Considering Irene's leg hadn't gotten any better during the night, but actually kinda worse, we got a slow start today. Whereas yesterday it was her lower leg that hurt, this morning it hurt all the way up to her thigh, so she slept while I sat editing pictures and blogging.
After some talk back and forth, she suddenly announced that her SO had given us money to go to a spa. My first reaction was "..lol? :o", but it was true. We decided it'd be my birthday present from them, and I knew exactly which spa we should pick.
Rituels d'Orient has a nice reputation, and is also conveniently located a 5-minute walk from our hotel. So we went over there, got an appointment an hour later, and then walked over to Starbucks for a frappuccino while we waited.
I was pretty nervous, because I've never been in a spa before. Ever. And the closest thing I've gotten to a massage was when I went to a naprapath in 2010 for my tension headaches. She told me to unhook my bra and slide my t-shirt way up and lay on my stomach. That's the most nudity I've ever shown to someone like that. Add to that the fact that I'm really uncomfortable with my body, and you have yourself a nervous Silje.
I still chose a body treatment that sounded right for me; "Softness of Shea" includes a full-body scrub with apricot seeds, argan and other nice things, then a full-body slathering of warm shea butter followed by a wrap. You're wrapped in plastic and towels and 10 minutes later you get a full-body massage that lasts for about 30 minutes. I survived, and it felt great even though I was keenly aware that I was very naked and it was weird. I'm still full of oily shea butter, though it's mostly been sucked up by my dry, dry skin now xD Also, I still smell awesome. I'm considering stopping by the spa another day to buy some of the shea butter she used on me, because it really smells wonderful!
Meanwhile, Irene chose something that hopefully would help her legs; "Freshness of the Oasis" includes a rhassoul and shea butter wrap followed by a draining massage with essential mint and green tea oils to promote circulation. It seems like it did some wonders as well, her legs were less swollen afterwards, and her right leg wasn't as painful as it had been earlier!
After our treatments, we got to sit and relax with some Moroccan mint tea and these cute little snacks that I'm not 100% sure what was - they were like this crispy shell filled with almondy goodness, with honey and sesame seeds on the outside. We only got one each, and I really wanted one more because NOM.
The whole experience was somewhat weird because I'm awkward about nudity, but I actually think I'd do it again. It was definitely worth the money, and it was an awesome early birthday present! :D Thanks again, Irene and Arild!
Since we had some money left over from Arild's generous gift, we headed over to Lush again. I can't help it, it's become kind of an obsession. I WANT IT ALL. We shopped a bit more, and this time I took pics of everything. This is the complete Lush haul of this vacation:
There are some gifts, but mostly it's stuff for myself. Yay, pampering!
We then decided it was about time we found some food, so we found a small café-ish thing that had tapas.
Okay, so we kinda dug in before we remembered we were supposed to take pictures of the food. xD It was delicious, and the patatas bravas were spicy, but good.
After eating, we went back to the hotel with our bags and then went to the store. On our way there we randomly ran into some other Norwegian people, which was just so random that I once again couldn't let it go until way later. When we returned from the store, it turned out they were staying at our hotel as well, so that's.. so random I can't even :D They were from Bergen. Hello, Bergen!
Finally we ate dinner at a place Mom and I went to last year - L'Arrosseria Xàtiva. It looks really dodgy once you get inside, and Irene was NOT amused. Additionally, nothing on the menu yelled out for us to eat it, so we didn't really know what to do, considering we'd already gotten our Cokes. We finally decided to share an order of woked rice with prawns, and it was really good. I think I managed to turn Irene. We're probably not going back there, though, considering the menu didn't appeal to us that much.
We were back from dinner a few minutes before midnight, and since then I've been blogging and we've just been relaxing. I'm finally no longer lagging behind with the blogging, and we're gonna go to bed now!
Tomorrow's plans include the tourist bus, Olympic arena, botanical gardens (with bonsai exhibition) and the Museu Blau. We'll see how much Irene's leg is up to, though. See ya later!
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