The latest lockdown restrictions have eased and the locals are out and about in force Christmas shopping. Good job too, and Girona’s city hall has been advocating that Gironians spend their hard-earned in local shops to help the local economy. That doesn’t necessarily mean packed streets full of jostling shoppers, as the whole Xmas season is a more downbeat affair.
Being from the UK I’m used to a more bustling, shop till you drop, last minute shopping experience. After moving here I used to look forward to returning to the UK for the Xmas break, ostensibly to be with family and see friends. But after enduring the stress of what that entailed I quickly returned to the idea of spending it being here in quiet, sedate Girona. Even the lure of mince pies, pigs in blankets and brandy butter wouldn’t change our minds.
The Christmas lights are part and parcel of it all too. Girona’s lights are often a bit of an understatement but this year’s attempt appears to be an improvement over previous years. The street lights go up during November and are switched on early December.
Over many years we’ve sea-sawed between a home cooked xmas lunch and eating out. Well, eating out in Girona on Christmas day is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. It requires diligent research and forward military style planning. I even went to the Girona Tourist Office in La Rambla thinking they might have all the places open on the 25th. Not so simple, as lists are haphazard and produced too late. One place stood out.
We ate at Casa Marieta in Pl. de la Independencia one year, but I had to make a booking in late November. Even then it appeared to be a bit touch and go as she leafed through the diary. I was thinking please find me a table as my options were too few.
On Christmas day it was unsurprisingly busy and while we waited to be seated a tad too long it was an acceptable, stress-free lunch. We even took our own Christmas crackers-some traditions are hard to discard. Who knows what the other Cataln diners thought of that. Other Christmas day lunches have been spent eating local fried-chicken, and another year to an out-of-town country restaurant. Fine but no drinking and driving meant expensive use of taxis.
Homespun equivalents have just resulted in domestic food meltdowns in our tiny kitchen, and emotional explosions that I swore never to repeat the experience. I think I need to re-examine that ‘what’s open on xmas day restaurant’ list. Back we go to the tourist office.
