One night in ... Olot?

I väntan på att jag ska hinna skriva en hel reseberättelse (tänkte göra det vilken dag som helst) så lägger jag ut en text som jag skrev på farsans bärbara under tiden vi var där. Nu så här i efterhand upptäcker jag att jag visst skrev den på engelska, men jag antar att det går lika bra för er alla... ;)


Yesterday I had a really good time. After I wrote the blog yesterday, we went to see the city. The volcano (we live on the side of it) was not too impressing, mostly a hill with a hole in it. We had a great dinner in the central square of the town, I had some catalanian version of duck with pears, really nice.

After dinner we went to the hotel with my newly bought oranges, naranjas, to take a photo of me and the two naranjas. This was for Jennis birthday, I sent her a MMS with the two naranjas (on my head) and the text "Ay, ay, ay, naranjas en la cabeza". Hope you enjoyed your birthday Jenni! ;)

After this somewhat strange exercise of holding two naranjas over your head without your arm showing and then taking a photo with the mobile in the other hand (my dad had a great time seeing me do this), I left dad in the hotel room and went for a stroll in the town, looking for a bar or café to spend the Friday night in.

After a while I found a plaza with a couple of bars/cafes and it seemed that this was the city's "warmup plaza", you came here for a cerveza or two before heading out to party. After talking to a girl whose English was not so very good, and mostly limited to yes/no and right/left/across (the last one being somewhat of a special-special, she had to think about it for quite a while), she told me where an English pub City Arms was located (a couple of blocks away, I wouldn't have found it without a description of the way).

City Arms was a really nice bar, looked somewhat like HG and felt like home immidiately. The place was packed with people (at one in the night, the place would be open to five they told me). I spent the night in this bar, meeting a few people (some who could talk English, and some who didn't).

The typical conversation (somewhere along the way of the whole conversation) would be:

S (stranger): What's your name?
A: Anders
S: Hi, Andres.
A: Ehm, yeah, hi!
S: Me llamo <input strange Spanish name which I had no chance of remebering or let alone pronouncing>
S: Where are you from?
A: I'm from Sweden, Suecia
S: Aaah, Suecia!
(Here I had a couple of different responses, I will return to them later)
...
S: Are you aqui (pointing at the bar) alone?
a: Yes
S: Alone? You don't know anyone?
A: No, I'm here alone.
S: What are you doing here? (meaning Olot, the city)
A: I'm on a vacation
S: What?
A: A holiday
S: (shining with every muscle in their face) Aaah, ollidey!
(short paus)
S: Why are you on ollidey (big smile, they seem to like the sound of the word ollidey) in Olot? (confused look)
A: Ehm, I'm here with my father?
S: What?
A: Padre, he's sleeping
S: AAaah, padre! Do you know someone in Olot?
A: No, no one.
S: So, why are you in Olot?
A: Ehm, holiday!
S: Aaaaaah, ollidey! (big smile)
S: Why do you have it in Olot?
A: Eherrhm... We're going to Barcelona tomorrow?
S: What?
A: Manjana, Barcelona!
S: Aaaah, I see, ollidey!
.....

Clearly, Olot is not a very big city for tourism. :)

As for the responses to Suecia, I have had the following:
S: Aaaah, yes, chocolate!
A: Ehm, noo, Suecia, in the north, not Switzerland
S: Ah, okey...

Or:
S: Aaah, Suecia, lovely country!
A: Have you been there?
S: Yes, a couple of days only
A: Aaah, I see, why?
S: Ollidey!!! (happy smile)
A: I see, where did you go?
S: I'm sorry, I don't know the names
A: Stockholm? Estocolmo?
S: Noo.... We were in Hungary, you know Budapest, and then went to Suecia!!
A: Ehrm, noo, wait, Sweden is up in the north!?
S: Yes, I know, north of Hungary! I've been there!
A: Ah, yes, okey....


This was a nice one too:
S: Aaah, Suecia... Fjords!?
A: Ah, no, that's Norway, but it's our neighbourcountry
S: ah, yes, Norway (no clue what so ever...)
S: But Sweden has fjords too?
A: No...
S: Do Sweden have mountains?
A: Yes, we do, but not as big as the Pyrenees, or as dramatic
S: You don't have mountains or fjords?
A: Well... yes, we do
S: Ah, fjords are nice, I would like to see one some day!
....

Bloody spains, can't tell Sweden from Switzerland or Slovakia (or Norway, but that's more understandable, after all it's like a suburb to Sweden)...



For my own memory:
- Dina and Elli: The two girls in City Arms who didn't speak English at all and went crazy to Shakira
- and Nuria: The couple in City Arms, speaking great English and drawing a dick in the drawing book.
- the 27-year old nurse together with the crazy beach man
- the girl who told me how to find City Arms
- Carla and ....: The girls who took me for some blocks in their car since they couldn't explain the way back to the main square.
- Laia, Lluria x2 and Laia's boyfriend: The people in Balaguer