle of vichy water), and walked off.
We followed Steve's explicit instructions out of town. We passed charming houses and walked along the coastal path until we reached the ruins of Emporion, now Sant Martí d"Empúries. We toured the Greek ruins, then the Roman ones, and ended at the museum/gift shop/toilets. The ruins are quite extensive, and the entry price was right (3 euros for Lisa, and free for Linda). We spent about 1.5 hours there before continuing on the path. Again, Steve's directions were great.
We reached the actual village of Sant Martí and took a little walk around...picturesque little streets, a half-dozen restaurants serving tapas, paella, drinks, and full meals. A building with interesting tilework and painting on the outside. An old church with four bells on dimishing size at the top. We continued on the path, which led us to our nemesis...the beach.
This part of the walk is probably heavenly for most people - for us it felt a lot like "been there, done that" -- about a 45-minute walk on the beach. We couldn't find hard sand to walk on - the tide was high enough that there wasn't well-packed sand near the shoreline, and it was very fine sand -- like dry quicksand, said Linda. We slogged through it during the hottest part of the day - about 12:45 until 1:45. No shade. And it was so hazy that there wasn't much to see in the distance, which was probably spectacular. So we had to make do with people watching, which was actually pretty good, since about half of the beach-goers were nude. The worst part of the walk was the part when there was nobody to look at. We stopped and drank water regularly - Steve had told us to allow for 1.5-2.5L of water per person, per day.
We finally made it to the Green Marlin Beach Bar, where we decided to sit in the shade and enjoy some beverages. The bar was like an oasis in the desert! Linda had a Fanta Limón and Lisa had an Estrella beer. The waiter gave us a couple of scratch tickets. We scratched our silver strips and each read the word "abriador." We weren't sure what that was, and reading the legalese on the back of the ticket wasn't particularly helpful. Finally, Lisa put her thinking cap on and realized we had won bottle openers. This was confirmed by the waiter bringing us said openers. They are flat and fit well in one's wallet - I am sure mine will save my life someday (or at least keep me from being unnecessarily sober).
During our stay at the Green Marlin, we discovered that Linda's monocular (brought for bird-watching purposes tomorrow) was defective - the objective has come loose, making focusing impossible. We'll share the one that Linda gave Lisa for the trip.
We continued on our trek and made our first mistake - we were supposed to turn left off the beach about 5 minutes after the bar. We were apparently feeling so spunky and revived following our rest that we reached the turning point after about 3 minutes -- and missed it. It took us about 20 minutes of puzzlement, reading of maps, and doubling back to get on track again, but we finally did - and reached our destination, Cap Mas. Added bonus: we have now previewed the first 15 minutes of tomorrow's walk.
When we got to Cap Mas, we were heartened by the sight of our luggage sitting in the entry - further confirmation that we were indeed in the right place. It was about 3:30.
We hadn't eaten our lunch yet, so (after doing our laundry) took our lunch of bananas, bread, and sausage outside. We ordered a bottle of water and studied tomorrow's itinerary, which takes us to Sant Pere Pescadore, through a bird sancutary, and up to Castello d'Empúries, where there is a significant Jewish quarter near our hotel, Casa Clara.
Can Mas is a beautiful old stone farmhouse. Our room is on the ground floor, directly off the entry. The spot where we ate lunch (and finally drank a couple of beers, once they were sufficiently chilled) is right outside our window. We encountered some other walkers and bikers who are traveling with Catalan Adventures...Brits, as expected.
Tonight we will be picked up at 8 to be taken to dinner. Tomorrow we'll get up at 8 to dress and pack - no point in getting up earlier, since breakfast isn't served til 9 am. We'll try to leave by 9:30, as we did this morning.
Some terms in our walking directions that we're getting used to:
"carry on" = "keep going"
"directly" -= "immediately"
"tarmac" = "asphalt"
"track" = "path, trail"
"car park"= "parking lot"
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