Friday 18 September 2009

The Equestrian

Hola! Despite the doubt, the jokes and the scorn, I made it in one piece without too much difficulty. The biggest problem was the disgrace that only wearing a bum bag can bring. After leaving New Ash Green at half four in the morning it was such a relief to finally get through the front door at half five in the afternoon.

Stanstead was easy enough. Other than queing to check in when I noticed there was a fellow New Ash Greener directly behind me. Not usually a problem but this particuliar girl thinks (rightly) that I´m a dickhead after some drink related incidents and a friend wreaking havoc with my mobile when I was asleep. So I stood still and upright and tried not to draw any attention to myself which I think I managed and then like any real man I went and his myself in a corner. The flight itself was easy and my bag arrived without a problem! They should invent a new word that describes the joy and relief that you feel when you see your bag come through on the conveyer belt. Mind you dragging the bastard around almost killed me. Thats right ladies imagine those guns.

That left me with a few hours to spend in Bilbao. Bilbao is described as one of the roughier and uglier of Spanish cities, if that is the case Britain may be in more trouble than we think, because these people have clearly never been to Dartford. Though not stunning, I didn´t see the problem. The Guggenheim gallery they have there is absoultely amazing. When not back in an internet cafe (no rap in this one, just a Spanish legal drama) I will put some photos of it up. It looked great, like it landed here rather than being built. While waiting at the bus station I also learnt I can get the bus all the way to Bucharest!

The bus journey itself was also fine, other than the man who was sitting next to me decided he had enough with five minutes and went and sat somewhere else, what a prick. The drive gave me a chance to see some country and it was beautiful. Lots of forests, mountains and small towns all with the red tiled roofs.

When you arrive in Pamplona the bus pulls into an undeground complex. It´s all dark marble and the driver has to punch in a code. It was all very Bond, I half expected a man called Yuri to meet us when we got off and tell us we are actually in the base of a volcano. Maybe that is how they recruit all those foot soldiers.

The flat is great, I´m really surprised how nice it is. There are only two of us living there for now as there had to be some jigging around. Picked myself a room, then changed to another at 1 in the morning. I did have one nightmare, I turned on the kitchen tap only to for it fall off and spew water everywhere. While panicing and preparing to go down with the ship to a watery grave I was told that it has been doing that for a while. It was a massive relief, I didn´t want my first action in Spain to be handing the land lady her kitchen tap. Spent the first night getting to know Cormac who moved in earlier in the week. We spent an evening with Spanish television which is utterly ridicilous. I´ll go into that more at a later time, but they had people blacked up. There was also some classic wrestling, they just don´t make them like Ravishing Rick Rude anymore.

Pamplona is lovely. It actually hasn´t stopped raining but it looks great nonetheless. I´ve had a quick look around but nothing to serious yet. I´ve had a few broken Spanish conversations in which I haven´t covered myself in glory. I did tell someone I only speak Spanish a little, she just wandered off and I beamed with pride. I start teaching on Wednesday which seems pretty scary right now. A class of Spanish teenagers could eat me alive.

I hope you are all well

love love love x

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