The Wheels on the Autobus!

While it seems like a silly topic, I spend about an hour or hour and a half on the bus each day so I thought maybe I could share some of that lovely experience with you! It may seem wierd but it's my life ha!

Every day that I got to work, I catch the bus at the Plaza Guipuzcoa (see left). This bus stop is pretty popular I guess...lots of buses. The building in the background is a government building, and I wait in this little park of a plaza. My Starbucks-esque coffee place is right on the corner, so I usually head to the bus stop, get a coffee and wait for the ride. When I arrive in Hondarribia (see right), here is my view - so cute. Everything in Hondarribia is very pure Basque - hardly any tourists at all. My bus stop is on a round-about, which are every where here. You can't drive for more than 5 minutes and then you run into a round-about. Most of them are pretty and have a fountain or some foilage in them.

I am becoming pretty used to public transporation. In NYC, that's all you really use, and since I don't have a European liscense, that's about all I can use here. It's pretty convenient and cheap, but you are always at the mercy of the bus schedule. When I lived in NYC, I would always pick up this paper - The Metro - and read it on the subway. It was just some free daily paper that they handed out at the subway entrance and it was the easiest to fold in half to either 1) read or 2) fan yourself if it was super hot in the subway. Funny thing now is that they have The Metro here as well - a San Sebastian edition! So now instead of reading it on a 30 minute subway ride, I read it on a 30 minute bus ride! I was actually so suprised and thought it was such a funny coincidence that I took a picture of myself on the bus with the paper - which I am sure made me look like a crazy woman. Those crazy Americans...

The thing that made me think to write this silly blog was my bus ride today. I got on the bus, minding my own business and a few minutes later two ladies get on and sit right behind me. They start talking in English about how they are confused with the schedule and the price and all this stuff. I turned around and explained the schedule and fare to them and they asked where I was from. When I get that question, I always say from Washington, but just moved from NYC. Turns out these ladies were from NYC as well - only about 4 blocks from where I actually lived! They were in the 60s and just wanted to come to Spain for a week for fun and check out the Guggenheim and some wineries. We ended up talking the whole bus ride - about thier travels, my decision to move here, etc. No one on the bus ever speaks English, so people were just staring at us like we were celebrities. It was really funny and such a random event to find someone who was basically my neighbor all the way over here in San Sebastian! Marion and Sally - they made me smile.

Well, that's it for tonight - obviously not that exciting of a day for me hahah! Hope all is well! Watch the Vice-President debate tonight (I can't watch it until tomorrow morning because of time difference) so I have that on my agenda for the day tomorrow!

Besos!
Amanda