Monday, October 23, 2017

Sitges and science

I took another stroll into the town Sunday morning before the conference started, seeing naked bathers in the surf and all of this:
All the street signs are like this.  There is glazed tile everywhere.

A little steeper and rockier than a typical Jersey shore access path.

Gossos no on beach, gossos si everywhere else.

Rose petals!  Maybe a wedding?

I don't know who these little guys are, but they and their friends were all over.

Beautiful.

I'm assuming that says "anti-fascist".

Typical of the occasional political expression.

I noticed in the landscaping next to one of the innumerable stairways there were open umbrella tops hidden in the bushes, looking like they were protecting someone's belongings.  I have seen a number of homeless people and beggars, so I assumed it was related to that.  

I headed back to the hotel as it got hotter.  I was tired again after winding my way up and down and back and forth and decided that after that evening, no more long walks.  The conference began and took up the afternoon.  There was a snack break, where they gave out tiny cups of water for tea and tiny cups of coffee.  There were several tables with pastries, and they had said there would be gluten-free, so I searched and finally found - a bowl with about a half dozen wrapped cupcakes and a bowl of brown nuggets (brownies?).  Just because I was entitled to it I ate one of the cakes, but it wasn't good despite the chocolate icing inside.

For dinner I went back to the town to look for a store I had seen earlier that was not open in the morning.  When I finally found it again it was not open then either, despite what the internet said.  I was looking for interesting T shirts, but all were in English, except one for the Sitges movie festival that was just over.  I even found a Linkin Park shirt.  I went back to the restaurant of the night before and had a glass of wine, a rack of pork ribs, and some fries, and none of it hurt me.  More sights from the evening:
A little blurry, but there's a Magic the Gathering decal on the door of a shop selling card and board games.

Nice tile work on the roof.

This church seems to be a focal point at night - the night before they sent up fireworks, tonight it was pink light and the breast cancer ribbon.

I began to see cats - I had seen lots of dogs, but only 1 cat so far.  The first one was licking its lips, then I saw another eating from a bowl, and a woman stooped down filling another bowl where I had seen the umbrellas that morning.  I also noticed a small pet house in the bushes.  It's good to know someone was feeding the strays.

Monday brought the same breakfast buffet at the hotel.  There's a gluten free bread station consisting of a gluten-free dedicated toaster, two baguettes in sealed packages (no cutting board or knife), a few packages of pairs of sandwich-style slices which defied my attempts to open and might require a scissors, and butter and jam.  Nothing else is labeled, so I stick to fried eggs and yogurt with seeds and raisins.

Meeting all day, again with the same miserable miserly cups for tea and the wrapped muffins, which I ignore.  I skipped the last speaker before lunch to get in line early, and got there before anybody else.  They said I could start, so I looked at the allergen markers (which they were still putting in place) for the crossed-out wheat symbol.  Things were portioned out into serving sizes, and I ended up with a handful of salad greens with a disk of goat cheese (rind!), a different handful of salad greens with shreds of smoked salmon, a 2 x 2" chunk of cod, a shot glass of mousse, and not at all full.  At least I missed a long line and all the cross-contamination that comes with it.

I decided I had had enough of stressing over food.  After the last speaker I headed out to the Carrefour grocery, only getting lost a few times and walking twice as much as I needed to, but at least seeing a beautiful sunset.  Now I have this:
I also had two mandarin oranges, but apparently I did it wrong (no bag, maybe?) and they wouldn't let me buy them.  Two dinners and two lunches, to get me to my next flight.  Now maybe I'll stop complaining.  The cheese is darn good.  And maybe I will have toast tomorrow.



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