fin de semana

today has been a fantastic day. We were out last night until 2 in the morning - had some wine and a gin-tonic at bideluze - no headache, lots of fun. This morning woke up at 7, practiced a bit and went to school to write a test. It was actually better than expected, still I need to focus focus focus - so from now on I will try to say things in spanish when we are out with friends.

The afternoon surf class was amazingly cool - the best waves we have ever had next to a sunny beach - I did not feel tired a single time, catched waves, even stood up 3 times (twice fell big time, once actually stood for like a second before falling amazingly fast). IT IS SOOOOOO MUCH FUN - I want to do this more often ...

Now I am kind of getting tired as instead of the siesta we went eating and in an hour we meet up to go out (pretty early for locals, but who cares) in Bideluze and then we will head to the city for some pintxos and "vino especial"-s. I didn't manage to upload more pictures but will try on the weekend.

Hasta Luego!!!

respect

hola chicos!

Todays surf lesson teached us to have respect. Respect for the surfers. This has been my fifth lesson and although I managed to stand up and stay there for like 2 seconds it was a complete coincidence. I think for me to successfully surf it would take months of training (swimming would be a very good idea) as after about 10 minutes of paddling in the water my arms feel like when that spell goes bad in Harry Potter and he looses all his bones. But I still love trying it and I will continue to try because it is a very nice way of exercising and the people are fun. I now have two remaining classes, one tomorrow and one on saturday. I don't expect to stand up and stay like that but in case it happens I will be very proud of myself and will tell everybody I meet that I did it :-)

I am now off to Bideluze to meet with the people from the school and party!!!!

ps: I have found another SD-card with some barcelona photos that I totally forgot about - including pics of parque guell, one of the gaudi houses and his unfinished church, the gaudi museum and more barcelona city pictures. And of course the picture of the half-naked faceless girl sunbathing that you can read about on alba's blog for you perverts :-)

I will try to post them tomorrow. Hasta Luego!!!

pictures!!!!!!!

I have finally managed to find a really nice internet place in the city where I could burn my pics on DVD and upload some to flickr - so here we go. I will try to fill the past entries also so that the blog looks more colorful again. Also there are some pictures of me with a surfboard (on the beach only unfortunately but it is still more than nothing) but I don't have them yet so they are not there - but they are coming :-)

Also I broke with a tradition and did not upload all the tousands of pictures I have taken here because every minute costs money here so you have to only look at a small selection of the pictures ... I know it's hard, but that's life :-)

Here are the Pics of San Sebastian and here are the ones from Bilbao and here the ones from Barcelona. Or you can look at all of them here. Enjoy!

otherwise there are no real news to report - today the weather is back to normal (no sun, a bit of a rain here and there) so that we paddled for an hour this afternoon without catching a single wave as the waves were also not really there. Next lesson is on friday and we hope it will be fun - according to the tides it should be a very nice day for surfing. If only the weather gods were on our side :-)

tomorrow we go on a boat tour in the afternoon with the school and on the weekend I will probably stay here and enjoy the beach and the bars in the evening.

Hasta Luego!!!

making progress

Today has been a great day. After yesterdays weather fiasco today it was sunshine all over the place. School has been great, finally I am getting the feeling that we have built some structure and all I am missing are the words (that's why I will keep it short and go home to practice ...)

After school I went home to sleep a bit and headed back to the city for the surf lesson at 5. The surf course is now fully booked - there are two full courses running more or less in parallel. My new instructor is called Josecho and speaks mostly Spanish. He is much stricter also than the other one - Iker - as he did not allow us to take waves before showing him that we can duck a wave in a secure manner. So we mostly spent the class today paddling around so that when I finally managed to take a wave I did not have the energy to stand up - but I was kneeling for some seconds!!!! So I am very sure that one day I will manage to actually stand on the board for more than a nanosecond. Actually if everything goes according to plan, tomorrow could be the day.

I am also progressing with my Spanish. After the surfing lesson I bought a pair of shoes utilizing only my spanish skills (asking if they have half a size bigger, then asking for the other of the pair and the prize, if I can pay by credit card, etc) - so I am very proud of myself and also motivated to go home and practice, practice and practice.

The only thing missing here is a nice way of getting the pictures from my camera to the internet so I don't have to write so much and can show things with pictures.

AAAAAnyway - I am now going home to do my homework (remember - I am still a Streber) so that's it for today. Please keep me updated on the Frankfurt front by either leaving a comment or dropping me an email or an SMS at my espanish mobile...

Hasta luego!

it´s raining like hell

hola chicos! finally the rain is back to san sebastian and my fingers are frozen from the mega-photo session on the beach. But first things first ...

Barcelona was really great. The Gaudi stuff is simply amazing - church, house, park - he knew what he was doing. Barcelona is - contrary to Frankfurt not a city to look at in one day - in fact, not even a city to look at in two days. So there are more than a couple of things left for my next visit. The only thing I missed during the weekend was the fantastic food of San Sebastian and the even more fantastic prices. In Barcelona you can easily spend 20 and more Euros for one meal - I have not managed to do this in San Sebastian so far. In my eyes pintxos easily win over tapas (contrary to googlefight).

After two days of basically walking at least two marathons in Barcelona (I need to remember to buy a little gadget that actually measures the distances I walk in the future - preferably one that has GPS data that connects to my photos ...) I got on the bus at 23:00 to go back to San Sebastian. We were supposed to be able to sleep on the bus but somehow this did not happen - the seats are numbered normally so people can sleep and are waken up perfectly - as the seats did not have numbers the driver simply told everyone to take any seat - with the consequence of then waking up everybody at every stop. Plus we arrived in San Sebastian in pouring rain ( wearing my flip-flops and bermuda shorts) which made me even happier.

Other than this the day has been pretty cool, spanish lectures are still fun. Surfing did not take place because of the storm outside so we headed for some drinks to a nearby place full of american girls, some local surfers and an immense smell of joints ...

At some point I went for a walk to take some groundbaking shots of the water and the kite-surfers flying around the area - it is now two hours later and my fingers are frozen so I thought I would slowly warm them up by blogging a little. And now as I get tired I will stop and go home to catch up on last night´s sleep ...

vacation

a week has gone since I left Frankfurt to come to Spain and learn Spanish and it has been one of the best weeks since a long long time.
Learning a new language is a lot of fun - especially being the Streber that I am. The school is very friendly and the people are fun. Every day or so there is some activity organized by the school so that I got to know people very quickly -even if they hate me for not speaking e-Spanish with them at these events ...(they should teach me quicker if they want this to change :-)
The city of San Sebastian is simply amazing - it is beautiful, the food is unbelievably good and the whole way of eating pintxos is ingenious so that I have been loosing weight constantly without feeling hungry.
The surf classes are another highlight - I actually managed to stand up twice on Thursday (even if only for nanoseconds before plunging into the wave itself) and I can already feel getting addicted to it - I an now booked for the whole next week to have an hour every day so that I hope to satisfy this newly found addiction easily.
On Friday I took the bus to Barcelona to meet Alba there and spend the weekend in a non-Spanish speaking part of Spain...
It is now Saturday evening, shortly after 12, Serbia won the Song contest and I am going to bed to dream of Gaudi towers. Hasta Luego!!!

I am connected ... via phone at least

I finally managed to buy a SIM-card!!! My new number in Spain is +34 638 90 56 60... I am now going home as the internet place is about to close very soon. Good night!!!

ps: ok, just a quick update - the school is very good, there are only two people with pure innocent beginner skills, the rest of the people already can have a proper conversation that goes beyond the "what's your name", "where do you come from" and "what do you do for a living" subjects. Also I figured counting from 1 to 100 is not the best way of getting to know people in bars. So I have to practice, practice and more practice my e-spanish skills.

The city is still exceptionally nice and the weather is finally amazing - I hope it stays the same. I also booked my first surfing lesson for tomorrow afternoon - in full body armor - eh, suit I mean.

I do not even attempt to describe how the food is over here. Let's just say it is a miracle that I am still loosing weight and I simply do not get it, how this happens.

I also have an update on the flatmate front - the swedish girl is still not back. Oh well, having the place for myself is not bad either! Vamos a ver ...

GG & San Sebastian

The learning of today happened in the evening on the Bus from Bilbao to San Sebastian. I boarded the bus next to the Stadium in Bilbao (AC Bilbao) at 6 and was on my way to San Sebastian. I had the Streber-Seat right behind the driver and so got all the action directly. The bus driver was pretty cool, he was listening to the radio all the time, driving above speed limits and between the lanes - very Italian actually (ok, like Italians in Germany actually ...) anyway - about 5 minutes before San Sebastian people started shouting some stuff in Spanish from the back seat. Then silence followed, the driver pushed some buttons and the side door of the luggage compartment seemed to be opened and slowly closing. We have been driving with an open side door for a while!!!

Some cars started overtaking us and pointing in various ways in the form of a luggage - so we guessed some must have fallen out. At this point all I had with me in the bus was the book on photography I got for my birthday from my parents and all my luggage including the camera and everything was in the trunk. So the driver got out, called some people on the mobile and then we continued the trip in a deadly silence to our final destination.
Once arrived, he opened the compartment, people actually stormed down the bus and all the trunk was kind of half empty and all the remaining luggage chaotically lying around. thank god my stuff was all there but only because I did spend some extra time putting it exactly in the middle of the bus. So, children - what do we learn out of this event? NEVER PUT YOUR LUGGAGE ON THE SIDE WHEN YOU ARE TAKING A BUS FROM BILBAO TO SAN SEBASTIAN. punto - end of story. I know it was boring but there is a slight learning so stop complaining.

Oh yes - one more thing - the music the bus driver had been listening to sounded like "German Volksmusik" - with the harmonica and the yodelling part :-)

What else happened? I took like 500 pictures of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao that I have uploaded in the meantime so you can check them by clicking on the one below. Ok, it is only a selection, but you get the feeling ...

The building is very impressive, totally worth a visit and it is much better than the stuff being displayed on the inside. Although the Anselm Kiefer exhibition was quite good I must say. Plus that little doggie in the front is just adorable ...

In the end I arrived at San Sebastian totally on time shortly after 7 and walked to my new home for the next three weeks in the Gros area of the city. The Spanish girl I would "share" the flat with is very niiiiice - she works for some bank and looks very spanish and speaks a perfect English - and has very cool friends that were there in the evening. Only problem is, that since 2 weeks she is working in Madrid so she is never there except on the weekends when I am planning to be away. so much for "sharing". Anyway - my other flatmate is a Swedish girl that has a French boyfriend so she was in France for the weekend to see him and is supposedly coming back on Monday. Vamos A ver ...

I also went for a walk to check out the neighbourhood - I live about 5 minutes from the Zurriola beach - the ones with the surfers and about 2 minutes away from the hotel we are going to stay at during the wedding. The city is extremely friendly and beautiful and I am looking forward to spend some quality time here!!!

Vamos!

I am happy to report that I managed to leave Frankfurt in time for Spain and arrived as planned. Needless to say I brought too much stuff with me (20.9 kg plus the backpack at check-in) but that's just the way it is, I might as well accept it ...

Anyway - let's start at the beginning. I kinda slept like 3 hours as I woke up at 5 and was totally awake. Having not prepared anything for the trip, I thought it a good idea to actually get out of bed and start packing. So I spent the next 4 hours more or less packing, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, playing with Arnie-The-Robot, basically a very efficient way of spending my last couple of hours before leaving my place for 3 weeks.

Alba took me to the airport - Thanks a million - I know who is getting some pintxos sponsored by Gaborno in San Sebastian once we are there!

Anyway - the flight to Madrid was pretty lame - nothing special happened - arrived in Madrid on time. Madrid Airport is VERY STYLISH. And the people!!! They are sooooo cool! I tend to forget that people can be quite stylish and fashionable after living in Germany for so long. Which is actually cool because I don't expect this any more and every time my eyes basically fall out when I travel abroad. And the funny thing was not only that I didn't know where to look because of so many cool people around, but I heard Maria all around the place. I don't know why Maria (maybe because most of my other spanish friends don't speak so much spanish when I am around?) but I had the feeling she was everywhere :-)

The flight to Bilbao was crazy. Turbulences all the time. I was dying. People were actually screaming at every drop. This time it paid off that Iberia is one of the bastard airlines not giving out any food for free, so there was no food & drinks flying around on board. After an hour of misery we arrived in Bilbao and it was raining!!!! And cold!!!! I could not believe that I left warm Germany for cold rainy Spain!!!! I felt a bit better after a couple of SMS-s from Frankfurt telling me that the weather turned bad there also (evil me - bru - ha - ha - ha).

There is a pretty good bus connection from Bilbao airport to the city. When you leave the terminal, just go down to the street straight away, turn right and there is a bus-a-stoppe in sight to the right (about 30 meters I would say). The bus leaves every 30 minutes and it costs €1.20. Needless to say I just missed it by 2 minutes so I waited for the next one patiently. It was raining after all, so no hurry...

The rain stopped once we got to the city. If you want to see the Guggenheim Museum from the bus, sit on the right side. The bus is crossing the big bridge next to the Museum. You can get off the bus at "Moyua" and you are in the middle of the city. I took the metro from here to the old town (Casco Viejo) because I was lazy and didn't feel like dragging my luggage all the way and after getting out of the metro I looked for the place I reserved, which was a story on its own...


I found this place in the Lonely Planet and it looked totally central and by far the cheapest. They have also a nice website (by the way, it is so funny how all the spanish places I checked on the internet use the .com ending and not the .es) - anyway I was very surprised when I called them to make a reservation (according to the website this is only possible via phone) and the following happened:

Man: Si?
Me: Hola, do you speak English?
Man: No Ingles or something similar
Me: Hmmm - I would like to reserve a room
Man: I just said I don't speak English - or something similar in spanish of course (this is purely hypothetical - did I mention I didn't speak spanish?)
Me: OK

This "conversation" took place about once per hour on Thursday as I hoped to get someone else on the phone - I was pretty sure that he would have to go to the toilet, shopping, whatever. No. there was no chance of getting anybody else. In the end I gave up and thought, I would just go there when I am in Bilbao. On Thursday evening at Albas I told her this story and wanted to show her that there was no chance and dialled the number - actually this time he said "Momentino" and called someone who could speak English. So I had my reservation (or so I thought).

So I arrive at the place, which was actually easy to find and ring the bell. Guess what - I am greated by that famous Si?-voice!!! I am about to meet the guy I had so much pleasure talking to! Of course I say in my best Spanish (basically in English) that I have a Reservacion (notice the c in the middle!) under Gabor and he asks me in. As I went for the cheaper option, I had to climb 4 floors to be greated by a nice old lady, who - surprise - did not speak any other language than Spanish. It was so funny - I went in and spent the next 10 minutes looking at a desperate couple from Germany trying to explain to her that they leave so early the next day that they had to leave the key somewhere for her to find. It was actually very funny - they used the back pages of the Lonely planet with the emergency dictionary and were successful in the end.

Then came my turn. Of course they did not find my reservation first and I got a bit scared they would turn me away. But then they did and were very puzzled that I was alone and my reservation was for a double room (they didn't have a single room any more so I went for a double room which was 5 Euros more expensive). This caused quite some confusion and she asked me a million questions - I didn't understand any of them of course. In the end she gave me a room for 3 people and I paid for a room for one. Of course I didn't object :-)

After checking in at the hotel I went around the city for the next couple of hours - bumped into a theatre show for little kids and later the Guggenheim Museum, enjoyed some of the rain and went to a local food chain selling bocadillos. Oh, and almost forgot to mention the two girls I saw vomiting into a small river (?) near the old town and then going back for more alcoholic drinks. What an experience!!!

Oh, almost forgot! I learned my first spanish sentence! Thanks, Mediamarkt!

schankedön!!!!

Thanks, everybody for coming to Schöneberger for my Birthday. It was a bit delayed party but nevertheless it was fun to see all of you there.
Thanks again for the great present!!!!! I promise I will teach Arnie some tricks once I am back from Spain.

ps: Jack - I want to have the video you made at the place - can you upload it to youtube or something? Would be great!!!

espain is ebooked

eyeeppeeee!!!!!

eafter ea ewhole eday eof ecalling ethe ehostel ein ebilbao ei efinally emanaged eto ebook ethe eroom ei ewanted!!!!!


plus the room in barcelona turned out to be a bit "problematic" given that a million idiots occupy ALL THE ROOMS for the weekend to watch the stupid formula one grand prix de espana. anyway - Alba and I booked the two last beds in the probably shittiest hostel in the city (why else would there be two beds still efree????) - so we hope to meet tons of celebs on the weekend of the 11-12-13th of May.

Here we eGO!