Tuesday, September 15th - Pineda de Mar

After yesterday's busy day, I knew this was going to be a more relaxed one.  I slept in and then went down for a late breakfast.  Breakfast here is from 8 to 10, which seems unusual.  On our bus tour breakfasts started about 6 so we could all get going.  I definitely like the Pineda de Mar schedule better.  It's still cool at that time of the morning.  It goes down to about 17 degrees at night but then heats up to the high 20's pretty quickly.   The evening drop in temperatures may make it a bit cool for eating but it definitely makes it nicer for sleeping.

After breakfast I went back to my room and did some blogging and photo upgrades.  My goal was to get two blogs done each day and I haven't been doing very well so I have to buckle down if I'm ever going to get caught up.  Today the plan was to work until about 2, then go have snack while on the way to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  Well, by the time 2 rolled around, I looked outside and everything was wet as it had been raining and the sky was totally overcast.  So I stayed and did some more work.

Eventually I went out to have some lunch, which will probably also be my dinner.  I stopped at the local doner (donair) place and had a delicious meal of rice, doner, salad and ice tea.  It should definitely hold me over until time for a snack later on tonight.  The doner place was definitely run by someone of Arab ancestry as they even have shisha available, which I'd never noticed in all the times I walked by.  I didn't have any of that.  And if you don't know what it is think of perfumed tobacco smoked through a shared pipe or hookah - very Arabic tradition.

I then went back to my room and did some banking and other planning and I'm now doing this blog so I'm totally up to date for today.

Right now outside my room the playground is a flurry of activity.  They are moving to fast to count accurately but I bet there are at least 50 or 60 children from toddler to age 10 out there running around, and maybe even more.  They have swings and slides and climbing gyms and lots of area to run and kick a ball and they are doing all of it.  Every bench or chair in the area is occupied by guardians who I assume are parents or grandparents but they might be babysitters.  They are pretty much ignoring the children and just reading and visiting.  A few of them are in with the younger children pushing on swings or helping them on equipment.  And of course there are babies in strollers and carriages and on laps as well.  The teenagers are also all here tonight.  I think they normally hang out at the beach but maybe it's a bit too cool for that today.  There are several large groups of them in the other park just to the left of the playground.  They are just standing around talking.  And now all the cafes around are starting to fill up with adults having drinks and visiting after work.  It's a very loud and raucous scene but everyone seems to be having a good time and it seems to just be a way of life.

The way they all gather in the squares is a much more social environment than what we have.  Everyone seems to know everyone else and their children and it's just one big happy community.  They all go their own separate ways during the day and later at night but for a few hours between 5 and 9 they all seem to be out - young and old.  There is a lot of high-pitched screaming going on at times and it's almost enough to make me shut my door but none of them seem to even notice it.  The older, or should I say more mature, couples all walk around at night hand in hand for their evening stroll.  Pairs of men also wander down the street from time to time but more often than not they are sitting at a bar drinking.  Groups of ladies seem to stroll slowly around the square.  

I think a lot of this outdoor activities comes from the fact that their homes are small and they have no yards and perhaps no air conditioning so this is the most comfortable place to be in the evening.  I know of seen the same phenomenon in other places as well and that was the explanation.  If you happen to be rich enough that you can afford a big place with a yard and air conditioning, then you probably don't come out to the squares to hob nob with the rest of the community.  It would take a while to get used to this system but I think it would be enjoyable once you got into the routine.  I would certainly know a lot more of my neighbours than I do now.  Of course you also need a moderate Mediterranean climate to do this year round.  It might be a bit harder to accomplish in a Canadian blizzard.

I also have to say right now before I forget, that last night around 9 p.m. I suddenly noticed that it was quiet outside and, when I looked, there were no children around.  I guess that means that on school nights the children really do get to bed earlier than on weekends.  I was thinking that I'd just not noticed week nights before but then I remembered that they just went back to school while we were on the bus trip so at other times they were on holidays and there was no school for them to get up for. 

It is now bedtime and I can confirm that by 9 p.m. the square was once more deserted except for adults.  i went out for a quick bite just after 8 and walked around a bit.  Then I came back and sent some e-mails, did some laundry, got things organized for tomorrow and voila, it's time for bed and some reading.  Another day is over.