Anyway, I finally got to take a picture with my colleagues:

from left to right: my boss, Fernando, Adriana, Belén, Jon (is going to replace Silvia), ich, Silvia, Anita (is going to replace me), Jesús, Ana, Silvio

With Adriana

… And now I should start packing, do some last shopping and at the same time enjoy my last two days here…

This time I also found this… interesting statue (Art…!?)

On top of this, there were the „Fiesta de los niños“ happening, where the kids of the village design these “cars” on different topics and dress up accordingly:

Jackson 5!?

And they also had their bull fighting arena – which they seemed to have built especially for this event :

Right next to the artificial lake, called Yesa:

… there is this abandoned village:

Parts of the old church are also still there:

And in that area, there is also this freaky mountain :

And on Thursday morning, I right away went to the beach in Casteldefells…

… all the way (ok, interrupted by a lunch break with Patrick and his friend Michi who then joined me at the beach) till the evening…

Afterwards, we went to Barcelona, to enjoy the “Fiestas de Gracia” (party time in Gracia, a district in Barcelona).

One day before I left to Bcn, I had contacted Babsi,  who I’m studying with in Vienna (she did Erasmus in Barcelona) and it worked out – we met for the Fiestas de Gracia:

On Friday night, Cathleen and Yesid also came from Pamplona to Barcelona and on Saturday we went sightseeing in the city…

The Torre Telefónica (Montjuïc Communications Tower) – build for the Olympic Games in 1992 – yet again another building by Santiago Calatrava…

The Columbus Monument near the Ramblas

… And after that we were off to the:

Saturday night, we went out in Casteldefells with some friends of Patrick’s…

Yesid & Patrick

… On Sunday we had a BBQ and then left to Pamplona again in the evening…

As Cathleen herself had to work, I went for a walk with her parents to show them Pamplona a bit…

On Saturday, we went (together with Romy, who is replacing Cathleen at work now) first to San Sebastián and then along the coast to a beach near Ondarroa.

Cathleen, Luna & Romy in San Sebastián

On Sunday we went to the beach again (one has to make the most of good weather, once it’s there, no? ), this time to Leikeitio:

And that evening, we went to a fish restaurant in Getaria, where I had been before with Claudia and Christian…

On Monday night, Cathleen’s flat mates cooked a super yummy dinner for us:

Cathleen’s dad, Cathleen’s mum, Maricela (the flat mate), Mauricio (her husband; both from Columbia), Cathleen & I

On Tuesday, we went to San Sebastián yet again (the good weather…) and at night ate Pinchos here in Pamplona…

At about 11pm, we finally arrived in Santander (after stop-and-go on the highway between Bilbao and Santander). Our charming GPS-lady led us to a campground (later, she started having some problems distiguishing between left and right, but anyway she helped a lot …). We build up our tent and enjoyed the rest of the night with some bubbly wine.

After a bit of a difficult night (it was quite loud on the campground, with people constantly walking past our tent), we went for a stroll around Santander on Saturday:

The beach right next to the campground…

The “raqueros” in the harbour of Santander, representing kids that used to dive looking for coins tourists threw into the sea.

Yet again, there was a “fiesta” happening – this time “Semana Grande”.

© http://portal.ayto-santander.es/portal/page/portal/inet_santander/ficha/ficha_ayto?itemId=2301003

And they also have an Australian Pub in Santander .

A tiny little house sorrounded by all its huge friends…

The beach of Santander

After all this walking we had a really hard time finding a campground that night. We tried it on about 6 different ones. They were all full or then one didn’t even exist (failure of Mrs. GPS). In the end we did find one, in a little village close to Torrelavega. Going out wasn’t really possible that night, as we had to be “home” with the car at 23:30. Therefore, we decided to have dinner in Torrelavega (we ate a superb salad with goat cheese, walnuts and berries – what a combination!) and after that went back to the camp ground.

On Sunday, we drove to Liencres, a small city with excellent beaches around it, and had a relaxing beach day.

Next week Monday, the 6th of July, the party begins at 12 o’ clock with the chupinazo:

The fuse of the rocket is lit at 12 o’clock sharp on the 6th of July on the central, second-floor balcony of the Town Hall. To the cry of “Viva San Fermin! Gora San Fermín!” (“Long live San Fermin!”, first in Spanish, then in Basque), the jubilation begins. The façade of the Town Hall is decked out with standards and the insignia of Spain, Navarre (red), Pamplona (green) and Europe.

© www.pamplona.es

They have already started putting up some fences:

… and people are renting out their balconies for people who want to have a better view:

At the same time they are also preparing a little fair:

At  spiegel.de you can look at some impressive pics…

I’m quite excited about how it is gonna be… Local people advise not to take any valuables with, on the one hand because of pickpockets and one the other hand, because people are spilling wine/champaign/etc…. They also say it is best not to do any shopping or eating in the city centre – prices triple during that week!

Well, we’ll see how it goes and for how long we’ll be able to take it .

I’ll keep you updated.

Ah and by the way: PETA organized a demonstration in Manhattan against San Fermín last Thursday: demonstration against San Fermín

Cathleen spend the last semester there, doing Erasmus; so we could stay over at one of her friends’ place.

We took the night bus on Friday at 11pm and arrived at about 7:30 am on Saturday morning.

View of the sunrise out of the bus…

After we had arrived in Alicante, we started walking towards the beach (we had to wait until 1pm until we could go to the friends’ place…)

We only saw the beach this nice and calm once – on Saturday morning -, after that it was always super busy.

At the moment, there is the “beginning of summer celebration”, called Hogueras, happening at the moment:

The region of Alicante is one of the biggest celebrations of San Juan. Here it is known as ‘Las Hogueras de San Juan’ (Bonfires of St John) and the celebrations take place from 20th to 29th June. In the city of Alicante there are large wooden and papier maché figures (similar to ‘Las Fallas’ in Valencia) which are displayed in the city’s main squares and are burnt down on the night of San Juan (24th). The burning begins at midnight once a palm tree shaped firework display has been released from Alicante Castle.
Alicante enjoys several days of fiestas with tents called ‘barracas’ set up around town where most of the drinking and dancing takes place.

(c) spanish-fiestas.com

Each “barrio” (quater) has its own hoguera, and in the end, people vote for the best one.

Saturday afternoon, we went to the castle, from which you have a nice view over the city and the beach:

On Sunday we decided to try out one of the “barracas” together with some friends – a mistake.

The food was bad quality (way to greasy) and in the end we had to pay 110 € for 2 plates of croqueta, 2 plates of patatas bravas, 2 breads and 2 plates of cheese  (including drinks – water and soft drinks)!! What a rip-off – for one plate with croquetas they charged us 15 €! So in case you come to Alicante one day – don’t eat in the barracas  .

On Sunday at 20 past 8, we took the nightbus again and arrive this morning at 5:30am back in Pamplona. We quickly went home, had a shower and breakfast and went off to work again. What a day! Now I have to recover a bit and sleeeep. But it was definitly worth it – it really felt like a short holiday!

When they arrived are, they had already covered 4000km (!!) within one week (in Spain and Portugal)… And we added some kilometers to their list .

On Saturday, we started with the castle of Javier.

Over there, they had this really funky (Japanese) umbrella holder:

At night, we went out for Pinchos in Pamplona..

In Calle Estafeta, there was a (Mexican) live band performing  (until the rain came)…

On Sunday, we decided to drive along the Basque coast (Costa vasca) – it reminded me a bit of the Great Ocean Road in Australia – beautiful!!!

The weather was so so – but in the afternoon we even got to see the sun .

In Zarautz

In Getaria, the next village on the way, we went to eat in a really nice fish restaurant… Yummy!

After that, we continued through the villages of  Zumaia, Ondarroa and Leikeitio.

And then – all of a sudden – it was already 6pm and we had to think of going home again… After a little bit of confusion (the GPS did not really work in those tiny villages in the middle of the Basque country), we arrived back in Pamplona.

And here, we decided to enjoy the rest of the evening in …. guess …. yep, exactly, the good old House of Beer.

Last Saturday, Heike and Armin arrived in Pamplona.

Saturday night we went to the House of Beer, definetly one of my favourite bars here (and now theirs as well – we kept going there almost every evening).

Patatas Bravas – Potatoe Wedges in a super yummy sauce .

On Sunday we went on an Explore-Pamplona´s Inner City-Tour.

Unfortunately I had to work again on Monday… Heike and Armin went to San Sebastián, went hiking on the Way of St. James and explored the surroundings of Pamplona  (Olite etc.).

On Thursay, I took the day off from work, we hired a car and went towards Biarritz. The weather wasn’t that nice, but we nevertheless had a nice day.

Yep, we had to drive through there… And after the clouds stayed with us for the rest of the day.

Heike and Armin in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the beginning of the French Way . It could be a really nice village, but due to the tourism, there’s one souvenir stand following another and it’s not really interesting anymore. So, after a short visit, we continued our way towards Biarritz.

A nice place, but quite touristic and expensive.

The next stop on our route was Saint Jean de Luz (which has a really nice beach).

Afterwards we actually we’re planning to eat some Pinchos in San Sebastán, but because of a general strike in the Basque Country, we ended up eating Pinchos in Pamplona.

Saturday morning, before Heike and Armin´s departure, we went to the presentation of the new Polo.