School started last week. Despite the long days (leaving home before 8am and coming home around 5pm, Lily and Jacob did well and have quickly made friends. Although everything went smoothly, it was busy and intense. To add layers of complexity, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year holiday, started on Wednesday.We had aspirations to do a good job marking the New Year. We would have a nice dinner the first night and practice tashlikh the second by throwing bread crumbs into the sea.
The afternoon of erev Rosh Hashana, Mike went to the market and bought a chicken. In the US buying chicken means picking out a package…here it means asking for it to be de-headed and gutted. Mike also found a recipe on-line for honeycake which required converting to Fahrenheit to Celsius and teaspoons to milliliters – it was a little dry but very tasty. Dinner was lovely and we were all quite happy with ourselves even though we did a bharucha with Fanta-lite (I forgot to get juice) and our candles were votives (forgot Shabbat candles too!).
The second night was more ambitious: our plan was to take a taxi to the beach with a loaf of bread (Spanish baguette for 45 euro-cents) and throw bits into the water to symbolize casting off the sins of the past year. Before casting our sins away we would have a nice dinner beach-sideWe had previously had bad experiences eating at the beach. The restaurants are generally tourist focused, and either very expensive or very mediocre. This time we did our research ahead of time and found a place online called Base Nautica (a sailing club) that was known for low-price simple but tasty food.
Usually getting to the beach takes only 15 minutes in a cab. Unfortunately since we left at rush hour it took us more than 45 minutes and over $20 to get there. Ok, so we start a little late. We were dropped off about half a kilometer from the restaurant, so we enjoyed a leisurely evening stroll down the beach. Along the way we found some public exercise equipment (think Spanish Muscle Beach) that the kids had to be pried away from. The beach was beautiful and we marveled at how lucky we were to be there and to be together.
We finally got to Base Nautica around 7:30. Unfortunately they closed at 7!! This is HIGHLY unusual in Barcelona since most places don’t OPEN until 8pm!! Our only choice was to walk around and find another place.
We finally got to Base Nautica around 7:30. Unfortunately they closed at 7!! This is HIGHLY unusual in Barcelona since most places don’t OPEN until 8pm!! Our only choice was to walk around and find another place.
What we found first however was that Club Nautica fronted onto Barcelona’s nude beach. What kind of million-person city has a nude beach? Barcelona. Who goes to such as nude beach? Mostly men. How does one respond upon finding one at a nude beach on Rosh Hashana with one’s family? You walk around and check out the scenery of course. What do you do when you realize that it is probably inappropriate with your children. You leave feeling a little embarrassed for yourself.
We finally found a place for dinner (worse than mediocre) and threw our bread into the water just as it was getting dark.
This was not our most religious or reverent or observant New Year, but probably one that we will never forget.
Hilarious story Suz! I love how descriptive you are – please keep the stories cming. I feel as though I was staring at the tushies with you. :0
Love this post! We went to a nude beach in Mazomanie once (with the kids). The nudity was not problemmatic but the piercings and let me say … other forms of body art … were (to me). This could have been a great teaching moment related to God's covenant with Abraham!