Day 4 - Scary Shit

Waking up to rain meant our plans of evening up our tans on our back were dashed so instead we enjoyed a lazy morning watching Family Guy at the hostel and prepared ourselves lunch to have on our hike along the river to the bus station. The 6 hour bus trip was a breeze but our relaxing few days came to an abrupt end when we boarded the metro after reuniting with Nico.

The train stopped at a station and we could see and hear that there was something going on on the platform and then before we knew it there were people screaming and running in every direction from some crazed young Spaniards brandishing machetes, knives and belts. Suddenly a bunch of them stormed onto our carriage in pursuit of their targets, obviously some sort of gang rivals or something similar and because we´d been standing next to the doorway of the carriage the fighting started breaking out right in front of us and we were thrown against the walls from people struggling to avoid being caught up in the brawling. One of the guys whole mouth was split open from one of the machetes and was awash with blood, some of it getting wiped across Nico´s arm at one point. During the kerfuffle on the carriage Kelly had disappeared from our sight and we both began frantically trying to locate her, not sure if she was on the platform or carriage. Eventually she called out to us from the other end of the carriage and waved us to get the hell off the train. In the mean the guys with the machetes were smashing the windows on the carriage and stabbing their weapons between carriages at people trying to get away from there. We managed to run down to another carriage away from the horrifying scene but did have a close encounter with the main machete guy as he came our way waving it about but thankfully a Spanish bystander was between us trying to calm him down. Eventually things calmed down enough for the train to be able to judge it safe to go onto the next station much to our relief. Welcome to Madrid!

No, I will say that since this incident it has become quite clear that this was an uncommon event as I have not felt uncertain about my safety around the centre of town but it was just extremely unfortunate that we had to witness such a horrible scene, something I hope I never have to see ever again.Not surprisingly after having encountered the scariest incident of our lives we weren´t up for much of a night out so we just had a few tapas at a bar and wandered the old town for a while before hitting the hay. What a day!!

Day 3 - Relaxation

After horrifying ourselves by sleeping in until midday due to the extremely effective shutters, we headed straight to the beach, loaded up with fresh fruit, for some much needed sunbathing. Once our sand pillows were built we were able to comfortably watch the numerous surfers in between our naps (as if we hadn´t had enough sleep already!!

Once we´d had a touch too much sun we thought we´d better do something productive with out day so we managed to drag ourselves up to Monte Urgull, the peak boasting a 12m statue of Christ (nowhere actually explaining the reason for it being there) and the ruined Castillo de Santa Cruz, a crumbling castle surround by its original cannons.

Since we´d actually achieved something for the day we figured we were deserving of some drink and food enjoyed with our new found hostel buddies. We´d arranged to go to the dinner at Olga´s (hostel owner) husbands restaurant for what was meant to be the best Paella in town. We´d been told we would be treated like royalty and they weren´t joking. We literally had a 5 course meal which was amazing although by the time the Paella came out we were so full from the mountains of food we´d already consumed so we couldn´t really enjoy the extremely rich Spanish specialty. Nest time it´s Paella and that is it! It was definitely an experience though.

After such a filling meal Kelly and I wanted to curl up then and there and go to sleep but once back at the hostel the others weren´t having any of that so managed to drag us out for one drink. Well, it was amusing I must say, as Kelly and I started to witness the other 6 people couple up, it did mean that we were able to slip out without much of a protest from them though which was handy as we were able to stick to our one drink easily.

Day 2 - Exploration of Bilbao

The reason Bilbao isn´t much of a tourist hot spot is probably due to it not having many things to visit or see. This however, did not stop us from filling our day easily, starting with making a visit to the largest undercover markets in Europe. It was certainly a sight to behold, especially the seafood section below, once you got past the smell that is! The row of pig heads was pretty errr, interesting shall I say.

Of course we had to go and see the star tourist attraction of the city, the Guggenheim Museum. Well, it is certainly an amazing piece of architecture that is for sure. It is said to be designed like a ship or a flower (quite different descriptions aren´t they!) with a 3mm titanium facade and sits ` floating´ on a water garden beside the River Nervion. Having exhausted every outer inch of the museo and having our photo with the Puppy, a 13m high West Highland terrier that has a coat of flowers watered by an internal irrigation system, we headed up a 3 minute tram to check out the view of the city. The city sits within high, bare hills and only covers an area of about 16km which mean the lookout took in most of the terracotta roofed view easily.

Our final mission was to go back to the markets and all purchase goodies for our picnic in the park. What a feast we ended up with and a siesta in the warming sun was just what we needed before we headed off to our buses. Kelly and I farewelled Nico who was off to Madrid for his Electric Weekend concert and we headed off on our bus to San Sebastian for some beach time.

Once we´d settled into our hostel there we enjoyed a few relaxing vinos and leftover cheese and breads from our picnic before enjoying a beach sunset with some of the other travellers staying at Olga´s Hostel. Having acquainted ourselves with the other hostel goers we were invited to join them on a night out enjoying the bars San Sebastian had on offer. Kelly and I certainly enjoyed ourselves, dancing to Spanish music to the small wee hours.

San Sebastian certainly was making a good first impression on us, we just hoped that the rest of our stay would continue to impress as much as our first evening had.

Day 1 - Hello Spain!

Bilbao isn´t much of a popular tourist destination but after spending a fabulous evening and day there I have to say I´m surprised at this. Everything went pretty smoothly for us upon arrival despite it not being a particularly `tourist friendly´ airport and town, something I´ve not experienced before so was grateful to be in Nico and Kelly´s company as they´re a bit more travel savvy having travelled a bit of Europe already.

The town itself was beautiful and clean, the old town especially having loads of charm with all the narrow streets and cute apartments with garden boxes and wooden shutters lining the alleys. We managed to successfully order some tapas or as they call them in the Basque country, Pintxos. It wasn´t a particularly amazing bar but we were just pleased to be able to order food without feeling too intimidated by the staff or clientele, gesticulation certainly goes a long way. A bar hop elsewhere meant the discovery of a far superior looking spread of food across the bar and an english speaking bar tender but there is no challenge in there was to be no complaints about our original choice of bar.

Day 1 in Spain was certainly a pleasurable experience and we were all excited to see some more of Bilbao in daylight so home to our triple room we went.