Bus rides...
The day after the last post I began calling land lords in San Sebastian to set up some appointments to view some rooms and see the city a little bit. I ended up going there on that Friday (the 14th) and luckily my friend Lauren joined me. It was nice having someone else with me, especially because she had gone through the searching for apartments thing before. I, if you remember, had not because we were lucky enough to have Cory set us up with his friend's flat. Anyways, I was glad to have company. I saw two places: The first was really nice, and the room belonged to an Italian erasmus student who was moving to another part of the city. We chatted for a little bit before taking off, and headed to the other side of town to see another flat. The second place was not so nice. The room itself was okay, but the guy in the flat was subletting, and he said that his wife and he were having money problems and the flat was really small and I just didn't want anything to do with it. I told him I would think on it and call him the next day. Lauren and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, popping in to a few places. I made a couple phone calls to try and view more places but either the person was busy or couldn't accommodate that day. We did take a little adventure to see this one place that I was waiting to call me. I was told that I would get a call on Sunday, but figured while I was there on Saturday I'd at least walk by the place and check it out. The place is an 11 room villa-ish house outside the center of town, about 10 minutes from the beach. The place looked really cool from the outside and I was excited to try and get a room in there. So afterwards, Lauren and I caught a bus back and spent the time chatting and listening to music. Turns out it's a damn shame we hadn't hung out more because she's a cool chick. We got back late, and though there were parties afoot I was exhausted and ended up passing out.
Sunday I was up and calling more places, including the Villa and secured an appointment for the next day along with two others. So Monday morning I was up early again and heading to Sanse, this time by myself. The first place I saw was the Villa and it was awesome. HUGE kitchen, little yard and garden for spring time barbecues, three of the residents were home and seemed cool. The room I would be in is small, but about the size of my room now so I'm okay with it. Besides, the place has it's own internet so there's that. Also, it was close to the train station making my morning commute that much closer. So already, confidence boost. The next place was pretty sweet as well, actually. It was on the opposite side of town, but I like that part of town so that was good. The place was small, only fit for two maybe three people, internet, and had a private roof deck with a beach view. My decision was becoming more and more difficult as the day went on. The last place I saw was actually back on the other side of town, closer to the villa. It was a nicely sized place, with a decent sized room, 3 other Spanish roommates and looked cool. I was set to make calls the next day and ended up catching a 9pm bus home, getting me to Santander just before midnight.
Tuesday I made the call to the Villa and told them I would take the room. I'm super excited. The final decision came down to two things: Proximity to the train station, which cuts my morning commute about 15-20 minutes, and spring time barbecues. You all know me. Anyone NOT see that coming? So with that confirmed, I now had other things to busy myself with.
Flights...
Tuesday afternoon I spent packing and eventually made my way to the airport for my flight to Madrid to meet Casey, Ayla, and Cory who had been in Germany. The flight went smoothly and I walked out of the terminal and into the open arms of Casey and Ayla. It felt amazing to see them again, it really did. After lots of hugging and "How was Germany?" we made our way through the airport towards the subway and to our hostel.
Madrid was gorgeous! The girls and Cory had just spent several days in snowy Germany, only to arrive to 60 degF and sunny in Madrid. We got there late the first night and so took a leisurely walk to a tapas bar for dinner which Cory had been to on his last trip to Madrid. We saw the Plaza Mayor and strolled slowly back to our hostel some time around midnight. The next morning, as I said, was beautiful from the start with the sun shining brightly. We mosied over to a café for some pastry and coffee for breakfast, and then headed towards our main target for the day which was the Parque del Retiro.
This expansive park was gorgeous. We spent the entire afternoon walking in and around and spent a good hour sitting in front of the pond just relaxing, taking in the sun, and chatting. We walked through the rest of the park before leaving and heading to the other side of town to view the other park. This was the Campo del Moro, which were the gardens behind the Palace. Again, beautiful. After being accosted for laying in the grass (not permitted apparently) we left and stopped at a small cafe for a refresher. We sat in the street, ate some paté with our coffee, and chatted while watching tour groups walk by. As the sun began to fail, we slowly made our way up the hill towards the Museo Prado. I was astonished to find some of the paintings housed there, including a couple Goya paintings that I had learned about in my high school Spanish classes, along with "Saturn", the famous one of the Titan devouring one of his children. After leaving the museum we walked home, finding dinner along the way, and stopped into a small supermarket to grab some booze for the night. We spent the night drinking and playing High, Low, Jack in the hostel.
The next morning we were up and ready to head to the other art museum, the Reina Sofia which houses Picasso's Guernica. This was by far the highlight of the museum. I had remembered talking about it in high school, but had forgotten until the moment I walked into the room the size of the masterpiece. It is huge! I spent a good amount of time just trying to notice all of the details. It was truly brilliant and I was very happy to have been able to see it. The rest of the museum was interesting, speckled with some works of Dalí and more Picasso. We finally made our way towards the exit, knowing that we had a plane to catch. Catch it we did and arrived late Thursday evening to Santander.
Jam Sessions...
Thursday night we dined finely at the Pizza Hut at the end of our street. A couple of pitchers of Sangria and we were ready for bed. Friday we woke up late, and spent the afternoon walking around the city, stopping in at La Magdalena, a small park in town. We enjoyed some coffee and atmosphere at "Espressate," my favorite coffee shop in town. Afterward Casey and I spent some time walking around the city whilst Ayla went with Cory to get his tattoo!!! I made us some quick dinner and we headed out to meet up with friends at a bar or two. Saturday we woke up late and did some shopping for our Beirut tournament to be held that night. We also were able to spend a bit of time walking down by the beach which was lovely. The tournament was a blast, and Cory and I were victorious. It felt really good to play again. I miss that game so much. SO much. It was especially fun because Casey, Ayla, and Jenn were playing so it was people I was used to playing with which made it even better. We did go out that night, but didn't stay out too long because the bar kind of sucked and we were all rather tired from the drinking we had already done.
Sunday was when things got funky. We woke up and Cory began making the buffalo wings. We had bought about 120 by accident, aiming for 60 but not realizing that each wing we had bought came with two parts. So the girls helped Cory cook up the 60 of them, and we set ourselves up to watch some movies, drink, and chow down on some wings. They wings were excellent!! We ended up watching Office Space followed by Shawn of the Dead. It was a good afternoon. The second movie ended around 8ish and Cory reminded me that I had mentioned a bar with live music that we should check out. We threw on some clothes quickly and headed out. I had been to the bar the Sunday before, and enjoyed the hell out of it. The music was great, and this time around was no different. In fact, the music was even better. Covers included Long Train Running, Sympathy for the Devil, and they even broke the Golden Rule and covered Stairway. It was GOOD though! So their set ended around 10:30 and as I talked to the guitarist, Cory was speaking to one of his Spanish friends and both sources said there was more music at another bar a couple streets over. Go we did!
We walk in and the band is jammin'! They were a bluesy, rock, jazzy band and their music was amazing. There were two bands there, and they kept switching out musicians throughout the night. At one point, one of the guitarists happen to walk by me and I mentioned to him that I play and if I could sit behind the set for a song. He said sure and after a couple more songs I made my way over to the bar where he noticed me and called me up. IT WAS AWESOME! As I said, these guys were amazing so playing with them was great. The first song was a blues jam and I liked the feel a lot. I asked to play one more, and little did I know I was about to enter a
jazzy blues cover of "Get Up" by James Brown. There's video on Casey's camera too which I'm so excited about. It was such a blast. Afterwards I thanked all the band members and took a seat at the bar to have a victory beer. The bartender gave me a thumbs up, haha. A bit later I was chatting with Casey and Ayla and the guitarist came up next to me and I thanked him again. He then leaned over and said "You know, we play here every Sunday night..." Ha! I immediately thought of some way to commute here every Sunday night from San Sebastian to be able to jam with these guys. Oh man I can't believe I only found out about these guys now! The name of the band is "Funky Station." The band kicked up a salsa song and I grabbed a bongo I saw next to the set and tapped along with that as well. All in all, it was definitely one of the most memorable nights I have had in Santander, and I was so so so glad that Casey and Ayla happen to visit on that weekend to be there with Cory and I.We slowly made it home and at about 5:30 in the a.m. I put Casey and Ayla into a taxi towards the airport. I spent yesterday moping around and cleaning up, already missing my friends. It's interesting: being away from something for an extended period of time can be okay... until you have it again. Then you realize just how much you miss it. Being with friends surely hit me, and even playing music. Sad as I was to see them go, I had a blast over the past week and I was really glad that they came to visit.
Today I was fortunate enough to hop into a car with Cory and three of our Erasmus friends to head to a park ("Valdearenas") and walk around on the sand dunes for a while. It was nice to get out in the open air again and not sit around the house.
Cory leaves tomorrow so we'll be going out to dinner tonight. This week I will (at some point) move to San Sebastian and get settled in and, well, begin the newest chapter of my life.
This was one hell of a send off. More soon.
Saludos,
Andrew
Santander, ESP
