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Holidays in Spain
Two weeks ago I left Victoria, left Kelowna, flew far away from Canada and arrived safe and sound in Deutschland. And then, shortly after, Alwin and I jumped on another airplane and flew to Madrid, for 10 days in Spain. Our days were not necessarily filled with typical Spanish things like bull fights, paellas, and flamenco dancers - but we did indeed explore some very different, very marvelous places in Spain.
Madrid:
Within the first few hours we had visited some most impressive sites, found a lovely place to stay at a pension owned by two twin smoking viejas, a great tapas bar, a lively jazz club, and met a professional quick hands pickpocket wallet thief on the metro. hijo de ..
The weather was marvelous, the Photo Espana exhibition took us wandering around the city searching for different exhibits, we had picnics here and there, and just enjoyed the passion, the excitement, and craziness of Spain. Although Madrid is distinctly European, many things reminded me of Buenos Aires - from the architecture of many buildings and monuments, to the very smell of pollution and perfumes that flooded the sticky air.
Salamanca:
If
you would like to travel back in time, and don’t mind 5000 other tourists joining you - head to Salamanca. Salamanca is also filled with some 36,000 students, studying in the oldest University in the whole world (Founded in 1216!) La Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. We met some students from Madrid that were visiting for the weekend and spent most of our time with them. Jesus - the main talker of the three, explained to our inquiries about the abundance of weddings, that everyone in Spain wants to get married in Salamanca, and saturday is the only viable day of the week to get married. So, we must have seen about 15 weddings just in one day! Once again the weather was lovely and Salamanca was just a three hour (11€) bus ride from Madrid.
San Sebastian: (7hours in train north east, 28€, from Salamanca)
Full of Basques, Australians, and French families, San Sebastian is a lovely place to spend a few days. Unfortunately it was quite rainy while we were there, but no worries. We climbed the highest mountain (about a 2 hour ´hike´), ate more than enough gelato, and stayed in the nicest hostel there is. Pension
Amaiur www.pensionamaiur.com, it was like spending the weekend at Grandma´s house, check out the website! Anyway, we met some wild Australians that argued whether Melbourne or Sydney was the best city, and we tagged along on their Big Night Out. Lets just put it this way, it wasn’t so bad that the weather wasn’t great the next day, because we weren’t feeling so sunny either. All in all San Sebastian is ridiculously expensive, but a fantastic place to visit for a few days.
Biblao: (one hour east in bus, 8€, from San sebastian)
Last stop. First of all - the Metro system was just phenomenal. I suppose public transportation it is generally good all over Europe’s major cities, but this was something else. We took the Metro to the Beach, then later to the Enormous Heritage Bridge, then to an open air Jazz festival, and then to the Guggenheim museum - just like that. No problems, no worries.
There seems to be less tourists in Biblao, more sentiments of nationalism, and busier streets. Our first room was just terrible, I felt as though I smoked 5 packs of cigarettes during the night because our eau-de-cigarillo pillows, not to
mention the opera/Spanish pop music singer who wailed all the way through our afternoon nap. The next place we stayed was fine, nothing will compare however to Pension Amaiur. We just spent a couple of days in Biblao, and that was enough. There are only so many old buildings and narrow streets that one can see.
All in all, an amazing Holiday in Spain. The weather and the food, the company and the people, the ocean and the fields, the museums and the beaches, todo maravillosa!
Hasta el proximo.
besos
jenica
PS - the other half of LINZICA is working and wandering in the Yukon, I’m hoping to hear from her soon!
PS- There are 34 photos, make sure you see the second page with the photos from Biblao!
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Michi
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Pensando en ti desde otro lugar caliente
Mi hermosisima Jeni!! Que fantastico leer de tu aventura - saber que estas bien y alegre y pasandola con ese muchacho genial Alwin! Le das un gran abrazo de mi parte por favor! Deveras que bueno saber que estas haciendo, y que estas disfrutando la vida como siempre. Yo sigo aqui en Guatemala, trabajando con el "UNDP", aprendiendo mas sobre que camino tomara mi vida. Espero tambien oir algo de la otra mitad de Linzica, que me imagino esta pasando otro verano excelente! Siga mandando updates cuando puedas, y disfruta cada momento. Los quiero mucho, y espero el dia que nos juntemos de nuevo (en que parte del mundo sera esta vez...?) Muchos besos!!