Violetta arrived yesterday. We had planned to meet in Irún, where her train was arriving, and since she was arriving a day earlier than originally planned and organised with her host in Bilbao, I was going to meet her there and spend a night there, and then come back to Bilbao together today. Thing is, when I read the Lonely Planet about Irún, it basically said there's nothing to see here. The only information it gives is how to get out. This lack of interesting things was reaffirmed when I mentioned to a couple of people that I was going to Irún. "¿Irún? What are you going there for??? There's nothing there." If I needed more confirmation, I got it as the bus drove through the city/village when we got there. No problem. I met up with Vi and we hopped on a train that left for San Sebastian 2 minutes later. San Sebastian is said to be the most Basque City of the Basque Country. It was originally a fishing village, and then a century or so ago it became a really popular resort town for rich European holidaymakers. Now, with the old city containing more bars and restaurant per square metre than probably anyplace in the world, it's party central on weekend nights. It's also the host of an International Jazz Festival in July. Anyway, we hung out in San Seb, sampling tapas and mosto in various bars, played backgammon with churros y chocolate in a family-type churreria-cafeteria, and continued the backgammon game in a really cool cafe with some mint tea. Very nice. The plan was to go back to our nice (and cheap) room and rest before taking on the dance scene later that night. As I've already mentioned in a number of places in this blog, everything in Spain works on a different schedule. I have been told that clubs don't really get going until about midnight or so. When we went out at 10 or so looking for somewhere to hang out and dance, we proved this rumour true. We stopped at a few different places, they were pretty empty, just a few people hanging around, no one dancing. Not surprising, since at 10 or so, a lot of people are just having dinner. Some restaurants don't open for dinner until 10! Anyway, Vi was tired and suffering from a case of uncomfortable shoes so we went back to the room with plans to come back out later. However, the travelling must have taken it's toll and she had no inclination to get up at 1 in the morning and go party. So I went myself and checked it out. It was all I thought it would be. Every single place had people dancing and each place was, as they say in Bermuda, RAMMED. I didn't stay out long though, since it was weird all by myself.
We got up at about 10 and went for a walk by the water. The weather really wasn't good for taking pics, windy and rainy... so we went for croissants for breakfast and the ncaught the bus to Bilbao. Now we're here in "my city" and for the next few days I will show her around. I really hope she likes it! She's already addicted to Mosto.
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