My first weekend in Barcelona was spent visiting family in an area of country Catalonia called l'Empordà (photo albums: "18/07/2009 L'Escala & Torroella" & "19/07/2009 Torroella & L'Estartit")

My Saturday started with an early train ride out of Passeig de Gràcia to Girona. My distant cousin Xevi was already waiting for me at the train station. Luckily, the train was on time - as we had 6 mins to catch the bus. In that time we made it to the bus, found out from the bus driver that we had to pre-purchase the tickets inside, went inside, found the ticket counter completely unstaffed, and headed back outside only to find the bus driver on his way over, looking for us to say he would sell us the tickets on the bus afterall! What the??

My first day of the weekend was mostly spent at La Scala, where we had lunch and a swim at Irene's sister's home. It wasn't technically my family's get together, but the Poch Artigas family didn't seem to mind having one of Xevi's long lost cousins, from Australia, around for the day :) I got a chance to get to know Genís, Xevi & Irene's second son who is only 4 months old, and I also get to see Artau again, who, at 2 years of age wasn't sure who I was and seemed a bit tentative around me.I don't blame him - the last time I saw him, he was 10 days old!! It also didn't help that I had the same name as his grandmother - probably confused the poor little tyke.

La Scala was beautiful. It's situated on the opposite side of the Mediterranean, to the Cinque Terre that I visited a week ago, and the first thing that struck me was the amazing views of the sea at the end of the descending streets. Xevi gave me a guided tour of the main coastal area around La Scala, including two smallish 'town' beaches, located right in the township. Everything's within walking distance here - including the town's very own beach!

After the family-in-law get together, Xevi and Irene took me back to Xevi's mother's home (Rosa) in Torroella de Montgrí where I met Berni - Xevi's nephew (despite an age gap between them of only 3 years!) We had dinner al fresco in the courtyard of Rosa's townhouse, with two sleepy youngens & more than a couple of sleepy grownups as well :) Plus, Berni had to get up at 6am to go to work as an ambulance officer.

Sunday was my latest start since I got to Europe - and I relished the sleepin. I got up around 9:30 thinking the rest of the family must have been up and waiting for me, only to find that this was considered still quite early for a Sunday and the boys weren't even up yet.We spent the morning in Torroella and I met up with Robert & Lourdes from the Matas branch of the family - who I only just realised I got no photos of - eek!! Thankfully, though, I have just double-checked my 2007 photos and I took one of them, then.

After lunch and a bit of resting in front of the TV, we drove out to L'Estartit - the closest coastal town to Torroella and met up with Enric & Dolors from the final branch of the family tree - the Batlles. They were very welcoming and agreed to pose for a photo with me, depsite having to hurry our visit to make sure we got back to Girona in time for me to catch the train.

By the end of the weekend I got to see Artau at his funniest as he became more comfortable with my presence. And in the end, he seemed quite sad as we waved to each other through the train window. I could see him mouthing my name and couldn't help but feel a bit "awwwwww"ish. :(