Sitges

Tapas haven’t been the same since Granada, meaning that they are no longer free with your drink order. However there is an upside to all this. The tapas restaurants have better quality dishes than the free ones, makes sense right? Mark takes Nang and me out to a fancier tapas bar which despite being expensive, have dishes good enough to draw Mark back for a return trip. Although paying as much as we did for plates such as small dish of mushrooms wasn’t quite the price I was expecting the dishes were all extraordinary. After bunch I head over towards the direction of Villanova i la Geltru again, but this time I am getting off at Sitges.



I have plans to meet up with Rocio who I met on the train ride to Vilanova. I arrive on the main beach area of Sitges and walk along the street. To my left there are beach chairs and tons of people laying out and on my right there are small hotels and restaurants lining the street. Rocio works at the Santa Maria hotel and it is easily spotted. From there the same hotel owners also have the Nina, and Pinta finishing the Christopher Columbus theme. The Santa Maria is the biggest and better of the three hotels. I get a local’s tour of Sitges.



I am still trying to get over a cold at this point and Rocio has invited me to her health spa. I have to swear a swimming cap, but I have access to the pools, sauna and solarium, which is just a desk out in the sun. There is a pool where jets of water shoot out and giving you a pressurized massage. The most interesting part of the health spa is the saunas. There are two types. The first one is a dry heat and breathing alone makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It is amazing how fast and how much the body sweats when presented with temperatures of 80C.



After the health spa we head over to Vilanova. Rocio has taught in Japan and lived there for 5 years. She has found an authentic Japanese restaurant in Vilanova and that is where we head off to. I don’t really recall any of the names of the dishes, but I just know that I haven’t had them before. Beside sushi, I really haven’t had much exposure to Japanese cuisine.
On my stay in Vilanova I also get the chance to check out Rocio’s brother’s house. He is building it single handedly while owning his own women’s clothing/fashion store. The house is still a work in progress, but most of the framework and foundations have already been put in place. A swimming pool is already finished in the back yard. The house is fully equipped with remote controlled blinds and windows, which is pretty baller.