Advertisement
Published: October 26th 2008
Edit Blog Post
We had another early wake up call but were more accustomed to it now. We made sure we had hardly unpacked anything the night before so we could make a beeline for the bus, (we could also make a quick escape if Terry and Sam started talking about guns again). It was quite cold, due to the high altitude I guess. We watched a few films on the bus and stopped for lunch in Burgos. It is a very religious town and had an enormous yet ornate cathedral. It is a stopping point in the pilgrim’s trip to Santiago. We walked through the picturesque streets and got chatting to an Aussie guy Brent who was on our bus. We were going to have hot dogs for lunch but after waiting at a counter for about ten minutes and no one showing up to serve us we left and got pizza. Taking hot food onto the bus is supposed to be a big no-no, but we were in a hurry so had to smuggle it on and devour it secretly.
On the bus we once again overheard Sam and Terry talking bollocks. Sam was saying how he pulled a gun on
his sister’s fiancé and said that if he treated her badly he’d kill her. Terry replied that he was a chicken and he’d only pull a gun if he was going to use it. Boy were we hoping they wouldn’t be put in our room again.
We crossed into the Basque region which encompasses an area of Northern Spain and Southern France. It has its own language which is apparently not similar to any other language in the World and they aren’t even sure how it originated. The area is known for having a terrorist group called the ETA, it has a heap of wind farms, and San Sebastian - our destination, was burnt down by the French in 1931 with only one street escaping the flames. The running of the bulls takes place just outside of San Sebastian. It is a university town but has good surf beaches so I guess is a uni/surfer town. The city also has more Michelin stars per area than any other city in the World so there are some top notch restaurants.
As soon as we pulled up Jez and I saw a guy walking down the road with the weirdest
haircut, it looked like he had an army helmet on and hair covering it, you’ll have to look at the photo to see what I mean. We then saw something even stranger and I wish I'd taken a photo. Two blind ladies, both with canes were walking together and walked into a wall. Seriously. I don’t think I will ever see the blind leading the blind literally ever again. A guy saw them and helped them out. I would have but was trying to find my camera instead.
When we arrived into the hostel, Jez and I were relieved that we weren’t put in a room with Sam and Terry, phew. In the room next to us was a guy from the busabout trip who was 93 years old! What a legend, he even showed us what the best nightclubs were when the bus had rolled into town. His name was Keith but we called him Bluey (if you’ve seen Old School the movie you’ll know what I mean). This was his 6th busabout trip, he does it every year and is well known by all the buasbout people and hostel staff, they all love him and take him
out whenever they can.
A group of us all decided it was time to explore the city and find some food. I think we ended up going to a place called Zabebos and chowed down on some tasty tapas. The garlic mushrooms and ham, cheese and potato omelets were amazing. Our busabout guide had informed us that Sangria was ridiculously cheap at the supermarket and that the locals drink a concoction called Calimocho which is half coca-cola have red wine. I was a bit dubious as I am not a red wine fan, but seeing as it was so cheap it was no big loss if I didn’t like it. For less than $5 we got a bottle of sangria, a bottle of coca-cola and a bottle of red wine. And I was pleasantly surprised the Calimocho was bloody good. We sat round at the hostel, drinking our newly found concoction while listening to some tunes and chatting about our travels. It was good times. We decided to head out later on and found a 2 for 1 happy hour bar. My memory is a little hazy, but I remember the place had giant straws for your drinks, Jez
pulled out his down syndrome stripper dance to peoples delight and both Jez and Brent were charming the ladies. Must have been the Calimocho.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0414s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb