Woke up at my usual bedtime hour of 1am as we both fell asleep just before 6pm because we were wrecked from traveling here. Fell back to sleep until the ungodly hour of 3am in which we both got up and started getting our shit together to leave the Steigenberger Hotel so we could get the 545am bus to Frankfurt Hahn Airport (about an hour forty five away) as we were getting a no frills plane ride with Ryanair.
Because I neglected to read the disclaimer in a decent sized font on the itinerary I printed off for Ryanair before I left, apparently we were supposed to print off our airline tickets off the web at least four hours before departure. We didn’t do this and found out that this was a requirement of the no frills airline at the desk. As a result, we each had to pay sixty euros as it was “Ryanair protocol”. Was fairly off it but I guess it was nobody’s fault but mine.
After examining our plane tickets, we noticed that we didn’t have seat numbers allocated to us. Surely it couldn’t have been first in best dressed. It was. And we realised this when an airport official went to check our tickets and about one hundred people packed a poorly formed scrum that had the force equal to that of a wallabies squad. We hurtled our way along the tarmac to the plane and got ourselves in a seat that didn’t recline. As we took off, we very quickly realised that you do in fact get what you pay for and because we didn’t pay all that much (in comparison to other flights going to the same destination), we didn’t get all that much. The whole two hour journey felt like I was watching and listening to one of those commercials on telle that tries to sell Nude by Nature face and body creams and the ab king pro. Ryanair is the info commercial of aviation. Over the passenger announcement thing, there was constantly a Ryanair staff member trying to flog their crap to us; tickets to maybe win something, some other products, newspapers, books and I don’t even know what else, I tuned out. It was not anything like I have experienced before. When we landed they played music that was cheerful as to suggest that not every single flight does land and so when it does, they can play their celebratory song.
We arrived in the hub of Santander and straight away went looking for a hostel to stay at. We walked for ages, again sticking out like that same cold sore as described in the first post except this time enflamed, arriving inside a guesthouse and walking in. The woman spoke no English whatsoever. We attempted to do actions to tell how many nights, how many people and how much it would cost for both. She offered to show us another place she owned down the street, but because we felt like we would be staying in the pink light district (bit safer than the red light district), we told them we would walk around town and come back, with the intention of never returning, ever.
We walked toward the city hall and found a place called ‘La Mexicana Hostel’ where we walked inside, the woman able to speak broken english. She showed us a room with a bathroom in it and we took it. Walked around town for a bit just cruising and checking out the sites under the thirty degree sun. It was bloody sensational !
We went to the supermarket and bought some things for a really late lunch/dinner. As we don’t have a kitchen in this hostel, and don’t have plates or a chopping board, Eddie came up with the idea to get the empty draw from the table, flip it upside down, lay plastic over it from the sealed packets of cheese and cold meats we had bought and use my pocket knife to chop stuff up to chuck on a sandwich. This way we can cut what we need without a plate or chopping board, simultaneously not destroying the visual parts of furniture. I thought it is a phenomenal idea.
On a completely separate note, I noticed today in particular, that since we have been here, whenever we walk past a kid, they laugh at us. Not sure why yet and I doubt we’ll ever find, but I am really curious as to what the deal is.
As I’m writing this Eddie is passed out on his bed and I’m not far off (from exhaustion not alcohol, drugs or sex). It’s hit 10pm and the sun has just set. It is the biggest wig out.
Every time we’re in a scenario that involves a language barrier (which is every single conversation except the ones with Eddie although sometimes we have trouble understanding each others dribble), I feel inclined to learn their native tongue. I have the intention to learn basic Spanish but when ever I look at the phrase book, another more exciting opportunity presents itself. At least the intention is there though