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Spanish trip

Saturday before the school started we came back from a 2 week vacation travelling through mostly southern France and spending a week in the resort town Miami Platja in Spain.  Spain is drastically different from Germany.  Starting from the fact that nearly nobody speaks English and neither Chris nor I have any knowledge of Spanish, the supermarkets have different assortment of foods which actually resembles more American in the brands they carry (Hellmann’s, Kellogg’s,  etc.).  Of course it does have really good Spanish ham!   

We rented 2-bedroom apartment for a week which was done in a very Spanish style with orange and green walls and tile floors.   It had a tiny kitchen but enough to make a quick breakfast and a sandwich, but the best part was the pool downstairs as well as the proximity to the beach.  One beach was 5 minute away by walking (super local, very few tourists), another was about 7 minutes away by car (semi-local, semi-tourist) and the third beach was about 15 minutes away by the car (definitely touristy with all the appropriate attractions and of course restaurants).  We definitely got to enjoy all the beaches but our favorite was the semi-local, semi-toursity - the sand was beautiful, it wasn't crowded, clean water.  The big beach had a big water playground setup where Chris, Andrei and Ilya got to play.  Anton wasn’t big enough to go so he and I got to hang out on the beach and play in the sand. Another thing about Spanish beaches - it is safe to say that at least 80% of women wear 2 piece bathing suits, about 5 % are topless and the rest are approaching their 90th birthday or American and they wear one piece bathing suits.  On the same topic - Ilya decided that he wanted a bikini bathing suit for him so we went to get one for him.  Andrei has been wearing a tight one for over a year now (since his diving days) but also decided to go with the shorter version of that.

What surprised us overall was the food.  We've ordered food at some restaurants where we just walked in and a lot of it was rather bland.  We did, however, enjoy paella very much.  The sangria was probably as to be expected -  great in some local places but very fake and syrupy tasting in the touristy places.  We also found Spanish version of fast food - 100 Montaditos.  The menu consists of 100 little items, mostly sandwiches and they come with many many different items such as Spanish ham, chorizo, chicken salad, different cheeses,etc.  The prices start at 1 euro to 5ish probably being the most expensive thing on the menu. It was great.

P.S. Spain beaches can be very crowded but we picked the beaches and the times so as you can see boys had all the sand they needed.

Pictures from vacation:








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