old town

On the second day, I decided that i'd like to see old san juan. my grandmother had been raving about it to me since childhood. she used to vacation in puerto rico and it was all beautiful, she'd say, but oh, how she loved old san juan, with the cobblestone streets and the quaint little shops and the big, ruined castles that they let you walk around in.
so in much the same fashion that i decided i'd like to go swimming and found, like some sort of miracle, that my wish had been granted, i decided, that very same day, that i'd like to see old juan and found myself en route just a few short hours later.
i was feeling quite romantic about this particular expedition, what with my grandmother's wistful descriptions, and the fact that i was still swooning over the idea that i was actually on a real life tropical island and all. even when the blue sky turned gray and threatened to pour rain all over my plans, even when fluff fell asleep on the way and then snapped at me when i tried to wake him up to look at the amazing scenery, i still felt romantic.
i didn't start feeling unromantic in fact, until the hunger set in. we had been driving in and out of san juan for the past fifteen minutes trying to find a parking spot, but all i could think about was eating.
when we finally did park, we walked straight towards the square in the center of town and looked around, hoping to find sustenance. since we were on a mission to eat only the most authentic, greasy, grimey puerto-rican food, we settled on a place marked san juan food court. unfortunately, it was two in the afternoon and all the vendors in the court had already put away their food for the afternoon. i consoled myself by drinking a coconut full of rum.

after the coconut, we became briefly distracted by all the absolutely outrageous tchockis in the overpriced souvenir shops, but quickly returned to our quest for food. after searching for about twenty minutes, we came to the conclusion that the only food available in san juan was ridiculously overpriced and decidedly not puerto-rican. we settled on a tapas restaurant called toro salao where i was finally able to order a salad. i thought that the food was awesome, but everyone else ordered croquetas with jamon serrano and then complained that the ham tasted weird.(i got my revenge later that afternoon when i sullked the entire time we were in senor frogs, a tourist trap where they sell you frozen drinks for eighteen dollars that don't even get you drunk.)

my favorite part of the day though, was when we visited the castillo de san cristobal and pretended that it was a playground.




love always