After a busy week of ICR, Meghan invited me to join her and another spouse for brunch and to see Rota's famous sunflower fields! I was just excited for an invite anywhere, so I was down! On Saturday, June 10, Meghan picked me up from the Navy Lodge and we enjoyed brunch at Tk3 Beach Bar. Feeling adventurous, I ordered the traditional Spanish breakfast with sausage, jamon (ham,) potatoes, eggs, and bread. It was a FULL breakfast and the huge mimosa didn't disappoint either!
Then May, Meghan's friend, led us to a beautiful sunflower field on the outskirts of Rota. May has an Instagram account where she documents food and her travels, so she used this time to pose and snap tons of content for her page. She was kind enough to snap a picture of me!
I enjoyed getting up close to these sunflowers and even snapped a few pictures of my own! Not a shabby way to start my Spanish travels! Who knew such a beautiful background was in our backyard?
Mirador Pinares De Rota
After our sunflower field fun, May took us to the Mirador Pinares de Rota lookout spot, where we peered over the Spanish pine trees to see the stunningly beautiful beach! As I turned around, I realized my future house was right behind us! This lookout will be visited many more times in the future!
After a relaxing Sunday, the next week was packed with more appointments around base. Between the continuous housing process, waiting on my driver's license, continuing the conversation with the local Spanish man I'm buying the car from, and trying to open a Spanish bank account, time flew by. I continued my hard-headed streak of refusing to rent a car, so as the temperatures continued to rise, I continued to walk all over base to get all these tasks completed. To say the days were exhausting is an understatement!
Friday, June 16: Sunflower Paint & Sip
I met up with Juzely, who I met during ICR, for an evening of "Paint & Sip" at Pinz, the bowling alley on base. This event was hosted by MWR, cost $15, and didn't include any "sips," so we each bought a beer at the bar and waited for the class to start. I was excited after seeing the sunflowers we were to paint, but the teacher rushed us through the painting process and she was pretty stingy with refilling our paints. She wasn't the best teacher and the order she had us painting things didn't make for the prettiest outcome.
While this class wasn't what I was expecting, I enjoyed chatting with Juzely and getting out of the hotel room for some fun between my long to-do list of housing prep! This painting may not end up on my wall, but it got me out of the hotel, so that made it a win!
Saturday, June 17: Day Trip to Seville
Earlier in the week, I attended the Housing Brief and met Jaime, an active-duty sailor who works at the hospital! She asked to take a picture of my notes after showing up to the session without so much as a pen, so we got to talking and realized we were both from North Carolina AND had both attended NCSU! What a small world!
We exchanged numbers and planned a day out on the town! Again, things just fall into place and I was really excited to meet someone who could be a friend to Bryan at the hospital! Jaime is a nurse and had been stationed in Italy a few years back, so we chatted on our drive to Seville (pronounced Sa-vee-ya) about European shopping.
Seville was over 100 degrees during our visit, so we passed the time indoors shopping! It's been a while since I've been able to shop out in town- Japanese clothing was strange and their sizing was even weirder- so it was so much fun to go shopping with a girlfriend! Plus, I've been living out of a suitcase for two months...it's time I add a little bit of "new" to my suitcase!
Plaza de España
With the temperatures still sky-high, we found a cocktail bar near Plaza de Espana, where we enjoyed a drink in the shade before exploring the area a little.
Arabesca
When it came time for dinner around 7 pm, Jaime found Arabesca, a Moroccan/Lebanese restaurant that she thought sounded good. I told her I'd never had Moroccan food OR Lebanese cuisine, so as long as she recommended the food, I was down!
After ordering a bottle of wine to split, we agreed to split two different appetizers and two entrees so we could try a lot of different things. Everything we ordered was to-die-for! Truffle hummus, some kind of fried cheese, a beef entree and a lamb entree- we left with full bellies and enough leftovers for another meal each!
I honestly can't wait to bring Bryan back here! He's going to love the food!
On our car ride back to Rota, we passed the two hours chatting!
I'm sitting at just over 3 weeks in Spain and I'm already making great friends, exploring the area, and prepping for our new home! The only thing missing is Bryan! We have a little over a month left until he joins me and this adventure can truly begin!
--Katie
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