October 30, 2003
Laurie and I got up and took the 8:00 bus to Aia. We checked into our place. It was really nice. The bedroom was large and it had a little sitting area. The common room was also good size unless all of the rooms were full. There are six rooms in all. We had beautiful views and we could see the ocean in the distance. I didn't realize we were so close to it.
Once we settled in we walked up to the center. It was very very windy out and it looked like it might rain. We went shopping at the local store for food for the next four days. We then went to the butcher and bought some meat. We wanted hamburg so the butcher took the piece of beef and ground it for us, just like the old days.
We stopped by to see Itziar, the woman we met when we were here last time. We made plans to go to her house later at 6:00.
We got back to the house and had lunch. There was a family of three at the house but they were leaving today.
We decided to take a chance and do a hike. The wind had died down some and it looked like the rain might hold off.
We walked to the top of Pagoeta. There is a large cross on top there. There are burial grounds that date over 5000 years ago. The views from the hill was beautiful and would have been even better if the sun was out. This area is a bunch of rolling hills. I could see the larger towns and also the ocean.
We walked back. It had just started raining when we were close to home. I changed, put something warm on and curled up in a blanket and read.
At 6:00, Laurie and I walked up to Itziar's apartment. We sat and talked for a couple of hours. She speaks more English then we speak Spanish, but she has some difficulties. Itziar had been to Boston about 10 years ago. Her brother had cancer in his eye. He went to Boston for treatment.
We went back to the house. We had it to ourselves which is nice. It would be nice if no one came for the week-end. We cooked dinner and that was it for the day. The wind hadn't died down and the doors and windows rattled. Hopefully I can sleep.
October 31, 2003 Happy Halloween!
I told Laurie that I thought we should go trick or treating. I don't know if they celebrate, but I did see some pumpkins when I was in San Sebastiran.
Laurie and I planned on doing a long hike today, but it depended on the weather. The wind howled all night and was still blowing in the morning. We decided to stay in bed a little longer.
Once we finally got up, we noticed that the sky was blue. So we ate breakfast and decided to do a shorter hike than we had orginally planned because it was so late.
We walked to Zarautz. The is a fairly good size town along the shore. It was a beautiful day for a hike. It took about an hour and a half to get there. We had plenty of options. If we continued on the problem was that it might be too long and too late to walk back and the buses aren't all that frequent.
We decided to take the train to Orio, which is only a seven minute ride. From there we walked back to Aia. We arrived home about 3:45. It was a good days hike and the weather was great even though it was still windy.
When we got back, we saw that other people had moved into the house. So much for having the place to ourselves. Well, I guess it could be worse and have all six rooms filled. I guess they are in the summer.
November 1, 2003
There isn't much to write about today, becaue we didn't do much.
Laurie and I planned on going to the park and doing the beehive tour and also the forge tour. It was windy so we figured they would not do the beehive tour, but we figured we could do the forge tour. We walked up to the center to pick up a few groceries before we went to the forge. When we got out of the grocery store we noticed how dark it had gotten. Then it started to rain. We decided to skip the forge tour also.
We went back to the house. The weather was so strange. One minute the sun is bright, the next minute it is dark and stormy. It is the kind of day to stay in and watch movies. Unfortunately, we don't have movies. The other idea I had was to do a puzzle. So when the woman from upstairs came down I tried to ask if she had a puzzle with the little Spanish I knew and hand signals. She understood because she came back with a puzzle.. So we worked on the puzzle for the day. We had a fire in the fireplace and it was great.
That was it for the day. The puzzle is not done yet. It has 1000 pieces. I told Laurie that we can't leave here until it is done.
November 2, 2003
We were out of the house by 8:15. The sun was bright. it had promises of being a good day. We were going to do a long hike to this place called Ernio. At one point I had seen a man walking around with a shotgun. I forgot--hunting season. The season is for only birds. We could hear the guns firing in the distance. We kept walking, but the further we went, the more hunters we saw stationed.
