Special delivery

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Geo: 40.4637, -3.74922

A terrible sleep last night - I was still up early for breakfast, which included eggs that you can cook yourself. As a side note, this place also includes pasta, rice, oil, salt, pepper, etc. Great place! Since I was at it, I also made some breakfast for Rob and Vanessa. In walked a very cute brunette Aussie girl named Angela so being the gentleman that I am, I offered to cook her some eggs, as well. I then found out she had a boyfriend, and wanted to take back the eggs ... so much for being a gentleman ...

I've been up Mt. Iguelde before, but not Mt. Urgull - Angela had been up there before but wanted to do it again, so off we went. She's got some friends showing up later and is doing a bit of a highlights tour with them. She's got some similar travel tastes to mine; she absolutely loved Croatia. But I suppose very few people who have visited Croatia DON'T love it.

It was cloudy this morning, but good because it kept things cooler for the short hike. The humidity still made it a little unpleasant. At the top, she mentioned that her friend showing up tonight was really hot. Well ... I'd love to meet her because if Angela thinks she's hot, she must be REALLY hot! But unfortunately, her friend is also coupled 😞

We walked back down to the old town for some tapas. After telling her about it, Angela really wanted to try the mango/foie gras tapa I had last night. The tapas weren't quite as good as I remembered, but still yummy. I guess things taste better after four or five drinks! It was a nice light snack for me, and a meal for Angela. I rounded it off with a café con leche.

We split up and said that we'd all meet up for tapas later. I was off to the beach, despite the far from stellar weather today. Despite being cold and cloudy, I decided that I HAD to swim - I've been to San Sebastian three times now, and have never been in the water. I was only one of a few crazy SOBs in the water. I only lasted a few minutes ...

It actually felt fairly warm once I got out of the water - I guess anything would seem warm after that cold water! I ended up lying on the beach and thinking, for quite some time. It felt a lot like my first time in San Sebastian, when I sat on a chilly, cloudy beach just before leaving for Mallorca.

I also spent some time writing a letter ... to whom was the letter intended? Whenever I travel, the subject of my multiple trips to Spain always comes up. Pervez asked and I told him the Isabel story and he mentioned that he would also be going to Toledo.

I took it as a sign and asked Pervez to deliver a letter to the Hotel Sol for me. Why? I'm really not sure - those feelings I had for Isabel changed long ago. But it's no different than situations other people find themselves in. Sometimes you meet that someone that absolutely does it for you, in so many ways, but for whatever reason, they are unavailable.

If you've had feelings for someone before and though they may change, if the opportunity ever came up you would wonder, wouldn't you? It's kind of like sending out an email to someone out of the blue, just to see if their situation was now different. Personally, when things in life don't work out the way I had hoped, I'm left wondering "what if?" Doubts creep into my mind ... I'm seemingly always in that spot, but then other opportunities in life arise, so why not?

I've said before that I believe people control their own destiny to a certain degree, and that fate sometimes puts you in certain situations that you need to act upon. Is this one of those situations? Who knows? I guess I will find out. It's like a message in a bottle - it might end up somewhere but most likely it will end up nowhere, and it is sent with no real expectations.

There really isn't much point to the letter - in it, I actually said "I don't know why I am sending you this, but I also don't know why I returned to Toledo twice to find you. I can't explain it to you, because I don't understand it myself, either." It was almost a thank-you letter - I told her that I was living a life devoid of passion or direction until I met her. Then after meeting her ... I started doing crazy stuff like writing this letter!

I also said that much time had passed since we first met, but that I still had a beautiful and unforgettable memory of that moment. I told her that afterward, I found many parts of myself that I thought were lost forever. I know that people always confuse the beautiful memory I have with me being hung up on this girl, but that's far from the truth.

Some people encounter places or things in life that result in epiphanies, causing them to change their lives and forever remember that moment. Mine just happened to involve a beautiful Spanish girl at a hotel reception desk in Spain! Sometimes the details are unimportant; it's only the lessons you've learned and the changes you've made that matter.

I ended things with "I hope this letter finds you, and finds you very well. If you would like, there's no distance too far for me to travel in order to find you once more. I have no expectations, only hopes and dreams. I only wish to know that all is well with you." Mary is completely right - Spain turns me into a hopeless romantic fool! Whether or not I hear back really doesn't matter - sometimes it's enough just to try and see what happens.

So I finished up the letter and gave it to Pervez. I also gave him a second letter to give to whoever might be at the reception desk, in the likely event that Isabel isn't there. I hope the meaning gets across - my Spanish is quite rusty, so it's possible that the translation will say "Me like hot Spanish girl! Isabel hot Spanish girl! Me like Isabel!"

Before heading out for another night of tapas, Rob needed to run over to the grocery store, so I joined him. I told him how I kept going to the same cashier no matter how long the line was, because she was very cute. Only Rob had anything to buy; but he handed me his drinks and money, and with a big smile said "Do your thing!"

I wonder if Spanish women find my horrible accent and terrible grammar as cute as I find theirs, or if they just find mine dumb? Anyway, she had that smooth, sultry accent I always rave about. I made some random comment on the weather being so bad lately and she responded "Hombre, es cincuenta-cincuenta", then realizing my Spanish wasn't so great she said in English "It's fifty-fifty" but with her accent, it came out as "Ees feef-ty feef-ty" ... ooh ... sexy Spanish mispronunciation ...

Back to the hostel - yup, Angela wasn't lying when she said her friend was hot. As a surprise, she brought along another friend. Holly's a nurse with a bunch of nasty hospital stories (more on that later) and Laura is back in school. The more the merrier!

Off to the old town for tapas - lots of places were closed tonight. The old town was even quieter than last night - turns out that it's the festival of San Juan today. Or that could've been a lie - the bartender that told me that also said he was the nephew of Franco.

The first stop of the night - a mushroom tart that had some weird flavour. Then back to the tapas bar that had the mango/foie gras one - unfortunately, wanting to try some new ones I ended up picking some bad-tasting tapas. There was a family sitting behind us with two cute little daughters (around 3 or 4 years old, maybe?). One started playfully poking me so we struck up a conversation with the parents - from Montreal, they own a place in a town called St. Jean Bayeux (sp?), just over the French border.

The first daughter was named Elie, but I couldn't remember the name of the second - but she was so cute with her unbelievably thick lenses. Her eyes looked about twice as big as they really were! She gave me a peck on the cheek as they left, and I think she had trouble because of her surely-terrible depth perception!

In the next bar, some creepy old French guys came in and were trying to hit on Laura. One was asking about Laura and I lied that her and Rob were "madly in love", to keep him away. Then he told me to tell her "I know your mother very well. I think you are my daughter!" Whoa! Laura asked me to translate "Sorry grandpa!" back to him. The tapas in this bar were mostly deep fried, and the old French guys mostly creepy.

The final bar of the night - some UK guys here for an alcohol conference sidled up to us and started chatting. The one Brit guy was quite talkative, but kind of annoying. Every line out of him seemed rehearsed - he's a whiskey sales rep, so what do you expect? Said some crap about "What can we do to bring everybody together?" Then started singing "We are the world, we are the whiskey" Uh ... yeah ...

We managed to sneak away from them and grab some gelato - I went for a Kinder/mascarpone mix. Not so great but it'll do. I think I've actually had gelato from this place on previous trips. OK - so now for one of Holly's nurse stories. Apparently one guy showed up in the emergency room, having tried to enlarge his member by cutting a slit and injecting polyfill. Uh ... at least his member will be waterproof and well-insulated!

Apparently, a guy once hit on Laura at a BBQ and she told him to BBQ his member, as a joke. And he did!!! Not just once, but a quick sear on two sides! Why??!?!! After, he complained that it hurt. What did he expect??? I told Laura that I would never do that, not even for Jessica Alba. But maybe if Jessica Alba asked me in Spanish ...

A quick walk down to the beach, and then back to the hostel for bed time.

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Photos

a
Statue of Jesus at the top of Mount Urgull. Relatively small, I expected more.

b
Beautiful view of one of San Sebastian's three beaches.

d
Mmm ... tapa-licious. Mango foie-gras ones and serrano ham with a fried quail egg. At least, I'm guessing they're quail eggs because of the size.

e
We also sampled one of the skewers on display - they're raw but they'll cook them up when you order one. Shrimps, bacon, and these incredibly succulent and flavourful mushrooms - awesome!

f
The one on the left was a fried, stuffed artichoke. Delicious. Can't remember what the other one was. Basque tapas are tasty and reasonable - Angela's glass of house red was only 0.90 Euro, less than my 1.30 Euro coffee!

g
The name of the bar, in case anyone ever shows up in San Sebastian wanting cheap wine and mango-foie gras tapas.

h
Tried out the liquid bandage on that cut on my foot. Didn't work, most of it rubbed off within hours.

i
Some of the tapas from our night-time tapas crawl. Didn't take many food pictures that night. This one place had mostly friend specialties. Rob grabbed one made with squid ink, and thought it was incredible. He later told me that if he saw what was inside, he never would've ordered it because it looked so disgusting. Squid ink - looks so repulsive, but tastes so good!

i2
L-R - random Spanish senorita-crazed man, Pervez, Rob, Holly, Laura, Angela.

j
Night shot of city hall - still figuring out my new camera, and how to take good night shots.

y
A little drunk, Angela and Laura hopped onto the swing. Rob chuckled that Aussie girls can't hold their liquor.

z
A second too late - Angela and Laura were lying on the ground taking pictures of a lamp. What was it that Rob said about Aussie girls and liquor?