Ancient history; Roman style

My home city of Tarragona was once Tarraco, the first hispanic Roman capital. And what makes that really cool, is that there are still stacks of Roman artefacts, ruins and influences in the city.

I remember as a kid we could go to school excursions to the ancient amphitheatre ruins & I would eat my packed lunch on the stone steps imagining what it would be like to watch a gladiator getting chased by a lion and getting mauled. Gross, I know. But hey, I was a kid and the Roman history of the area was so interesting... I have a vivid imagination, and when you are sitting in the very spot that a spectator would have sat in, it is not hard to get caught up in the moment!

So nowdays it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site (good news) and is currently undergoing some restoration works so I couldn't go in and take better pics. But I still captured the essence. It's a super cool huge ruin just on the coastline, overlooking the gorgeous Mar Mediterranéo.

The rest of the city is also scattered with Roman legacies. I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but now I realise how awesome it was to live with that every day.

A brush with the law

I drove around in my cool Seat Ibiza today, taking the same ant trails that my mum used to take to get my brother & I to school. So, naturally I found the big hypermarket that she used to do our grocery shopping in. Holy crap, what an experience!


So, to give you perspective, this is the local equivalent of Woolworths & Big W combined. Except that it is loaded with all the foods that I love. I mean, really really love. Like mountains of jamon Iberico & pata negra. And unlike in Australia where you have to ask for it to be pulled from some cupboard out the back, you just help yourself. There are piles of it. Literally. It takes your breath away, possibly because the smell of cured meat is so strong, and the look of it is pretty impressive too!

Okay, so I'm trying to do some recon work for my dad, taking photos inside the Carrefour to show him all the goodies that he's missing out on (like rubbing salt in a very sore wound) when the security guard hunts me down and makes me erase all my photos!!! I lied and told him I did it, but secretly kept some. This is what I have left. I'm such a loser, I thought I was going to get arrested or something, I got so nervous. The scariest moment of my trip so far. Even more than the weird homeless men on the metro in Paris who smell like pee & try to sit next to you. In the pic below, you can see him pointing at me (the shameless criminal!)

So after all the effort, I sat down this evening to enjoy a meal for my dad. It's got all his favourites: pan de leña, sardinas en tomate, mejillones en escabeche and berbecheros. Oh, and a glass (make that 3) of Rioja. Life's good :)