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Published: August 28th 2006
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The reception guy at our Hossegor hotel initially introduced himself as "the prince", so when I went to ask such a peasant like question as "Do you know where I can catch the bus to Spain?" I was naturally a bit intimidated. 😊
He was actually really helpful and always went out of his way to help and offer us advice. We are still not sure why he called himself "the prince" or why a prince would be working in a cheap hotel, but we had had a nice place to stay, friendly service and was now well informed of the whereabouts of the royal departure bus stop to Spain. 😊
The prince estimated it would take us 15min to walk, but in 6min we were at the royal stop and on the bus to Bayonne. Bayonne was the hub where we could catch the coach over the boarder to Bilbao, Spain. The coach driver's face said it all, he was bored and was really over his job. The first part of the trip went quickly as we had the bus to ourselves and were able to lay down for a bit. About an hour or so into the
ride we pulled into a small town for a break and received instructions to "renew our tickets" at the local ticket box. Now when I looked into my wallet and stared at the empty space where it should have been, I realised that when I got on the bus I had indeed paid for the ticket all the way to Spain, but forgot to actually rip it from the little machine! 😞 So here we were at a crappy little town in the middle of nowhere to stretch our legs and renew a ticket that I didn't have! Thoughts of being left behind filled my mind and I started to picture myself sleeping on the side of the road and shivering all night...Nah, just as a falling apple knocked sense into Newton, I realised a quick chat with the driver should have things sorted out. My explanation, desperate and detailed was answered swiftly with, "No sorry your seat has been sold" and continued to usher more people on the bus. A few minutes later after he had made a call to the ticket office, he said the only way I could continue the trip was up front in the fold
out emergency seat...That will do me I thought and a few minutes later we were off. Luckily, the rest of the bus couldn't see me riding up the front in the "kids seat" otherwise I would have been in for an embarrassing and tormented ride. For the first few minutes I was expecting a jelly bean or something to hit me in the back of the head, but I got away with it unscathed. 😊 Riding up the front with the driver was actually kind of cool as he proudly pointed out the Spanish scenery and rattled off a lot of facts and events from history. I could see his expression and mood lift as he morphed from bus driver into "tour guide" so I naturally encouraged him and after a few hours, we were there.
The Mundaka hotel check-in experience was all about learning what time the front doors were locked, when breakfast was, how to use our swipe cards and what to do with dirty towels. Apparently, we were entitled to fresh towels everyday IF we left them on the floor and not on the hand rails. This rule worked in conjunction with the guilt generating poster
on the wall explaining how harmful washing detergent was for the environment and suggested you should only request fresh towels if absolutely necessary. Classic.
Mundaka is a small coastal town where siesta and afternoon drinking are all in a days work. Craig found the surf to be pretty good too but only for a few days out of the week. So we spent our time exploring the town, swimming and waiting patiently for the menu at the local. Apparently, 7pm or even 8pm is way too early to even think about eating and it's only at around 8:30 - 9pm that a menu will be presented upon two or three requests. The selection was limited to say the least and was made even more slim based on the fact that we couldn't read Spanish. The waitress was helpful but after working long days she couldn't really be bothered translating much into English to two Aussies. Most days we settled on hamburgers, chips and beer and even though the meat had a cardboard resemblance and the beer was served in tiny glasses half full, it was still pretty good especially after waiting till 9 to eat. The only other real
option was ice cream from the stand but as we usually had two per day, it was time for something from another food group, even if it was cardboard meat.
The 15th July was my 28th birthday which coincided nicely with the Bilbao music festival! Too easy, so we bought some tickets, booked a hotel in town and made a night of it. Some big names like Ben Harper and Placebo were headlining, but having seen them before and each act big band playing on different nights, it had to be the 80's classic band, Guns n Roses. 😊 They were great....and brought back some very young memories of them from the late 80's. The night was awesome and was a perfect way to celebrate a birthday.
Back at Mundaka, not much happened and not much changed. People went about their daily routines and Craig waited patiently for the surf to pick up just as a dog waits by the door for his owner. 😊 Luckily for him he did get a few good days in and I'm sure will be back there soon.
A few days later we found our way to Lisbon, Portugal where we
were to go our separate ways. Craig needed some decent surf, so he booked himself into a surf camp and I had a date with reality, job searching and my new world, London.
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