Día 2 · Jueves

Boats and Banners

I fell asleep around 2130 last night. Slept until 830. Felt much better this morning. The overnight flight really only works if you can sleep in the plane. Got a coffee at Espresso Mafia and walked around a bit this morning. Still getting my bearings. The old town where we’re staying in Girona reminds me of Venice, winding cobblestone streets with names on the walls in the few places where they exist.

Trying to find an open grocery at 1100, and found that today is the National Day of Catalonia. There seem to be some celebrations in the park and lots of Catalunya flags are out. Finally found one and got a few provisions. Mike was able to get the earlier train in and I met him at the station. Happy to have him here! He is exhausted though and he couldn’t sleep on the flight either. To much turbulence over the Atlantic. Kept me up as well.

We grabbed coffee and a sandwich at König before heading up to the venue. I remember Sabina telling us in France that international racing is chaos. Still holds true. Can’t pick up anything before an hour before race time. Grab my number and oars, get to Fillippi to get the boat and it’s not there. A couple of Japanese athletes come in a few minutes later returning my boat. Great, just need to set the feet and launch. Except, these foot stretchers require tools to adjust. No changing these on the water. By the time everything is done and I’m launching, it’s less than 30 min to start. I was calm until I wasn’t and was starting to lose it a bit on the way to launch. On the water I found someone in my race finally. Since there isn’t much space to warm up in, it’s probably best I was a touch late. Had a good race and a lot of fun! Not my best start. Pulled the rate down around 700m to go. Started my sprint around 375m to go and should have gone sooner. I missed first by half a second. Was a really good time for me though at 4:07.390.

I looked up the times from the other heats. Two women finished in 3:57 and one of them is in my Saturday race. Eek. Well, go hard or go home. We will see when fly and not die looks like then.

We headed back to Girona and walked the Old Town. I had found a cute brewery last night, and we stopped at Rispa for a drink. Tiny compared to the monster places in Malt Disney World near our house in Atlanta. Next we walked to see the Cathedral and the Tower famous in Girona. I love the small, winding streets with odd turns that open into small squares. Nothing is paved in this area, people walk wherever , and then randomly there are cars driving through. The chaos is fantastic.

Next stop in the food tour was Taverna d’El Foment. We got an amazing cheese plate with everything coming from Catalunya. The house wine comes as a porró which is a wild looking glass pitcher with a long pointy spout. Apparently the old guys drank from them, but there’s definitely a trick to not spilling wine on everything in sight. I will wait for another day to test this theory.

As it’s National Day of Catalonia, the waiter offered us a shot of Ratafia, the traditional Catalan herbal liqueur. Delicious, Visca Catalunya!

We ended the night at Fonda Cal Aros in a window seat overlooking the street. The tasting menu was only 32€, and it was a great choice. Lots of local seafood trata, including some fantastic, fresh anchovies. More wine in funny wine containers and the olive oil as well comes in a porró but with a bit more nuanced spout. A great place to finish off our evening before a good nights sleep. Heading out to Costa Brava tomorrow.

Step count: 16696