After the airport and flight escapades, I arrived in Madrid on Thursday morning at 9:55am via Frankfurt. The flight from Chicago was good because I lucked out and got the emergency seat, so I could stretch a bit, and the man next to me was very nice and chatty. He works for a company making pumps and does quite a few business trips to various countries. He was a pro at this emergency aisle business, being quite the long-legged individual, and warned me about the carts and queue that would form for toilets. The food was okay and I got to watch a few movies and pretend to sleep for a while. All in all nothing special.
Upon arrival in Frankfurt (half hour early, yay!), I hardly noticed that I was in Germany, what with my woozy state and the lack of German heard. Near our gate, there was a smoking room kindly set up with stools and counters so people could puff away. I thought that a bit odd since airports are generally non-smoking. Plus the fact that there was no door made it all the more unusual and useless. =P
My friend (and ex-student from Vancouver) Ruben picked me up in Madrid and we drove out to his town of Benavente, where I stayed over at his family's house. They are very nice and hospitable, and even the neighbours that I met last time greeted me like long-time friends. The little 4 year old from downstairs isn't so fond of me though and was crying and having a bit of a tantrum. Apparently no one else is allowed to visit his neighbours except him--he gets jealous and views every guest as enemies. :) Later that afternoon we went and visited another neighbour who was turning 91. She and her husband both are quite healthy, though at times a bit unsure about reality versus imagined events...it was hard to understand her but I was told later that sometimes she thinks things on tv are actually happening live.
Friday morning we set off and headed to Aguilar de Campoo, a town on the edge of Castilla y Leon, where Ruben's good friend Javi lives. He's a pharmacist with his own business, and it was busy when we arrived late morning. He is super friendly and generous, and offered to let us stay over for the weekend, till I found a place in Santander. The town is famous for its biscuit factories (oh how lovely the streets smelled at all times of day....) and is located only about an hour away from Santander. We left our luggage at Javi's place and then set off for Santander.
Located right on the north coast of Spain, Santander is part of the community of Cantabria, which is quite different in that it is not dry and hot and desert-like as one may think of Spain. It is in fact very green, wet and mountainous.
It was a lovely sunny and warm day, and we parked and walked around to explore the city. We walked along the coast and saw all the beaches (yes there are several and people were sunbathing!)
and looked out onto the water and checked out the sailboats and ferries. You can go directly to Plymouth or Portsmouth in England from Santander via a 25 hour ferry ride. :) There are bicycles at various locations that you can borrow (free!) and people were cruising around, helmet-less of course. I plan on renting one to do some exploring but will definitely feel uncertain with an exposed noggin!
Ruben had helped me find a few ads online earlier and we had written them down, so we walked around (hiked, rather, since there are steep hills) and checked out some locations. Then we headed into the city centre and went to find my school. There I finally got to meet the director of studies (Urien) and some staff I had communicated with for a long time by email. One of the secretaries, Paloma, helped me do a bit more searching online for flats, and then Ruben and I set off again for the streets. We walked around some more, got a bit of food and then called a few people to look at flats.
The first one was a loooongggg ways away and quite difficult to find, since it was a group of buildings that had a name and were numbered in strange ways. We found 25 and 30 and for the longest time could not find 29.... That was the cheapest flat out of all the ones I looked at, but it was far and too small. Eventually after looking at a few more, I settled on the place I am at now. It's nice and spacious, with all bills and wifi included and more importantly, the two girls I'm sharing with are super nice.
That night, we headed back to Aguilar, where Javi was working late into the night and then we dined on some lovely food at around 11pm. Not uncommon for Spain. :)
The following morning, we went out for a Spanish breakfast (toast, coffee and not much more), dropped Javi off at work (they rotate Saturday openings amongst the pharmacies in Aguilar) and then set off to Santander again. We dropped off my suitcases at the flat I am renting but I couldn't move in yet because the previous renter was still there. The girl in charge, Aline, said that if I wanted I could stay on the couch for a day or two till he left.
We explored some more around Santander, checking out the peninsula Madelena, and then walking up along the coast to the golf course and the lighthouse. The view is gorgeous and we lucked out with another sunny and warm day. All in all a relaxing day, as we wandered around the city (sightseeing for Ruben too since he doesn't really know the town), watched a puppet show in one of the main squares (complete with bullfight in miniature) and munched on some tapas in a random bar.
That night we went shopping and cooked at Javi's, without him because he had gone back to Benavente where his family lives (he just comes out to work in Aguilar during the week). Then we relaxed and had a late and lazy start to Sunday, where we drove to visit a few cool places nearby.
Waiting at the gate at YVR
Cool mountain shots--look there's snow!
A fancy hotel room with two beds for myself!
