Everybody in this part of Spain seems to do everything at exactly the same time. You know how at home you can walk into a restaurant like Dennys at five in the morning, nine, noon, three, six and midnight and find a good number of people eating on every visit. For the most part it's the same with shopping, working and going for a walk. Not here.

The day for everybody begins around nine or ten. The sun doesn't come up till eight, so no sense in trying to get an earlier start. Breakfast is small and seldom eaten in what we'd think of as a restaurant. Even American Burger King isn't open for breakfast. I know this because I badly wanted some kind of egg sandwich one morning and couldn't even turn to the King.

"It's the big meal of the day."
Now don't even start thinking about what you call lunch till at least two. This is when people here eat "la comida." This isn't so much lunch as it is a big dinner eaten a few hours early. It's the big meal of the day. And I learned yesterday that "buenos dias," or "good morning" doesn't become "buenas tardes," or "good afternoon" until after you've eaten "la comida." Mid-to-late afternoon also brings the siesta. Yes, contrary to what you may have heard, the siesta survives. Everybody has a little nappy-poo before getting back to work around four or five.

And if you think you got funny looks searching for lunch at noon, just try eating dinner at six or seven. Fughettaboutit. "La cena" is usually a smaller snack-like affair and is eaten around nine or later.

"You'll find yourself lonely and hungry."
The eating schedule was more or less the same when I was in Buenos Aires, so that's not really so odd to me. What's new is that these rules are rigidly enforced. If you don't eat your big meal in the mid-afternoon, you're gonna be out of luck later because all the restaurants will be closed at six and won't re-open till eight or nine. And if you don't get your shopping out of the way by one or two, shopkeepers are gonna go do their siesta thing and lock the doors behind them. You really do have to adjust to the local schedule or you'll find yourself lonely and hungry.

I'm off tomorrow for Pamplona for a few days. I hope after that to head toward Andorra for a day of skiing... my first in nearly two years. And then on to France.