DIA08_DIA09_DIA10_DIA11

DIA08_08072010_km493_Suances

I didn’t sleep very well. And I woke up really early, 7 and something. I grab my camera and start taking photos. We are at the playa de los locos now and it seems even better than the previous one. It’s smaller and it really looks like this giant made a hole with his hand in this cliff right at the sea. I’m on my way to the bar when I see that the rest of the group is already there. This is a first! The reason why is – Guardia Civil! The police woke them up at 7 saying that it’s illegal to sleep on this beach and they took all their names. Marta said that they were very nice but they are still afraid that they’ll have to pay the fine. The day doesn’t really look to good and the waves neither. We decide with Isma to take a look at the forecast online to see if there’s a better spot to visit. No luck this time but at this point the waves are starting to build up. We go for surfing and I struggle again to go in. The flow is strong and I cannot make it. Now it’s Isma’s turn and he shows me the essential difference between a beginner and a proper surfer. He found another path to get in where the flow isn’t towards the beach but in the other direction. I feel so stupid… but the photo session I took with him was great! After we lie around the beach for a while when the rest returns from their trip to the town. Marta goes for surf but the waves now are almost 2 meters high and very strong. She gets washed away big time! We saw that with Isma from the top of the hill just when we were on our way to eat. After we all gather in the bar and are ready to leave we decide to go back to Loredo. We stopped in the town and… well… I’m super pissed off!!! I stopped at the entry to a hotel and while I was giving way to this blonde chick in a SUV I ran over this 30cm concrete mushroom and destroyed the front bottom right part of my car. The damage seems huge although it’s just plastic but it’s bended in a way that I cannot continue. I decide to split from the group and stay another night in Suances. And it seems like I’m going to sleep in a storm…

Word of the day:

Mierda _ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mierda

DIA09_09072010_km563_Suances-Santander

I didn’t sleep very well. Again! It was a very rough night, storm with lightning and so much wind it was shaking my car all night long. And the day couldn’t start much worse when I got served a decaf coffee… I mean I felt like not paying really! Like beer without alcohol, I’ve tried it once and you know that the guy who came up with that idea was super drunk! Anyway I got the information from yesterday about a nearby repair shop where they can fix my car so I go to find it. They seem really nice and the total cost to repair everything is 150EUR. Well not too bad but I’ll have to return at 3 in the afternoon when they’ll have all the parts. So it’s just me and my stuff. So I find an internet cafeteria and spend there most of the time. When I return at 3 there are no surprises. Only the fact that my quick repair of the car got broken about 500m before the repair shop so I fixed it with my shoelace. They take my car and I decide to go for a walk. This seemed like a good idea at the start but somehow I got lost and did a 20km walk around the area (which is amazingly beautiful in fact) and my feet are dead. I’m walking like an 85 year old granny with ski boots I think… The car looks great! They fixed my lights as well! And now I’m on my way to Santander to find Luis!

Word of the day:

Charoseria _ http://www.paginasamarillas.es/fichas/ig/carrocerias-blanco_181232117_000000001.html

DIA10_10072010_km616_Santander-San Vicente de la Barquera

I slept great! Perfect! First time in a room after 10 days! I’m with Luis now in his great apartment. He’s a really cool guy, a member of the couchsurfing community. And right now he has a girl from Canada called Isabelle living on his couch. She cooked fish yesterday for dinner which seemed like a restaurant food to me. She has some contacts from the other couchsurfing guys and they’re going to a folk festival in San Vicente de la Barquera and I’m happy to join them. Luis though has a bachelor party tonight so he’ll miss the concerts but somehow I think he’s going to have a great time as well! Jose, the couchsurfing ‘’captain’’, picks us up at around 4 with Christine (an American couchsurfer who felt in live with another Spanish couchsurfer from Santander) and Barbara (an Austrian baby keeper spending her summer here). In about an hour we’re at the festival but as we’re too early we decide to go to the beach. After dinner we’re back at the festival just catching The Chieftains from Ireland which brings me back to Dublin as you can hear them often there. The festival is great and it seems much more easygoing as all the others I’ve been to. People listen to the music seated around because in front of the stage is a little hill so you can see it perfectly. The music gets a bit faster towards the end and finally at 4 in the morning we’re off to make the tent. Jose seems a bit dizzy and while making a tent we laugh a lot. He tells this story about the sun flower and the moon flower which I forgot a bit but the meaning of the whole story is ‘’don’t follow the group, think with your own head’’.

Word of the day:

Festival Folk Cantabria Infinita _ http://mgproducciones.com/festivalfolk/

DIA11_11072010_km616_San Vicente de la Barquera-Santander

I wake up and I’m squeezed between Isabelle and the edge of the tent giving me about 20cm of room. I need a toilet! Badly! I go out of the tent in a search for a bush. George Bush could do fine as well… With some luck I feel free again but the luck changes when I find the bar from yesterday closed. The only thing left to do is to visit the beach for a nap. And then when I was more sleeping than napping I feel this water dripping on my hand. It really freaked me out but luckily it was just Isabelle making fun! We found ourselves in a bar having breakfast in some time and Jose and Christine join us in a while. We all have a hangover (some more than others) and decide to go to the mountains. And the sight is amazing. We had cocido for lunch – this stew with all sorts of stuff inside (great stuff)! We all feel great and in need for a siesta after the meal... then coffee doesn’t really help so everybody gets a smile on their faces when we decide to go back to Santander for an afternoon nap. At home I can’t really fall asleep and by the time that we’re ready to go out with Isabelle Luis comes home from the bachelor party completely messed up, still a bit drunk, slept on the ground, with broses and in pain, but he still decides to come with us to the city centre to see the final match of the mundial where Spain is playing against Holland. We went to this bar at the beach and the atmosphere is great! All in red, all ages and all really into the game. And when Spain scored a goal everybody got mental! Like all of them won the lottery! After 5 minutes it’s all over and everybody is on the street! I don’t think I can explain this with words, maybe you all should check the photos; they explain what was going on much better!

Word of the day:

Cocido montañés _ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocido_montañés

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DIA04_04072010_km325_Helgueras-Loredo

The J-Day. The first departure of our group. Although we have a huge hangover we still wake up at 9 and clean the camp. And that was it for the early excerise, all we did next was set the blankets and fall asleep on the beach. Miguel and Isma went to our next stop to catch the early surf and we slept for another 3 hours. After a swim we followed the guys to Loredo and continued our lazyness with a late breakfest – a hamburger and coffee. We go for Santander then with Jurgen and he’s catching the 7 o’clock bus for San Sebastian which gives us some time to spend in the city which we haven’t really been before. It’s nice and quiet so we take a really peaceful coffee. We decided not to say goodbye as we are sure we’ll see each other again this summer and then we go our seperate ways. I feel a bit sad so I change my music from Manu Chao to Mogwai in the car and finally I get much happier – if you’ve seen what we had for dinner you’d understand me. We had some bocatas and some hamburgers (yeah again, I know) in a local bocateria which were so big and so good it’s hard to imagine... or I was just really hungry. My first night sleeping in the car follows. I make my inflated bed and find out that there really is too much space at the back of my car! I think this summer is going to be really interesting.

Word of the day:

UFIUFI _ www.wow-brasil.com/

DIA05_05072010_km381_Loredo

The day seems perfect as I’m sitting in the bar where we had coffee yesterday. I think it’s the most perfect since our trip, no clouds really. Early surf and the whole day just lying around on the beach. Did I say already that I hate creams? Well, today I shouldn’t hate them, or I should hate them less at least. My friend Rok would say I look like a pomodoro now. Which is very close to the truth actually? And the day gets the perfect ending – a barbeque on the beach! Sorry for that Jurgen... Before I went to bed I met a couple from Spain travelling with a red VW T5 and we were discussing about the waves as today they were a bit small. They told me about the beach of Liencres which by they’re opinion should give nice waves the day after.

Word of the day:

Sombra _ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sombra

DIA06_06072010_km381_Loredo-Liencres

As the contrary of yesterday rain wakes me up today and the sky is awful. I meet the couple from yesterday again in the bar and soon after we all decide to go to Liencres. We were loosing ourselves a bit and on the way Marta took me to a farmacy shop to buy some suncream. I must say I made the girls working there laugh a bit! After a while we finally came to the right beach and it’s amazing, hidden between some cliffs and the waves look a bit scary. As my whole body is in pain I decide to go to the safe grounds of a commercial centre. I need to buy some stuff and use internet anyway. A while after I return to the beach and the sun is still amazingly hot. With my clothes on and under an umbrella in the shade now I relax a bit and then move to a bar to see the first semi-final game between Holland and Urugway. I missed half of the game because Marta, Lucia and me were playing with this 3 year old hipi surfer kid in the bar! He was so cool! He was making the same kind of a trip with his parents as we were and his father actually asked us if we have any problems by the police while sleeping on the beach. Oh, Holland won 3-2 by the way. And finally we go to bed early due to constant sun and surf. I feel the whole group is getting a bit tired of the trip...

Word of the day:

Cerva _ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerveza

DIA07_07072010_km493_Liencres-Suances

...siete de julio – SAN FERMIN! Today the place to be is Pamplona. We had a plan to be there actually, but it’s somehow too far away and most importantly, no surf! And the weather here is just too great! If I wasn’t havnig a morning coffee right now I wouldn’t be following my everyday ritual. We go for surf after although the waves are really messy. It’s hard to enter and by the time I’m out i find myself on the other end of the beach. Felt more like pedaling then surfing. I make something like a tent, or a roof out of the surfboards for the shadow and feel better now. We were waiting for the waves to change but without luck. We decide to move a bit further west to Suances and I find my car too black! It’s so hot, I’m using the A/C and the windows just to be able to breathe! Suances doesn’t offer better waves, what it does offer is this great place with cheap beer to see the second semi-final game between Spain and Germany. Everybody is on their toes and in the end all of them are really happy although the score was 1-0 and the players didn’t really convince me. But you can really see pride now in the spanish eyes. We stayed in the bar for some time after...

Word of the day:

Pachanga _ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachanga_(música)

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DIA01_01072010_km0_San Sebastian-Sopelana

The end of ERASMUS and my last day in San Sebastian. I woke up messed up after last night. Demetris and Iordanis were working on their diploma while me and Jurgen stayed discussing architecture and got a bit drunk on the way. When I started my day Jurgen already left for his flat and the two Greeks were on their way to the uni to present their final project. At 12.30 all my stuff is already in my car and I pay a visit to piso3IZD where Isma, Marta and Lucia live and where my flat mate Miguel is now staying. And as they are preparing for the road their flat looks more like pincho bar with all the food prepared. I get a phone call from Iordanis saying the greeks scored and 8 for the final project which are very good news. I meet them in a park close to the sight Peine del Vientos, we go for a coffee and wait for Jurgen. He joins us a couple of hours later and we lunch tortilla de patata for the last time, the dish we found out about as soon as we moved in Spain. When we decide to leave I notice that my car is getting prepared to be taken away by the municipality for the 3^rd time as I (as always) didn’t pay for the ticket. They tell me to pay the fine of 12EUR and I’m happy to do that although they scrared me a lot when they took almost 10minutes to make the receipt. Of the 23 tickets I got this year I payed the final one! I hope I see the Greeks again soon as we say goodbye. Although in our eyes I sence the feeling it might not happen... With Jurgen we run around the city to collect his stuff and finally we’re on our way. After making some mistakes on the road I had a feeling that we really saw the rest of the area which we didn’t see before. The guys are on the beach of Sopelana and when we arrive it’s already dark. Jurgen has already been there so we climb down from the parking and find the guys in complete dark! Amazing really! The tent was in this little hole for trying to hide from the public. With Jurgen we decide to put our tent a bit higher... doesn’t make any sence from hiding as the night is really dark and a bit rainy.

Word of the day:

Culo (sur España) (variante del uno) _ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_(juego)#Culo_Manchado

DIA02_02072010_km237_Sopelana

We wake up late at around 11. Our little camping site was not as hidden as we expected. The first morning and we already got a visit from the national police ‘’Guardia civil’’. The guy was really nice saying that it’s forbidden to camp on the beaches (no, really?!) but if we make the tent at 10 in the evening and clean the site at around 8 in the morning nobody’s going to see us so we’ll be fine. Cool hey?! We go for a surf and then spend the day in a bar which we call ‘’el salon’’ as we spend almost the whole day there. The weather is changing rapidly from the clean blue sky to some rain. We decide with Jurgen to go to buy some food where we met a guy from Chile with his grandaughter. He fled the country when Pinochet came into power and he lived the rest of his life in Spain. We return to the beach for the dinner and in the end I went with Marta and Lucia to the same bar at 3 in the morning for a drink – now our salon looked like a dance floor for the locals of all ages!

Word of the day:

Garrulo _ http://es.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081214030600AARMOpD

DIA03_03072010_km237_Sopelana-Bilbao-Helgueras

8.15! A quick wake up following yesterday’s instruction! With Jurgen we clean the stuff and return to salon for a 3 hour Greek coffee. The day is super depressed, gray and a bit rainy. We decide to visit Bilbao as staying on the bach doesn’t make any sence and the rest decide to return to San Sebastian as they have only one car which for six people with five surfboards simply isn’t enough. We take my laptop and spend a few hours surfing online and drinking long coffees. At 3 we’re on our way to El Brusco, the beach of Helguera. Oh, no, Helgueras! The Spanish from the south don’t like to say the letter S at the end of the words, so when Miguel, who’s from Sevilla, told me the name of the place I actually found the wrong one on the GPS! But we quickly found out we’re wrong and we didn’t miss the 8 o’clock quarter final match between Spain and Paraguay. Another 1-0 for Spain which means we have to celebrate! We start in a local park and after a while Miguel and Isma decide to go back to the beach for a sleep as they prefer surfing and the rest go to the nearby party street, a little street with a lot of bars, all open and all in red! At 4 in the morning we find out that my car can also be a minibus as the girls have to ride in the back with the surfboards and the guitar. They try to play the famous Phoebe’s Smellycat while playing the guitar and screaming Smelika (which should sound like smelly cat I think)!

Word of the day:

Golfa _ http://mx.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070226134057AAeVyi1