Life: Idiotropic

just another day...

with a friend who thinks a lot like me (which is more than a little frightening) and really fun to talk to.  

I think we're coming to the end of the "considerate" stage.  You know that stage?  You know when you first meet someone and you like them and you start up a friendship, but you are extremely considerate of them and what they might want because you don't know them really well enough yet.  That stage of, "well, what would you like?  Oh, really, anything is fine with me."  It's a stage that lasts longer with international friends no matter how good their English ability is - not sure why - may be because of cultural differences, but it's there.  And it's frustrating and really quite boring because neither of you are really being entirely 100% who you are really and you guard your words just enough and hold back humor just a bit, and don't act impulsively ever.  There's a stunning dress in the shop window and the real you is screaming to dart across the street in front of traffic to go to it and touch the sleaves and go and try it on and twirl in circles imagining how you'd accessorize, but the "considerate-stage" you calmly looks over, points, and casually mentions, "hey, that looks like a cute little shop over there.  Would you like to go look?"   Then you wait for an answer and if it's "yes," then you wait for the crosswalk to turn green and then you cross calmly as if it's just a box of oranges in the window and not the most amazing perfect dress you've ever seen.

Anyway,  today was a day via train to Valencia with a wonderful Hungarian friend and absolutely no itinerary nor plan.  We just walked.  Stopped once at Starbucks for coffee - "considerate me" was about to pass by though I really hoped to stop and Eva who really likes Starbucks suggested it and I was oh so happy.  Then we walked, and walked, and walked.  Discovered a shoe repair shop, a dress shop, a strange "rock" museum with figures from the Corpus Christi parade, and a shop with miniature Fallas - the perfect "tooth mouse" gift.  Had lunch at a really nice pinchos bar that I'd been to before, but she hadn't, then walked down a shopping street that she'd known of, but I didn't.  Stopped in an antique store and got "trapped" talking to the propriator who knows someone from Oregon and joked that he'd been to the original "Aragon" and raved about how much he loves Hungary.  Stopped at the market for a strawberries and jam.  Stopped at the Ayutamiento for flowers (because there are virtually no florists in Spain).  Came home again via train.

And sun the entire time.

Photos:  Graffiti is everywhere here and some of it is even nice.  And, bakeries love putting big chunky things on top of bread dough before baking.  This one has red peppers and a fish tail.  Some have whole eggs, other fish, blood sausages, and other odd things.  Like an inside-out sandwich?