Swimming with Spaniards

The day after Alcalá, I woke up early to go to the swimming pool with friends. It was a great day of R&R and a chance to see what a typical weekend is like for a Spaniard. I showed up with my towel, my bag, my sunscreen, glasses and water bottle. They showed up with all of that, plus their lunches.


Here in Spain, people pack the best picnics. One girl in my group had chicken fried steak fillets and the most beautiful heirloom tomato that she sliced and ate with each (seemingly delicious) bite. Another girl brought a tuna and cucumber salad and watermelon and one guy brought the largest bocadillo I've ever seen stuffed with what seemed like and entire steak.


I luckily brought money so I still ate well at the concession stand which was actually more like a restaurant as you could get paella, half a chicken, steak among other things and any cocktail you could dream up.


We spent the day between swimming in the pool, lying on the grass and playing cards and eating. Truly a blissful day. Everyone was out with their whole families and the bikini-clad population spanned ages 2 to 80. So did the topless lady population...which I am still trying to block out of my mind. And no, I did not go topless. I get sunburned easily enough without exposing that area.

From here on, the pics are all mine. :)

The next day it was round two of R&R and I was picked up at 10am to go to the Piscinas Naturales in Rascafria. It was about a 45 minute trip out of Madrid and a gorgeous drive. It reminded me of NorCal with the hills and the scrub brush. But with a lot more open space and bad drivers.


One we got there there were already a ton of people and more coming by the minute. (note- the pics above are stock photos of what the piscinas look like when they are not crawling with people).

This time I was prepared. I made myself a lunch of gazpacho and tortilla and even brought along the fixins to make a gin tonic which I accomplished quite nicely if I do say so myself. This was the place to be it appeared and everywhere you turned families and friends were clustered around an umbrella, sharing food, talking, laughing and occasionally throwing someone into the water. The water here was quite cool but I am used to Cali water so it was nice and refreshing for me. A lot like the Russian River.  We passed the day playing cards and talking and yes, I got thrown in the water too after trying to push someone in who was bigger than me.
Note to self: perfect ninja combat skills.


The only thing I had forgotten to bring along on this trip was water and so, by midday, I was pretty thirsty (and very relaxed  thanks to a mixture of sun and GnT). I went out to where the bathrooms were located and as I was leaving decided to fill up my water bottle that had previously housed Gin. I drank the water in one fell swoop and then was getting ready to fill it again when I noticed a sign over the sink: "AGUA NON POTABLE". Shit. And then I saw 6 more lining the bathroom walls. Double shit. Serves me right for not seeing the writing on the walls. ;)


I thought I was getting along just fine until the next morning when I woke up and HAD to go to the bathroom THAT MINUTE. If you know what is going on in our house you know that in addition to there being workers milling about all day during the week, we also are in major construction and for some reason, can't seem to get a door on the bathroom. Let's just say, I am not a modest person but I usually try and take my shower before the workers arrive in the morning and use the toilet when there is no-one around. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures and modesty be damned, I did my business with an audience.

I went late to school that day and because I have not missed a class yet, of course I had to explain my absence. My professor has now made a habit of working "beber agua non potable" into all of her sample sentences to illustrate grammar and poke fun.

Matt, I can hear your voice now saying

"These things happen". ;)