Sunday, September 18, 2005

Sitges - Arrival

Well, our flight was delayed somewhat, but we took advantage of the spare time to do more shopping. I picked up some Hugo Boss Eau De Cologne, which everyone agreed smelled nice on me and then we sat on the plane for half an hour waiting for a departure slot.

The flight itself was uneventful, as was the taxi ride to the hotel – our taxi had a smart GPS system which told the driver exactly where to go. The hotel is really rather nice. Our room is a little on the small side but it does have a pool view. John W and I tossed a coin to decide who would get it. Their room is larger but overlooks the entrance and a derelict house next door. I believe Rich is going to press for a room change tomorrow.

We got settled in and then took a stroll along the prom towards the old town and its restaurants. En route we passed a group of guys who turned out to be from Seattle, visiting friends who live here. It is a fairly gay resort, but not in the twinky, campy style; more mature guys seem to be the order of the day which makes it all feel very civilised.

As we walked along the seafront, the clouds out over the Med were a dismal grey, but it appears they were receding as we didn’t get any rain during the evening and it was a clear sky by the time we headed home.

John & Rich had found a few nice eateries on their trip here last year so we started off by looking at them. One of them, El Jardin, was fully booked for tonight, so we booked for tomorrow and went on to El Flamboyant (photo here) further into the pueblo. The place is run by an English gay couple; all the waiters were fluent and they were actually quite good fun. The food was good, although I regretted not following John & Rich’s recommendations for the main course; they started with sizzling garlic prawns followed by filet steak. Brett and I started with feta cheese baked in egg and wrapped in filo pastry (which was delicious) and Brett followed with Duck in cranberry sauce, while I had barbequed chicken in a lemon sauce. The steaks were definitely better than the chicken – although there were four or five chicken breasts on my plate – and Brett’s duck was succulent. We were drinking a complimentary bottle of thirty-five year old cava for most of the meal, but switched to six year old Rioja halfway through the main course. It was delicious and only €30 a bottle.

After dessert, I ordered Remy Martin with my coffee and got a goldfish bowl-sized snifter with what would be a triple or quadruple shot back home; foolish of me to forget there are no set measures in Spain. Nevertheless, I battled valiantly on and finished the drink (with a little help from Brett.)

After dinner, John & Rich took us on a mini-tour of the gay bars in town. We stopped off at two of them; the first was a piano bar whose stated capacity was thirty-seven and so was quite cosy inside. In actuality, there was no-one playing the piano but there was a guy singing to backing tracks. He did pretty well and had us all singing along towards the end. After that, we went on to the nearby Bear bar as both John and Brett are into Bears. I haven’t been in many bars of that ilk, but it certainly seemed to fit the mould of what I have seen. We only stayed for one drink, but that was enough for me to get an eyeful of bear-porn; four Michelin men making out with Jabba the Hut, all with WAY too much body hair. Ugh! Definitely not my thing.

By then, it was gone 1am so we headed home along the seafront. Apparently parts of the seafront are quite hot cruising areas at night, but Jeremy (the only single guy with us) was too timid to head off that way (or so he claimed.) We did wonder if he wasn’t going to head back that way after we’d all said goodnight though, but that’s his business.

Anyway, a most enjoyable night tonight, and tomorrow the holiday begins in earnest.

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