Roses

Roses is a beautiful resort town on the Costa Brava, the coastal area between Barcelona and France. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, as I spent the afternoon suntanning on the beach and playing in the waves. Our good mood quickly turned sour at dinnertime though, when we realized that every single restaurant served expensive, touristy food (pizza, fries, etc.). We were even willing to eat cheap and get fast food, but there was nothing open besides the big restaurants that looked like they were there to take all our money. I was starving, and by 9pm, we had to give up and choose a restaurant.

It took 20 minutes for them to give us a menu and another hour to serve us our food. It was past ten at this point. When I got my chicken, one piece was still raw inside. The waiter took it back and I got my replacement chicken 20 minutes later. By then, I didn't even want my chicken anymore and just wanted to get out of that restaurant. - both the food and service were terrible, and it had taken us two hours to eat our awful dinner. What I didn't understand was why everyone else seemed reasonably happy with the food and service. When we looked up the restaurant later on Trip Advisor, we were shocked to find that it was the NUMBER ONE restaurant in that town. Very incomprehensible to me.

If I were to return to Roses, I would stay for the beach but go to another town for the food. Lesson learned.