Bars, Bikes and Burgos

Saturday i woke up at around 1. I was hung over, my bike was still missing, and I felt like waking up so late was impolite, or at least wasteful. Of course, when your days run until 6am, it´s not at all. Without the bike, I felt empty, plan-less, so I decided to let Ana take me along on her adventures. For Saturday, we met up with Ana´s cousin Patricia, 35, her husband Oscar, and their two children, Guillermo, 7, and Nicolas, almost 2. We snuck into their country club by hiding in the trunk space of their SUV. The day would consist of basking in the sun, and maybe taking a dip in the pool. It was sunny, maybe in the low 70s, with a light breeze. However, it was hard to totally let go and enjoy the afternoon without feeling a sense that this is not why I came to Spain. I was reminded to be present, be in the moment, and to just enjoy it while I could. I enjoyed playing with the kids. Nico was adorable, and Guille was amazed by my camelbak bladder. it gave me immediate props in his eyes. We were there until 8pm, and it was still sunny outside. then we met up with another one of ana´s good friends, nuria, who was coming up from Madrid with her bf, David, who lives in Leon. We hung out a bit at ana´s house, which is actually a large apartment on the 9th floor of a building overlooking the river in Burgos, before we were all gathered and set to go out.

The plan Saturday night was to go out and grab dinner, then hit up some bars. in attendance were all the above-mentioned people: patricia and oscar, beatriz and draco, nuria and david, and ana and me. we went to a restaurant on a hill overlooking Burgos and the cathedral, which is striking. The restaurant was equally amazing, with lots of little appetizer dishes (pinchos), and then a main plate of steak. we cooked the steak at the table, and apparently the move was to have it on the rare side. along with some nice red wine, dinner, which started at 11:30, lasted until almost 2am. I was beat. I was wiped from a long day, still jet lagged, and feeling a bit sick from all the alcohol consumption. Mostly, I think I was just really dehydrated, and maybe also a bit depressed because of my blurry vision, which has stopped getting better. boo. But of course, after dinner we were hitting the town. Oscar is a bit of a big shot in Burgos because he owns several bars, and bars seem to be good places to own because it´s where people hang. We first hit up a place called Buddha with all the same terrible atmosphere of bad bar/clubs in Boston. Loud bad music, shitty lighting, a weak crowd. the only saving grace were the stiff drinks. Then we hopped to a joint called Antarctica that was too full to enter, so we had one person go in, buy drinks, and bring them outside. When we were done, we needed a bathroom, so we headed to the place next door which was basically empty. While we were there, someone bought a round of shots, but two girls refused to take them, so I ended up taking three. I´m not sure what it was, but it was sweet, with a little anise, and some apple flavor. Then after that we went to another bar called Twenty Twenty, playing fantastic American music, starting with Dire Straits and going from there. After that the group split up a bit, but a few of us stayed strong and went to a final place whose name I don´t remember. My final drink of the night was a G&T, and I was happy to have held all that liquor in. I think I did well to drink lots of water through the night, because I wasn´t even hung over the next day. I wanted to dance a little bit at that last bar because they were playing merengue and salsa, but the only people dancing were these two hot girls dancing with each other, who I was told were prostitutes, or "zorras", as they´re called here. I got home real late, posted to the blog, and caught a glimpse of the sunrise.

Sunday morning didn´t exist. Ani woke me up at 2 to tell me that my bike had arrived and I should go downstairs to pick it up. Sunday afternoon we met Noria and her bf to go with Bea and her bf to another club. This one was called the Soto, and we had to sneak in again in the trunk of Draco´s VW Touareg. After a lazy brunch of paella and salad, we proceeded to find beach chairs and sit under the sun. That lasted until 7pm, when the sun hid behind some tall pines, and we called it a day. I came back home, and even though Ani had plans for later, I wanted to stay in and put the bike together. That affair lasted until 1am, but it was well worth it.

Today I wanted to take the bike out for an early morning spin, but I woke up at 10, and Tina made me breakfast. Then Tina left for the supermarket, and I had offered to help her carry groceries up when she returned, so I stuck around and waited. Before I knew it, it was 3pm, and there was no sign on Tina, so I decided to bail and take the bike out for a spin. At first I didn´t know where I should ride. The sidewalks are ample, and in certain places have bike lanes not unlike those in Bogota. But where that wasn´t the case, I felt the street was a better place to be, although I didn´t see anyone riding there. After a good 15 minutes, I caught one cyclist on a street, and after that I felt fine, so I stuck to the streets most of the rest of the time. I just wandered around Burgos for a while, not getting too far from the center.

Burgos is a beautiful little city. With less than 200,000 people, it really has the feel of a large town. The cathedral´s gothic architecture dominates the skyline, and a large chunk of the streets in the downtown area are blocked to motorists. These streets are narrow, lined with four-story buildings pressed against each other, with an occasional gap that creates a lovely alley. It´s a real old city, and it feels like such. There are many tourists who pass through here because Burgos is one of the larger cities on the Camino de Santiago. El Camino, as it´s called for short, is one of the primary pilgrimages for many Christians, although Wikipedia cites earlier pagan importance to this same route. The Christian story goes that in the 9th century someone following signs from God found the location of where James the Apostle had been buried in the northwest of Spain. Since then, pilgrims have traveled from all over to the site, and most have taken the path that that first pilgrim supposedly took. Not being Christian, I have my doubts about how true the legend is. I mean, who actually knows where St. James was buried? Nevertheless, it´s an appealing story, and it has gotten people to perform this pilgrimage, something which seems to be a good thing all around. Burgos, then, has played host to pilgrims for over a thousand years, and you still see people walking and cycling along the path. It´s really a pretty amazing way to engage history and faith, and I plan on doing the trip from Burgos starting on Sunday. :)

Needless to say, after a bike ride I feel like a whole new person. My sleep schedule is back on decent track, and I am looking forward to loading up the bike and getting going. The next few days, though, I will be paying attention the the Vuelta a Burgos, a 5-day bike race that takes place in the province of Burgos, including a couple of trips through the city of Burgos. Maybe I´ll try to hunt down Mauricio Soler and get his autograph. The race features all the major European teams, and I think following it for at least a couple of days will be a good warm-up to maybe following some of the Vuelta a España in a month of so.