Mon, 20 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Barcelona, España
posted 12:37 CEST 25/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Vinarós ( 12 photos )
We left the pension for a final time and walked strapped to our packs to the station. Trains back north were full, we were told. Not good news for us, and yet another transport annoyance in Spain.
We could get as far as the edge of the Metro system back in Castello, so that we did (at least it was cheap). From there however, there was only one train and that was going to cost us heaps. So, it was back to waiting at the bus station - the same one we had hated with such a passion days before.
This time, a bus turned up almost on time, and we payed the rather cheap fare up north to Vinarós. However, the limitations of bus transport rapidly became apparent, as it was quite full and we had to put our packs on our laps for the whole journey.
The bus stopped at about a thousand stops through the suburbs of Castello, which didn't bode well for us getting to our destination any time that day. But once outside the city, it stopped only once all the way there, so that was much better. We watched the country roll by, strange to be back on the road again (as opposed to some rails). It's a pretty place to travel through, but hard to do justice to buried under large packs and not able to stop whenever we want. That's for next time.
We stopped in Vinarós, jumped off and had absolutely no idea where we were. There's not much going for this place besides its rather nice beach and the fact that almost no tourists want to go there, so it is cheap. We followed the only signs we could see, walking through anonymous streets line with similar shops, searching for a sign to the centre.
One eventually made itself found, and we walked past yet more little cafés, bars, shoe shops, markets, squares and the like until we sighted the beach. There we plonked ourselves and picniced, not having any better plan until we heard from Jono and Penny. The beach was one of the nicest we have seen in recent times, having almost real sand but still a little too polluted. The water was quite a bit colder than Nice a few days earlier, due mostly I guess to the storms.
Jono rang, saying that they were at the train station and would walk down to meet us on the beach. Here, the station is about half an hour inland, which Liz and I had noticed when we came through it on the train a couple of days ago.
I almost fell asleep in the sun, but was awoken by the sight of two very fit people saying hello - Jono and Penny, fresh from several hundered kilometres of walking around Spain. We haven't seen them well and truly since Sydney, so it was great to catch up on the beach for quite a while, trading travel tales. But eventually we needed to find somewhere to sleep for the night.
We had no real opposition to staying in this town, so we set off in search of a cheap pension. They both speak quite good Spanish (one of the reasons they are here is to teach English), so this proved no real problem. We found one back towards the station above a lively little bar filled with locals. It was pretty basic, but very cheap and we were happy enough there.
Dinner was next on the list of requirements, so we headed back to a large supermarket Penny had spotted earlier, stocking up on bread, meat, cheese, amazingly cheap wine and beer, all of which added up to a great meal for not much money at all.
We searched for a little while to find a place to eat it all, settling on an area just near the beach overlooking the port. Here we sat for ages, just chatting yet more, munching, and everyone enjoying the opportunity to talk to other people after so long with nobody really other than each of our partners to blather at.
The sunset over the port was gorgeous, and we stayed until after dark, ducking into the nearby bar when nature called, hoping nobody noticed!
Back to the pension, we retired to our separate rooms for the night.

(customised)