Sunday, September 13, 2015 - Pineda de Mar, Spain

This morning I had a relaxing start.  I didn't get up too early, had a leisurely breakfast amongst those rushing off to catch their bus or some other activity, and then sat downstairs doing some computer work for a while.

In the afternoon I sent walking around the town for a while.  Well, actually I just walked along the shopping streets and peeked in some of the stores.  I'm not much of a shopper so it didn't take me too long.    Having walked to the Roman aqueduct the last time I visited here, I'm not eager to do that again, and there is really not much else to see.  The beach area, the shopping street and some of the squares are about the only sights.  However, it is a relaxing little town and that's what I need right now.  For those who are wondering, Pineda de Mar is small town of about 26,000 people on the Mediterranean coast in northern Spain, about an hour north of Barcelona.

I went down to the beach and read for several hours.  I have to confess that I didn't actually set foot on the sand.  There were some lovely benches in the shade and they worked just fine for me.  I thought I might go out to the sand and water later but the book was too exciting so the benches were fine - probably more comfortable than the sand.

I carried two books with me on this trip.  Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End.  I started the trip on June 9th and I don't think I even started reading the first one until we were in Mataro on August 14th.  I finished it on the bus tour and someone grabbed it from me quickly so they could read it.  I've now started the second book and figure it will last me a couple of weeks.  His books average about 1,000 pages each but they are so good.  I really enjoy reading them but I can't have anything too important to do or I'll never get it done because the books are too distracting.  Right now I allow myself to read them at the beach/pool in the afternoon or  in bed at night and that's it.

My main chore today was to get some work done re my Ethiopian visa.  I think I got most of the paperwork completed.  I still have to print a good copy of my passport.  I've had two from the last two hotels and they have been so crappy you can hardly read them.  I may have to find a real printshop at some point.  The plan is that as soon as I check into my next hotel on Saturday the 19th (or maybe Friday the 18th) I will courier all the documents and my passport back to Canadian Humanitarian.  They will then send everything to the Ethiopian Embassy in Ottawa.  The visas should already be pre-approved so it's just a manner of printing them or attaching them to the passports. Mine will then be sent back to Canadian Humanitarian who will courier it back to me in Spain and then I will fly away to Ethiopia, hopefully at the beginning of October.   I will be there until November 20th and then move to Malawi until December 12th.  Most of the time I will be working with one of my former College colleagues teaching entrepreneurship to the senior students in Ethiopia and teaching the teachers how to teach entrepreneurship in Malawi.  I'm really looking forward to the change in pace.

Okay, back to Pineda de Mar.  I had dinner somewhere outside on the pedestrian street - probably just after 8 p.m. since that is when they eat.  I think I had pasta again because their pasta is so good.  Then I walked back to my room and finished off with some computer work and reading before sleep.