Some bread with your fried breadcrumbs, sir?

I’ve had a couple of split examining days (some exams in the morning and then some more in the late afternoon and evening) and the day before last, I was chomping down on some local fayre outside the local cathedral (pictured), as you do, when this middle aged Kiwi woman with two kids (10 and 8) started talking to me. Turned out she’d been travelling with them and hadn’t spoken to an English speaking adult in 3 weeks. It’d just been the three of them. Anyhows, I suggested that if they wanted to meet up for a drink they could leave a message at my hotel. At this suggestion my arm was nearly bitten off (is that the right idiom?) and the conversation-starved Kiwi (Kendal with kids Jessie and Louis) arranged to meet up with me tonight. I’ve just come back from a two-hour drink with them and I feel like I’ve been verbally raped. The woman was keen just to talk to an adult and the kids were keen to simply talk to someone new. Lots of ‘active listening’ going on and very little chat from me. Lots of experiences and comparisons with Kiwi-land. The lady turned up at the hotel with a suggested itinerary for the next three days – it was lucky that I had the perfect excuse of a weekend visitor to attend to that meant I could remain free. However, I know where she’ll be for the next couple of evenings should my guest and I fancy meeting up for a drink. Good to chat, eh?
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But what of Zaragoza? It’s been four days know and I think I’m slipping into the way of things a little. The first problem to overcome was to order drinks in a way that didn’t make it seem like I had a big neon light flashing on my head which said “I don’t know what I’m doing. Please rob me”. Help in this area came from a teacher at the first school I was examining at. At the breaks she insisted on taking me to the local bar and giving me coffee over ice (coffee and sugar missed first and then poured over ice). Not a bad tipple, really. Seeing that I wasn’t averse to it, the teacher proceeded to drill me in my pronunciation of what to ask for “una cortardo con poco cafe con jello” (excuse any erroneous spelling and language use). So, after it’d been practiced a couple of times in a role play scenario I was ready to try it out in real life. Picture it if you will, there I was, strolling confidently through the throngs of local mullet haired youths and groups of children milling around the cathedral, ready to portray the image of the urbane young hombre about the plaza. The time had come. Sitting at an plaza-side cafe, I came out with my practiced phrase. It worked a treat. No hesitation from me or Mr Waiter and out came my desired drink. Magical. Must try and learn a bit more of this Spanish business.
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Heady from my success and still having an 1 ½ hours before I needed to be around for examining, I asked for the menu (also practiced) and ordered some local specialities (thanks Lonely Planet). I started with a rioja, opting for a glass rather than a bottle, and had some Aragon chorizo con patatas a la pobre – sausage and ‘pauper’s potatoes’. It ended up being egg, chips and sausage really (pictured). However, it was all cooked very well and the poached egg was poached perfectly - suitably runny in the yolk department. I followed up with another local speciality, ‘migas’, which translates as breadcrumbs. This was essentially a very large plate of fried breadcrumbs mixed with some bacon and topped with nine grapes. And when I saw a large plate, I mean exactly that. I kind of got the feeling that no-one else had ordered it for a while and they had a load going spare. Didn’t quite get to the end of that one, though.
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That’s it for now, but I will leave you with a picture of the transport Zaragoza’s finest. The cars’ design seems to be modelled on Noddy’s, but it’s a suitably jolly image for this provincial part of Spain where, to be honest, not a great deal goes on. They are, however, very proud of the 'sustainable development expo' that took place last year and are sure that I’d heard of it as it really “put Zaragoza on a map”. Which map they’re referring to, I couldn’t say, but maybe it’s one that you managed to pick up....