San Sebastian

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I had 7 nights in San Sebastian which is on the coast of Spain, near the French border. I achieved quite alot, including Pamplona, a Bob Dylan concert, seeing the Tour de France and surviving a bad case of bed bugs and some crazy kiwis.
Pamplona was absolutely crazy. As soon as we got to San Sebastian we prepared for a long night ahead and caught the bus out to Pamplona which took about an hour. Got there at about 9 and started drinking a bottle of 1 euro Sangria...not a good idea as it turns out. Felt quite ill most of the night but still managed to get a bit of dancing in to crazy spanish music...heard that shakira song about 10 times! The streets were manic with everyone dressed in red and white drunk as skunks, but most of the white covered in sangria. There was rubbish absolutely everywhere and guys going to the toilet wherever they wanted, so you really didnt know what you were stepping in....it was quite gross but we managed to stay up all night until 8 the next morning to catch the running. We bought tickets to the bull ring which was at the end of the run, where crazy guys would gather waiting to get charged by some bulls. As if running away from the things wasnt enough! It wasnt quite what i was expecting, it was a little tame. Maybe because of all the tourists that participate they have had to choose slower more placed bulls. They seemed to just canter into the ring and straight out again. It got a little more exciting as they bought out the little crazy bulls. I heard a rumour that before they go out into the ring they pull their testicles. I could imagine that would make you a little mad. So they let out a couple of little bulls and they run around trying to gore people and they get some people and then they keep chasing them until they either find a new victim or the guy falls over the side...very entertaining. Only one person got hurt that day, and he got paralysed which was very sad. Im not sure about the rest of the time though. The rest of that day was a write off as we just slept most of the day. I think thats when i got the dreaded bed bug.....

Have you ever had so many bites that you don't know where to scratch first and end up in this crazy scratch dance trying to scratch 10 bites at once? No, neither have I. But it was pretty bad, never had so many bites at one time in my life. And whats worse, nobody else got them! Lucky me.

San Sebastian was a beautiful city. Beaches galore. One beach was even a little bit like an Australian beach with nice sand and some small surf. Made me feel a little homesick for Tuross! Another great thing about San Sebastian is the sheer amount of restaurants and bars. And not just any bars....Tapas bars! Loved the tapas. It was slightly confusing at first, we had to ask some other tourist at first for some instructions and even after that we were still confused as to how they worked out the price. It was relatively cheap so we weren't too fussed. We also walked up a big hill to an old fashioned fun fair at the top which had some spectacular views.

The Bob Dylan concert was alot of fun. Aside from the fact that Bob sounded like he had just swallowed a cat and had a giant furball in his throat, it was a massive massive beach party. Had a few problems with some crazy kiwis, one of which called me a skanky australian bitch, in a really strong kiwi accent so it came out ''butch'' it was quite funny.

Hired a car one day, a cute little red VW Polo to go and watch some of the Tour de France. I was a bit hesitant about driving, as i hadnt driven a manual for a while let alone a left hand drive one, on the wrong side of the road. My fears proved valid when i couldnt even find reverse to get out of the carpark! Eventually asked the lady from the car hire place (very embarrassing) and got out of the car park only to bash into the kerb because i wasnt used to being on that side of the car. Eventually got out of San Sebastian after getting hopelessly lost and not being able to get on the huge highway and going back into San Seb, angry spaniards honking all the way. Eventually got on and drove on to Pau and through Biarritz getting lost along the way and paying about 20 euro in tolls. Got to Pau eventually and tried to find a good spot to watch the finish. It was pretty crowded but we worked our way onto the barrier, talking to some other aussies on the way. Waited for about an hour and a half, it was pretty exciting as it was a sprint finish but blink and you would have missed them they were going that fast. Back to San Sebastian and by the end of the day I was a pro and didnt want to return my little red beast.

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