The things that the tv travel shows don't mention

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With all the travel shows on the tv none of them get around to mentioning the mundane tasks that go on while you travel. Washing is one of these mundane things. There´s only so many times you wash things in the bathroom sink with the belief that they are clean.

Today´s adventure was to find a laundramat in San Sebastian, a simple task really, first stop the lady that looks after the pension that I´m staying in. She was kind enough in her broken English (which is 4 000 000 times better than my tokenistic Spanish) to point out a couple of places on the map. She also gave me the tip to keep an eye on my washing in case it did a magic trick and vanished. Now not wanting to walk the streets aimlessly with my washing, it was time for a recon mission. Plus it was time to eat more cheap bar food while sampling the finest red wine the Basque region has to offer in a tumbler glass.

Just as well as there was absolutely no hope of finding the place she suggested, all there was in that area was bars and more bars. Plan´B´head off to the tourist bureau. They have been helpful before by telling me not to bother buying the €10, 3 day all you can travel bus pass but to walk instead. Helpful they were, the laundramat I was looking for had closed, but there was another one in town. Off I stroll across the bridge, round the corner and there it was like gold at the end of the rainbow, so I check the price, closing time and stroll on home.

Phase 2 of the operation, fill the trusty IKEA bag up with the washing, Mr IKEA was onto something with these bags. Grab all the loose change that had been saved for this momentous occassion and away I go blue IKEA bag over the shoulder.

The first challenge is always working out what goes where and how not to lose your money into nowhere land. After reading the instructions in Spanish and the helpful hints in English I managed to extract washing powder from the gadget on the wall. Next challenge make the machine work, throw the washing in load the powder, put the coin in, press the magic button and nothing happened. But wait this is just an evil trip that Mr Miele plays on unsuspecting people like me. After the little pregnant pause the machine springs into life. So just kick back read a book and watch the world go by. Other people come in and you become some strange sort of help desk for those wanting to use a machine, because after one successful attempt you are the master of the machines. This included the guy who only had two sets of clothes and proceeded to change into his clean set after they had dried, it´s always some incredibly sexy amazonian goddess on thetv that does this not some homeless bloke, oh well.

So clothes all clean and happy again now.

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