Last Day with Mum - Part 1

The Last Breakfast Together

Finally it was the last day with my Mum and her boyfriend and I didn't really know if I should be happy or sad - I enjoyed not being alone but I was also incredibly annoyed by my Mum's boyfriend and his embarrassing behaviour. I had been looking forward to staying in bed longer than the days before that last day, but as it always happens I woke up at 8 am and couldn't sleep longer. So I took some comfortable clothes on (I didn't know what we would do yet) and went down to the restaurant in order to have breakfast. I thought that my Mum and her boyfriend might be there already, as they used to get up early but I couldn't find them anywhere, so I sat down at an empty table and went to the buffet to get the same things as every day. Even if the breakfast was much better than dinner, there were not too many things that I liked. Furthermore, I really loved the fresh prepared eggs and omelettes, but due to that my clothes had quite a strong smell of fat and butter after leaving the restaurant every morning and that was a bit annoying as I couldn't wash my things anymore. 

So I sat there and had my breakfast, waiting for my Mum and her boyfriend to come. But they didn't come and I had to eat all alone - I really felt a bit lost and couldn't imagine how that would be the next days when I would have to be there alone for sure. But this day I didn't mind to be alone, her boyfriend had been that annoying that I was happy to be able to eat without any embarrassing comments or strange questions. When I had finished I waited a bit and used the hotel Wifi to get some news from my friends and some information but after a while I had seen everything new and stood up to leave the restaurant. In that moment, I saw my Mum entering the restaurant and went over to her. She asked me if I had already finished and was surprised when I told her that she was right. I wanted to know what we would do that day, so my Mum told me to sit down at their table again and stay a bit longer. Actually, I didn't want to do that but I had no choice and followed her. They went to the buffet and got something to eat while I was waiting, and when they came back I asked again what we might do that day. They didn't have any ideas, so I suggested to have lunch in an Italian restaurant not far from my former work (and not far from the hotel) and go to the Botanical Garden afterwards, as I knew that my Mum wanted to see that place (I didn't care if her boyfriend wanted to see it). 

The Pizza Problem

My plan was accepted and for the morning we just went to the pool in order to relax a bit and enjoy the sunshine. It was wonderful to simply be there and do nothing - I already knew that I would miss that when I had to study again but for the moment I was also looking forward to getting back and being a bit more productive than recently in my internship. Some time before lunchtime we went back to our rooms (where her boyfriend was also waiting) and got ready for lunch in the Italian restaurant. It wasn't far to walk, only about 15 minutes by foot, and I had already been there several times with my Vietnamese friend - it was incredibly tasty and they didn't only have pizza, but also handmade pasta with incredible sauces. I hoped that my Mum's boyfriend would be able to order his Calzone another time and be happy with it for one single time. But I didn't want to be too optimistic, so I decided to simply don't care and went to the lobby in order to wait for them. We started our way to the restaurant and I could already recognize that my Mum's boyfriend was in his bad "I don't want to move, it's all too exhausting but I have to as we are here for holidays" - mood. That couldn't become a nice day, I just hoped that it wouldn't be too embarrassing. When we arrived at the Italian restaurant I was totally focusing on MY food and not on the problems of my Mum's boyfriend. I ordered a simple Salami Pizza, my Mum had some pasta and he ordered, as expected, a pizza Calzone. 

While we were waiting for the food I could see my former internship supervisor and another colleague passing by the restaurant, but fortunately they were just waving shortly and going to another restaurant. I knew that they were having lunch in that Italian restaurant from time to time but that morning when I had suggested to go there I hadn't thought about that - I had already forgotten the routine of my internship even if my Vietnamese friend was still telling me things that were happening there - and it was incredibly funny, I couldn't wait to meet her the next evening (in the same restaurant in fact). I talked a bit to my Mum about the colleagues, my internship and the Botanical Garden - her boyfriend wasn't participating at our conversation but that wasn't a problem for me. He was behaving like that most of the time and as I had already said, he was in a bad mood. 

The food arrived and it looked delicious, smelled delicious and tasted delicious. Everyone was hungry and happy about his plate - except one person that seemed to like nothing to eat at all. He had only tried one single piece of his calzone and stopped eating. My Mum asked him what the problem was and he said that the sauce in the Calzone tasted incredibly disgusting and that he wasn't able to eat it.  I couldn't believe him, as the owners and the cook of the restaurant were real Italians and I was sure that they knew how to do a Calzone. But he refused to continue eating and got an even worse mood. He even compared the taste of the sauce with Asian sweet-sour sauce! I didn't care and continued eating my delicious pizza. He didn't stop complaining and I just looked at the other side of the street and focused on the nature and other impressions, in my head I was at another planet. I really had to make an effort in order not to say anything mean or annoyed - in that moment I would have really wanted to to that, because it had been the same thing for the whole five days now and he was just behaving like a little child! After a while one of the waiters came and asked him if there was a problem (fortunately he could speak German). He told that it's not a good Calzone and he didn't want to eat it. The waiter asked him if he wanted to have a replacement and he ordered a small salami pizza after some discussions. 

The pizza arrived when we had almost finished eating, he tested one piece and seemed to like it and I was almost optimistic about that dish. But his mood was ruined and after the second piece he stopped eating again! I didn't know why and fortunately my Mum raised that question only some seconds later. His answer was incredible: he had had a hurting stomach the whole day already. And he hadn't known that before ordering a second pizza? How emabrrassing would it be to give that one back, too? I decided to tell the waiter to give me some aluminium foil and I would take the remaining pieces of his salami pizza with me. Incredible that behaviour... Finally, when I had wrapped my pizza with aluminium foil we paid (we didn't have to pay the Calzone) and left the restaurant. In Spanish I told him that I always loved his food and that he only had a bad day. 

The Botanical Garden

Fortunately, the Botanical Garden was not far away, we just had to cross the street and were already at the entrance. My Mum's boyfriend told us that he would wait at the bench next to the entrance, as he was feeling sick and his stomach was still hurting. I was quite happy about that as I preferred to have some time with my Mum alone, so we paid the 4 euros entrance fee and started our tour through all the exotic plants. I had been to that Garden on my first weekend in Puerto de la Cruz when I was still having holidays and didn't know anyone. Anyway, I hadn't seen all the plants as it had been very hot that day and I am not too interested in botanical things. But with my Mum I was sure that it would be an interesting visit - without embarrassing questions or somebody complaining about silly things. We had received a plan at the entrance and went along the small paths next to the international plants - my Mum knew a lot of them without reading the small cards that told the English and Latin names, as well as the country/region of origin. We spent a lot of time in there and had much fun, laughing about enourmous or funny looking plants and being fascinated by some others that we hadn't seen before. But after a while we had finished our tour and had to get back to the entrance, even if I really didn't want to. We took one selfie (my Mum wanted to have a new background for her Laptop) and returned to her boyfriend who was still waiting where we had left him - next to the entrance. 

We started our way back to the hotel (my Mum's boyfriend was almost dying according to him) and I was simply looking forward to some time for me in my room in front of my German TV. He was still behaving like a small child and I couldn't stop complaining via messages at my friends about that. I didn't understand how an adult person could behave like that! When we arrived at the hotel we planned that they would pack their suitcases until the evening and we would meet again to have dinner and get to the city centre afterwards. My Mum wanted to get to the beach one last time and enjoy the atmosphere next to the waves and the sea a bit. When I was back to my room and had taken a shower it knocked and my Mum came in, in order to bring me an almost empty suitcase. She told me that I had about 7 kg to put in there in order to give her some things from me to take to Germany with her. That was the original reason why she had decided to visit me again and I was incredibly thankful for that. When I had moved from my appartment to the hotel I had realized that I have too many things and I would never be able to take all of them with me. But with my Mum's help of 7 kg it would almost work out and I would be able to keep some more clothes or other things. She told me to bring her back the filled suitcase later, before dinner, and I started to put some of my jackets and larger things into it. In the end it was 7.5 kg and I had "lost" some of the problematic things. Thank you Mama! <3 

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