Bilbao - Santander

Bilbao (Spain) 24/8 to 1/9 - Santander 2/9

A fellow traveller recommended Bilbao, so we thought we would check it out. It is only 1.5 hours from San Sebastian along the coast. It is famous for the Guggenheim - a modern, funky museum. It's a mixture between the Opera House and Federation Square. We originally booked 4 nights however have ended up staying 9 nights. Crazy??? Yes, but we managed to get a great deal in a 4 star Novotel Hotel so we couldn´t go past it - talk about flashpacking! We are still not sure what has been the best part....was it the air conditioning, the sound proof windows (the Spanish love their horns, loud exhausts...), the bar fridge to store our cheap drinks, the pool, the bathtub, the queens size bed with fluffy doona, the satellite TV.....after hosteling this was heaven!!

We then headed to Santander for a night - where the Spaniards go for their holidays. After a day on another beautiful Spanish beach we met up with a Pom and an Irish fella in the hostel and a bar hopping we would go. The Pom was a bit lame but the Irish bloke - JP - was a friggin champion! We hit it off immediately and set a cracking pace on the beers and awesome tapa. After climbing a 10ft fence to get back into the hostel after missing the 2am curfew (felt like we were 16 again) DF woke up the whole 10 bed dorm with some of his famous trumpeting! Ooops!

MOMENT OF THE WEEK
Tapa crawling around the old town (including garlic boiled potatoes, chorizo sausage encased in pastry, fancy octopus, sensational smoked salmon and the old faithful patatas bravas). Could eat this stuff 24/7!

MOMENTS

• Watching MTV, especially 'Date my Mum', 'Hulk knows best' and 'Pimp my ride'. Sounds cheesy I know, but hey we havent seen any telly in ages so leave us alone!
• Drinking vodka, soda and lime next to the pool (we love the free pour spirits)
• 15 euro meal deals including 3 courses, wine and bread!!!
• Walking around the out-there looking Guggenheim
• Shopping at Lidl - cheap as food and drink - €4.50 12 packs of beer and €3.50 for a 700ml bottle of gin!
• Losing a few of the German kgs by eating little and exercising heaps - love the pool!
• Talking to a few good fellas from home - miss ya guys..... even though u r both gay!
• Having a beer looking over the majestic Santander beach
• Hitting the turps with the Irish

TOOL OF THE WEEK

Dazza and Trace....for dressing up and going down to the Novotel restaurant. From our translation we thought that we were getting the 16 euro menu of the day (including entree, main, dessert and wine) however it was literally 'for the day' e.g. not evenings. After Dazza took a few deep breaths after seeing that the mains ranged from 15 to 25 euros we decided to treat ourselves (truth be know, we just couldn't walk out!) getting ripped off overseas - tool material for sure!