A familiar visit.

  Porto Petro, Spain
Wednesday, July 26, 2006

After what seemed like an endless wait, my parents and four sisters arrived in Porto Petro this past Saturday to visit. The seven of us hadn't been reunited since last January when my parents moved with two of my sisters to Madrid. The other half was left in Buenos Aires, and me....well I think you already know. With the family divided by such harsh distances, the joy of finding each other again in one common place was immense for everyone.

My sisters looked as beautiful as ever and my parents had scintillescent eyes when watching all of us hug and kiss. I met them at the lobby of the Blau Hotel well after midnight after their impatient journey from Menorca where they were vacationing.

01 Lunch

Unfortunately I had to work the next day so I couldn't spend much time with them, but I woke up early and took my sisters to the beach where we sat in the sand catching up a bit until I had to reluctantly go off to work. Throughout the day I secretly planned my escape from work but since Sundays are the worst days of the week as far as amount of work goes, I had to stay until 8pm. But as soon as I got off I rushed over to shower and meet my parents for dinner. We had arranged a dinner date with Ed's brother and his dad at Varadero so that both family members could finally meet.

02 Sofi and Steph

The nine of us sat down for a lovely Italian three course meal and I enjoyed watching Ed's dad and my parents get along wonderfully. Ed couldn't be there since he was working but he made sure to leave the bar a few times to check on us. We also managed a few group pictures when he was around.

After dinner my parents retired to their suite and my sisters came over to my place for some alone time. Ed brought over some French guys he had befriended that same night, Paul and Adrien, so we all sat on our terrace until around 3:30am.

08 Flotsam

The next morning Ed, my Dad and Gloria went scuba diving and I had enough time to go meet my Mom, Paula, Sofia, and Stephanie at the hotel poolside where I had a quick dip before I had to run off to work. I was tempted to call in and ask for a day off since my family was here visiting but I quickly rationalized and concluded it wasn't a good enough excuse to miss a day at work. I wouldn't be able to pull it off at the restaurant, at least not with the less-than-friendly manager I had.

20 paulette

Luckily I was able to get off fairly early and went straight to the pool where they were all still gathered, having grown a bit tired of the beach. We borrowed Ed's underwater camera and jumped around in the pool taking pictures, realizing how difficult it was to take a good shot of all 5 of us, but had loads of fun trying. Just a bit before it started to get dark, we called the whole thing off and began to get ready for our last dinner together.

Drink

I told my Dad we should go to Cala d'Or for dinner this time since there was a larger variety of restaurants from which to choose. We finally opted for a nice Dutch restaurant decorated with baroque woodwork, wide wooden tables, Rococo chandeliers and impressive candle holders. After dinner we concluded the place was lovely but the food was average. So for desert, we hopped on right down the block to a Hawaiian-style bar where we were greeted with aloha's and plastic flower necklaces. We asked for something fruity to drink, preferably with white rum. A few minutes later we were brought a huge ceramic container decorated with leaves, fruits of all sorts arranged in mountain where smoke came out. Fourteen one-meter straws of all colors where placed strategically on all sides so we could sip no matter how far away from the fruity volcano we were. But the best touch were the miniature fireworks that suddenly erupted from our drink: tiny fire-stars shooting everywhere. People stood up to watch and we managed a few pictures with our Hawaiian-Volcano drink before the fireworks went out. It was definitely the funnest, most creative drink we had ever been served and I was glad I got more than what I bargained for when earlier that night I mentioned I was in the mood for a good cocktail.

Straws

About 5 liters of passion fruit and rum later, we managed to pick ourselves up from our seats and head back home after a more than satisfying night. The next morning my family was heading back to the peninsula to tour the northern beaches of Spain. Even though I was shattered they couldn't stay any longer, I begged my Dad to change the reservations and stay a few more days. He told me he would be delighted to do so if it wasn't for the large sum of money in deposits he would be losing. I finally accepted the fact that they were leaving me after two extremely short days, and so I went home to rest to prepare myself for the hard goodbye the next day.

I have learned to utterly hate saying goodbye to the people I love. I have had more heart-wrenching goodbyes in the last two months than in all my life and I was not prepared for another one, that and the fact that I was completely unsure as to when we would all be together again. So the next morning I dragged myself to the Blau lobby to bid my family farewell.  I made our embraces quick and to the point, protecting them and myself from the long, dramatic goodbye that would exacerbate the circumstance.

I stood watching them drive away from the hotel entrance and wondered where and when we would see each other again. As Ed taught me long ago the practicality of the saying: when there's a will there's a way. I didn't think watching them leave would shatter me as much; I guess I thought I would handle it differently. Right now I'm trying to get over the fact that I needed to be with my family a bit longer.

I recently learned that the word nostalgia comes from the Greek nostos, meaning "a return home". Made me glad to finally know the meaning of it.