San Sebastian, Granada, and Valencia

Much has happened since my last blog, but it has been hard to find the time to write, so I´ll try and get it all out now.
A fewe things I didn´t mention about the SanSebastian trip: Brit had her first of what would become many unpleasant public transport experiences on the train on the way to San Sebastian. She had to sit next to a very unpleasant and possibly insane young man, that reminded us both of Kyle Sandilands. I tried to get her to swap with me but she had nothing of it and opted to sit next to the glowering, yelling, unpleasant and somewhat perverted young man for the entire journey. Upon arriving at San Sebastian we had some trouble finding our accommodation, but once we did, it immediately felt pretty dodgy. The guy who met us didn´t run the hostel (he was away), and he had overbooked the place so we had the thrill of staying in this guys room. Which was just a matress on the floor of a room the size of a closet. Upon entering we were asked not to use his weed or his flavoured condom, which we were only too happy to oblige. However the rest of the stay was very nice, we saw Richard Gere´s new film the Hoax, and we even saw Richard Gere, which was very exciting.
From San Sebastian we took a God awfully long train trip to Granada, in which we endured a four hour stop at the train station in Madrid. At the the Madrid train station I witnessed the most obnoxious American middle-aged hippy tourist I think I have ever come across, not speaking a word of Spanish and demanding things of officials everywhere barking at them in English like they were the idiots. I relayed the story to Brit, and did an excellent impression of her. However, I received instant Karma and found that we would be sharing the train trip to Granada together, and beyond that realising that we spoke English she latched on to us and basically made us her tour guide, following us to our accommodation, complaining to them when they did not have anything for her diespite the fact she hadn´t booked and it was after midnight, and then when they found her a bed she complained about the bathrooms being too dirty. It´s about as close as I´ve come to throttling someone, she was literally in my top 3 most irritating people of all time.
Anyway Granada was a pretty cool place, it looked beautiful with the Alhambra overlooking the city. And they have this excellent free tapas culture, where with every drink you get free food, and pretty good food too. We visited the Alhambra and that was mind blowing, the amount of detail in every aspect of the palace was incredible, and the views were spectacular. I think that is the one thing Australia really needs, big f***-off castles splattered about the place. It was also refreshing to see something old and cool without Jesus splattered all over it.
Beyond these however, our experiences of Granada turned a bit sour. When we wanted to book another two nights at the hostel, we were told it was quite full so we´d have to spend one night on the roof, but the following night we could have a bed again, the weather had been good thus far so we agreed. Of course that night it rained all nigh and everything of mine at least got soaked (including several books and my passport) and we only got a couple of hours sleep cos we were wet and uncomfortable. Then the next night they said they´d overbooked so we´d have to sleep on the roof again, in no mood to that, with the weather looking menacing again, we kindly told them to go f*** themselves and asked them to relocate us to another hostel which, they happily obliged.
The next morning we set off to catch a bus to Valencia, but I got the time wrong by an hour and we had to wait another 4 hours for the next bus, which meant a) we wouldn´t get to Valencia until after 1am, b) we couldn´t do our washing,which we desperately neede to do, and c) I was not very popular that day. The bus trip when it finally came about was horrid. Everyone stank, and was generally rude. I mean people were on their mobile phones the entire trip, and not talking quietly, but actually shouting into their phones, and I am not exaggerating. When it got to midnight and the guy in front of me was still doing this to lighten the mode I pretended to answer my phone and talk loudly in to it.
"Yeah, hey, I´m on the bus.... Yeah the BUS. Other people?..Oh I think they´re trying to sleep... no TRYING....TRYING.....Well I guess some of them are CRYING now... etc."
The guy in front of me shut up right away, and people behind me were laughing, I guess it occurred to me that most people have a basic understanding of English.
Anyway now we´re in Valencia and we´ve been trying to get our washing done, and it´s been harder than it should be as the washing machine was malfunctioning a bit, but I think it´s alright now. Anyway, we´ve got a few days here to relax, which is lucky cos I think we´re due for a good run.
Cath ya next time.
Dylan