San Sebastian and Pamplona, Spain
Monday, July 9, 2001
We arrive in San Sebastian at 11 am and walk through the exquisite "old town" section. We eventually make our way to La Concha beach where we check into the Hotel Niza for which we have reservations (thanks, Dad!) Our room has an exquisite seaside view of the Atlantic coast of the Basque region of Spain. Wow! At nearly $100 dollars a night, we are waaay over budget, but we had to make reservations months ago and decided this would be worth the price. It certainly is! Very fancy compared to where we'll be staying in the coming months. After a shower and a long nap, we grab a bus for Pamplona for the running of the bulls. A five dollar ticket takes us the 60 miles or so through the rolling hills and small villages of the Basque countryside to Pamplona. The towns are small … the hills are dotted with sheep and tiny homes that look like they've been here for thousands of years.

We arrive around 7 pm and call our pre-arranged contact named "Angel." He gives us our balcony tickets for the next morning's show. Since everybody is in costume, we buy our white t-shirts, red bandana and sash from street vendors and head for the liquor stores where we buy bottle after bottle after bottle of Sangria and join the multitudes in the dancing, singing and drinking. We spend the next 12 hours partying because, although there are buses back to San Sebastian, there's not a bus early enough in the morning to get us back here to Pamplona for the running of the bulls. So we decide to pull an "all-nighter." We dance until 4 am then grab a nap where we can find some peace and quiet - and where drunk people don't try to steal our packs from under our heads. We end up sleeping in a park. It's a rough, cold night. Joe says he's getting too old for this stuff. Good thing Jenni is 8 years younger!

Tuesday, July 10, 2001
At 6 am, we find our balcony. At 8 am, fireworks go off and the bulls are set free to storm down the narrow alleys of Pamplona. We have a great vantage point from which to take pictures…. But it all happens so fast! Within 3 minutes the entire run is over. Nobody will get severely injured this time. Wow! What a rush, but it's over so quickly. After some quick photos where we pretend to run from a fake bull, we board the bus back to San Sebastian with a few dozen other zombies.

Although Jenni pointed out a "no smoking" sign to the man who sat next to her, he shrugged his shoulders and said, 'aaaeeeeeh,' and lit up. (Remember that's after drinking Sangria all night.) She has a sickening ride back home, but Joe sleeps soundly.

Once we arrive at the Hotel Niza, we eat the free continental breakfast, shower and sleep for five hours. We later grab a baguette, cheese, cold cuts and peaches and have dinner on a park bench in the old town where we watch some little boys play soccer. Dinner costs us about 7 dollars for the both of us but it's priceless! We then stroll back through old town toward the beach, stopping to watch a dance troupe perform. They dance the Tango and juggle batons of fire. They're not very good and their costumes are threadbare, but Jenni and I and an audience of about 50 people are captivated. I've never seen anything like it! We walk over to the Hostal San Geronimo where we make reservations for tomorrow night. Then we stroll down the beach and stretch. We do laundry (by hand in the sink) and then retire around midnight.

Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Today we sleep late and eat a free breakfast with the room. We'll spend most of the day busying ourselves with practical details. First, we change hotels. The new hotel, Hostal San Geronimo costs $35 a night. The staff is extremely charming and helpful. It's a walkup with bathrooms and showers down the hall. And although we can't hear the Atlantic Ocean crashing outside our open window overlooking the beach (we loved that Hotel Niza!) we are sheltered and comfortable and have everything we need.

We come across a TODO-TODO Supermercado (grocery store) and stock up on our favorite picnic supplies for about 10 dollars. The bread, cheese, olives, turkey slices, water, Orange Fanta, and fruit will serve as both lunch and dinner today. Then we head out for the beach where the locals hang out. Not very much toplessness here. It's too cold (about 60 degrees). After the beach we eat dinner along a scenic boardwalk near some gardens overlooking the Atlantic. Sunset is at 10:30 pm and it is gorgeous.

Thursday, July 12 - Sunday, July 15, 2001
Jenni and Joe time. We sleep late and take long walks through the old town. We also pay for a guided tour of San Sebastian by a guide named Sylvia from Amsterdam. She says she's studied the history of the town and gives us a thorough briefing. During the tour, a wedding lets out of the 18th century cathedral and Basque dancers perform a ceremony on the steps to bless the newlyweds.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are sunny and warm and we spend most of our time on the beaches just lying out, stretching and relaxing. We eat picnics of bread, cheese, sausage from Pamplona and olives. For some of our picnics, we sit on the seawall which breaks huge waves that sometimes splash 40 meters high in the fall. (That's about 40 yards). Sometimes we picnic in the gardens. Saturday is rainy so Jenni goes to the Aquarium and Joe goes to the museum. Sunday morning we go to "La Perla" which is a spa which has giant jacuzzis. Yum.

The Hostal San Geronimo is cheap (about $30 a night) for a reason. It is noisy because of all the bars below. Revelers are constantly yelling and singing until about 5:00 in the morning. The first couple of nights it's hard to sleep, so Saturday night we decide to join the party. Although we don't yell, we get plenty drunk and sleep right through the night. The wine here is 16% alcohol so drinking a glass is like taking a shot of liquor. And it's cheap too. We've not yet found a Spanish wine that we love, but we're still drinking it like it's water. Speaking of water, I miss my ice water. I love me some ice water. Sunday night we meet a wonderful Basque family that takes us to dinner in a little village south of tow, where we have the best meal we have eaten since we've started our trip! But the best part was the conversation - in broken English and broken Spanish - that lasted until 1:00 in the morning!