I sometimes think I have a complicated relationship with Europe. I've been to like 60+ countries but in Europe I've spent a weekend in London and twice been to Germany to visit mom's exchange family (once I was too young to remember which also included some in Italy I'm told). I have nothing against them - I guess I just always feel that I can always go to Europe and some of these other places might be once in a lifetime opportunities. And then there are places, like Cuba and Bhutan, which I really want to see now before they open up completely to tourism.But when Beth (friend from India) invited me to her 50th birthday party in Ibiza, I couldn't say no. One reason was that I think it takes that kind of effort to maintain friendships in this crazy world I live in. We don't get to see friends that often, and just showing up means a lot (at least to me). But I didn't want to fly all that way (Nairobi to Ibiza is 3 flights and like 24 hours) and spend all that money for just 3 days. So I was thrilled when Rachel (from grad school) was available to meet me in Spain.
The trip started like all trips do, with a massively delayed flight which
resulted in me missing my flight connection from Amsterdam to Madrid. In my exhaustion (from red-eye flight) I decided to use that extra time to buy everything in the airport - including replacing the camera stolen in Nairobi in March and an underwater container for it. As I was boarding the flight to Madrid, I saw these two good-but-not-great-looking young women in the waiting area with stilettos and recalled thinking that "this is the difference between European and American women". Then this short man in a black top hat was suddenly standing next to me in line and I thought... "he looks familiar". "Is that Dave Navarro?" "His jeans have rock-star like prints on them, it could be him." "OMG that's Dave Navarro." I will spare you the rest of my internal monologue but it included "Why does he not have handlers or an entourage or something that prevents him from standing in line in a run of the mill boarding area". He was sitting in "first class" about 3 rows ahead of me (first class was just the closing of a curtain - it was a small plane) and he and his group - which I realized included those two girls, who 
based on accents were indeed American women - proceeded to play 'name that tune', which I had to almost literally hold myself from joining in. When we landed I followed signs to baggage claim and looked around and suddenly realized that it was just me, the band and their girls. I'm unclear why the rest of the plane didn't go the same way but suddenly I'm chatting with them about the correct baggage carousel. A guy briefly runs up to the blonde guy and says, "Duff, man, can I have, your.... sorry to bother you, man but.... can I have your autograph, man... sorry to bug you dude...". Duff was very gracious. I later had to look up what band Dave plays with and who the hell Duff is ... turns out they both play for Jane's Addiction, Duff was subbing in for a concert in Madrid the next day - he was originally from Guns-N-Roses.The other weird thing at the airport is I never went through customs or immigration in Spain... I guess since I was coming from another EU country it was ok - sweet!
So the actual trip: Had a day in Madrid by myself before Rachel arrived so went to the Prado first. I was actually a bit bored, a huge portion of it is portraits of stuffy European men from 200 years ago. The Goya exhibit was quite good and there were a few other paintings here and there that I really liked but it wasn't quite my taste. A friend recommended the Reina Sofia so I checked that out next and it was much more my genre of art. More cubism/modern; picasso, magritte, dali. It's not even that I like modern art per se, just not portraits of King Charles Henry David.
Rachel arrived later that afternoon and we left early the next morning on a train for San Sebastian. Donostia San Sebastian is on the north coast, in Basque Country. Known for its food and wine, it has beautiful beaches. Sadly it was a bit cold and rainy but it had lovely walking paths (through the city, not hiking - think the streets bordering Rio's Copacabana beach), with biking paths along the beach. Our first night was also the night of the US opening match of World Cup vs. Britian. I convinced Rachel to find a place to watch the game with me. There were very few bars showing it and very few people watching it - strange. The day after arrival we went walking around town and quickly realized there were hoards of people wearing blue and white striped shirts, waving blue and white striped flags, etc. Since I knew Spain wasn't playing that day we could not figure out what was happening. But it was hundreds of people, all day long. Drinking outside and randomly breaking into chants and songs. We eventually found out there was a local team playing (seems weird to have a game during the World Cup, as if you had good players they might be there) the last game of the season. And their win put them up into the next league.
Anyways - San Sebastian is cute as can be, great walking, eating, drinking, shopping, etc. And that's what we did. Because of the season, the sun doesn't go down until 10 or so, which makes walking to dinner much more enjoyable. The next day we went to a cooking school through a VERY small operation call San Sebastian Food. Highly recommended. Jon, the owner and our guide, suggested we go to a fishing village for a lesson in pintxos (basque's tapas). We made like 20 different kinds; hot and cold and learned tons about anchovies, which I hadn't liked until this class. It was a great experience.
And that was basically it - we went back and had one more day in Madrid and then I flew onto Ibiza (next post). The only thing I haven't stated is how much I enjoy relearning and practicing Spanish - I should definitely find a way to do this more often!
