San Sebastián

From San Sebastian

My mates Matt and Geoff from back home came over for a holiday. They stayed a few nights in London then went on a tour of Europe. I decided to meet them in San Sebastian for the weekend. It was really fun get-away!

I went to work on the Friday, with my luggage. We went out on the booze and I caught the last train to Gatwick at 11pm. I got to my hotel at 12pm. My flight was leaving at 6am so I had 4 hours sleep - what a waste of £50.

From the moment I got to the airport was in queues. I queued for 30 mins to check in. My bag had straps on it so it had to go on the "special handling" conveyor belt. 20 minutes queuing for that. 20 minutes queuing for the security check. By the time I got to the lounge, my flight was in it final boarding call!!

Anyway after a grueling hour and a bit of oh-so-hung-over travel (new policy - no traveling hung over) I arrived. But it seems that my bag had not. "Special Handling" mean really slow apparently.

So I was in Spain, stinking hot with jeans and a long sleeved shirt on, no toiletries or change of clothes... nothing, no cell phone, no jandels, no togs, nada. I managed to make it into the city - not the beach that I intended to spend every waking moment. Every thing was closed for siesta. Bloody lazy Spaniards - it was really hot mind you. Anyhow, after about 4 hours of shopping in closed shops I had managed to restock with the essentials - togs, singlets, underpants, toiletries, shorts. Onto the bus for an hour and off to the beach.

Matt and Geoff turned up late in the after noon. I had no way of contacting them other than to send them an email and arrange to meet them at their hostel (different to my hostel). To my surprise that worked remarkably well.

It happened to be the regions fiesta so there was a party atmosphere in the streets! There were people dressed up with huge heads wacking people with inflated cows stomachs! They made the loudest most frightening sound but didn't hurt at all!

We ended up having a really great weekend of eating, drinking and lying on the beach!

From San Sebastian

My bags turned up on the night before I left. I claimed insurance for all my purchases, so I ended up with €70 of free clothes and stuff! Woo hoo

You can see a few more photos here