Spain (day 1)

So, last weekend, as you may or may not have known, I went to spain to visit my friends Anna Bruning and Vass vorotnikov who are both studying on IROP grants as well. We decided that we had wanted to go to the festival of San Fermines and Vass and I decided we wanted to do the running of the bulls!

So, I left work on friday afternoon and took the Metro to the Eurolines bus station to take my 11 hour bus ride to Spain. It seemed like the best deal that I could muster in the time I had to buy my ticket and I think everyone else on the bus had the same idea. Nearly everyone was going down for the festival and the running. Most of them were Australian though and there were also a lot of Americans with I think maybe 4 Spaniards, one of whom I sat next to who taught me a bit of Spanish on the ride down. The ride was absolutely horrific and did I emntion it was 11 hours. The sleep was sparse and by the end I thought I wouldnt be able to walk because the seats were so uncomfortable. When we arrived, it was sprinking and so together some of us started of together but had to split up halfway through because I was on the opposite end of the city. I walked to the Albergue La Sirena and started to wait when at the door I saw Vass walk up out of nowhere. It was bizzarre and our meeting had worked out way too perfect. So after talking to the lady we went and had some breakfast and then came back to meet Anna and her sister Marly back at the hostel where we checked in. We then left and went to explore San Sebastien for a bit. So we walked around and found white clothes for the next day and then went and had bocadillos for lunch. They were really really really good spanish sandwiches with which we had cidre (I think its like cider) that you had to pour into a glass from like 4 feet up to make it nice and bubbly. Anna and MArly then went to take a siesta nap, as did most of the rest of San Sebastien but Vass and I decided we wanted to climb the hill on the coast up to this huge Jesus statue they had erected atop it. The view from the top was amazing and well worth the climb although I couldnt imagine hauling the huge rocks up there to build the statue. We then met Anna and went to buy our tickets to get to Pamplona for the next mroning and went grocery shopping. We met up with Marly afterwards and did some research on the bull running. The entire day and the next day also, Vass and I were continually talking about our "strategy" of how not to get skewered by a horn. At nearly 9:30pm we finally left for dinner (they do things like 2 hours late in Spain, everything) and went out to some bars for what are called Pinchos. They are like fancy bar food that you choose one at a time. It was really fun and I tried some traditional spanish type foods in addition to Octopus and some sort of Basque type liquor that I think is "indigenous" to that region (hopefully thats the right term to use). Vass and I got back to the hostel at 11pm went straight to bed. It was a full nights rest, at last, and I slept like a rock.