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Published: July 14th 2006
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Hey! We grabbed another frosty shower and slept for a few hours, went by the local store to pick up some stuff for the road, packed up our backpacks and headed to the bus station with our new friend from New Zealand, Cazz. She is a very flexible traveler having backpacked through several countries over the last month or so and she was the one who told us about the free concert tonight on the beach in San Sebastian.
The bus ride lasted about an hour, and we headed towards the beach and a train station where Cazz could store her huge backpack for the night. We chatted with two German girls and their friend, Jorge, from Brazil and stood around the train station for awhile. We're all standing in a circle, with all our stuff either on our backs or right beside our feet and my pack was leaning against my leg. We were talking and all the sudden I realized it was gone. Just like that. Grand larceny in front of 5 people all together and none of us saw anything! These Spanish thieves are unbelievable - obviously the best pickpockets and theives in the world in my
book. They got mad skills!
So, my clothes, stuff for the night, maps, and of course - my passport - gone! The only thing that saved my bald head from exploding into bloody tapas for the whole train station was that my camera, my sweet beautiful camera, was in my shorts. Thank Buddha! While I stewed and broiled we got directions to the local municipal police station and I had to file a report for my missing passport. Got that done and headed over to the beach in time for the warm up band but no matter how hard I tried, and I tried, I was so fucking mad...first the cell phone and the money, and now my entire backpack in front of 5 people and leaning against my leg. Truly more ballsy than running with the bulls if you ask me.
I got over it. The evening was filled with free music and about 500,000 people on the beach...we had some drinks and filled the rest of the night with talking to whoever was friendly which weren't too many, and ended up late at night finding a few guys who wanted to run with the bulls the
next day. We made a deal that if they gave us a ride back to Pamplona we would run with them and show them how not to get killed. Cool! We partied until about 3am and then went to find their buddy who was sleeping off his drinking in his rental car. Needless to say, it was too good to be true and he was slumped over the steering wheel and was in no condition to drive and would not let anyone drive the rental. We were stuck with nowhere to sleep so we hit the bus station so we could be there to catch the first bus back to Pamplona.
I wasn't sleepy and used the time to walk the city. I love walking cities at night and San Sebastian is a gorgeous city. The beach is shaped like a clam and as the tide comes in it fills up the river which runs through the entire city. The bridges are ornate and the water rushing underneath is filled with schools of fish dancing and slurping across the surface. There is a wall on both sides and I ended up walking on top of that wall and contemplating
how such a fantastic day filled with unbelievable soul-satisfying energy like running with the bulls in the morning, then the arena, then seeing a brand new city and meeting really cool people all day, could be punctuated with having everything I carried stolen in the blink of an eye. It just doesn't make sense because I have traveled around the world twice and been to over 15 countries and spent countless hours among strangers and made friends and not once in all that time had anything like a backpack, or even my wallet, been stolen. And on one trip I get ripped off blind, not once, but twice.
I made sense out of it eventually when I realized that I am no longer the type of person that simply goes with the flow and sits back and lets life come to me. I used to not make waves really and just enjoyed what the world through my way. I decided to grow beyond that a few years ago (my ex-wife did have some positive impact on me and that's one of the things I changed) so now I am now out there making things happen, moving life around and
getting done what I need and want to get done while I'm here. This means I moving not just good energy around but also the bad, and all that movement is producing what I call pushback. In summary, I'm living life more fully, and that means there will be more good stuff and also more bad stuff. It's okay, it's all good.
I got back to the station and Mark was sleeping on the marble floor outside and I got about an hour. We caught the bus back to Pamplona and crashed in exhaustion, but it was a tremendous day. A truly satisfying adventure and I collapsed with a smile on my face, thankful.
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antony
non-member comment
si sois tontos...
si no te preocupas de la mochila y tus pertenencias, no eches la culpa a los demas. si sois tontos los yankies, que culpa tenemos los que os tenemos que soportar vuestras imbecilidades. en Donostia - San Sebastian, la gran mayoria de robos las hacen los " moros ". aprende para otra vez.