Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 976

Having delightfully avoided hearing or reading any news since we started we were not overly sure about the odds on Spain's fantastic footballing triumph last night. Our money was most definately on a German win but the Spanish nation seemed very confident and their footballers even more so. What was more surprising was the celebrations and post match feel good factor. Both were rather lacking. During the game we out paced the locals with the consumption of our three modest beers. The Spaniards who we watched the game with seemed to lose interest in any alcohol for the duration of the game and the result didn't rejuvenate it. The locals actually looked a little uncertain about what to do by way of celebrations. After some pause it turned into much honking of car horns and driving ... read more

After scoring waist high waves in Mundaka, Spain, I headed back to Biarritz on June 12th in order to meet up with Dan Cooke and his two friends Mike and Harry. In London, they bought a van for us to travel around in. Her name is Lucy, a 93' toyota Lucidia, turbo diesel for 900£...she's been very good to us so far. We spent the night at the hostel in Biarritz catching up over a few drinks. Never trust an Aussie with a bottle of Bundy..cause you're bound to black out...as we both did. Early the next morning we drove to San Sebastian, Spain. We all really enjoyed this city. Nice beaches, good night life and friendly people. One night we slept in an underground parking lot..I'll never do that again. Travelling westward along the coast, ... read more

Sunday 22 June 2008 My god it's hot!! Had to put the A/C on today because it was just too much to handle. Not even a little breeze. Alex still played footie though while I did my exercise videos in the comfort of the air conditioned flat. Monday 23 June 2008 We ate a mediocre dinner of tostas which turned out to be a piece of bread (albeit very nice bread) with some stuff on top. Kind of like an open sandwich, and I ordered some patatas fritas and got a bowl of crisps! Celebrations for Sant Joan down the beach - it was insane! Alex, Kyles and I originally planned to meet Tasha on Verdaguer platform, but changed it last minute to meet outside Ciutadella metro station. Which was probably the best idea in the ... read more

June 28, 2008 Santander, Spain A few hours on the road through S.W. France and into northern Spain and we arrived at Santander, Spain on the North coast of Spain on the Atlantic Ocean. Another nice drive on good roads and a great variety of scenery from farmland to mountain passes. Santander is a very nice resort area with a huge, very nice, beach and at this time of year it is getting busy as expected. We took a short walk to the beach and stopped at the local Casino to donate a few euros to the local economy. This is a great place for kids with lots of the usual beach things to do and see. The last part of the drive follows the coast with some very nice seascapes. We didn’t see the coast ... read more

There is a rather significant football match for our Spanish hosts tomorrow evening. Currently a warm up game going on over our tent. Excitment is high and expectation even higher. We are staying put in the moderately sized town of Sahagun for the big game as it feels the best place to watch the Spanish emotions in full flow. During our year in the Spanish speaking world achieving decent fluency in their language is one of the primary objectives. Today showed signs of a solid start to this endeavour. Building on our smooth conversational exchange about the finer points of our camping kit with a four year old two days ago we raised the bar even higher today. Having a late breakfast (toasted bread and olive oil must be tried) a Dutch couple had to reply ... read more