Foggy thinking.

Out for my run in the early morning mist, I saw a lady with an umbrella. ¿Pesimismo gallego? Or maybe she knew something the rest of us didn’t because unlike the pattern for the earlier part of the week when the mist or fog burned off by about midday in time for me to go for a swim, today it barely shifted. Well, I suppose the fog went but the cloud remained, just rather higher up. No blue skies today. 

Yesterday we went out to lunch in town with friends. Our rendezvous point was La Porchaba, the bar on the corner of Calle Rosalía de Castro and Calle Oporto. This is what they gave us by way of free tapas along with our drinks, a nicely generous portion, more than is offered in some places but not unusual here in Vigo, possibly an anti-crisis measure to try to encourage people to go to the bars and at least spend something. 
 
By the time our group was fully assembled we had had three lots of free tapas. This is what happens when your party arrives in dribs and drabs, each order getting another plate of food. Our bill for three glasses of Albariño and one clara came to €8.20, a very fair price I thought. We had to stop ordering drinks or we would not have needed to go out to lunch at all. As it was, we gave away some of the food to a beggar! 

Good places to go for free food in Vigo: 

La Porchaba, already mentioned above. 

El Nuevo Derby, on Urzáiz, the Principe end of the street. They offer hot pinchos on cold days as well. 

Failde, on Travesía de Vigo. They do excellent mini cheese and ham toasties and sometimes bring you a second lot of food before you even get round to ordering a second drink. 

Cafe Mónaco, on the corner of Gregorio Espino and Ruiseñor streets. Usually good but very occasionally they only serve crisps and olives if they’ve run out of other stuff. They also give generous slices of cake with coffee. 

Flor de Vigo, on Gran Vía – just discovered yesterday. 

All of the above, with the exception of La Porchaba, have free wifi as well. 

A big disappointment has been the Cairo, the closest bar to our flat with free wifi. Last year it was excellent, friendly service and a nice atmosphere as well as good tapas. Then we came in October and found to our dismay that it had shut. In April it re-opened under new management. We have given it several tries but the new owners just offer a few measly crisps in a bowl or, worse, a selection of those nuts that include some like small pebbles that you risk breaking your teeth on. OK, this is more than you get in the UK but we have grown used to a more imaginative approach. And besides, the service is not brilliant: rather slow and the barman is too interested in talking to a small group of friends. Our verdict: could do better!!! 

In Pamplona the July madness is in full swing. There’s a little song they sing, the only line of which I can remember goes like this: “Siete de julio, San Fermín”. 

 So, last Sunday, 7th of July, the San Fermín fiestas began. In the opening stages hundreds of red neckerchiefs were waved in the main square. People climbed up statues and fountains and indulged in the traditional test of faith by throwing themselves down into the crowd, hoping that the loonies below would catch them. 

And then the bull running began and lots of crazy people ran with them, behind them and before them!!! On a report I saw on TV yesterday they were saying that there had been no bull-related injuries. Presumably that meant that no-one had come into contact with horns because lots of people seemed to be falling down and being trampled by running people. 

Well, today an article headline in the Guardian read: 

“FOUR GORED IN PAMPLONA!” 

The sub-headline went on: “Panic in the streets as four people attacked by bulls during San Fermín festival.” 

What did they expect? Well trained bulls who politely ignored the drunken fools running around waving red neckerchiefs? Drunken fools who react calmly when faced with a ton or more of bull with huge pointy horns? 

I am, as every year at this time, flabbergasted by the craziness of it all!