August 30th, 2007

So simple...and so complicated at the same time. Love doesn't require much but two souls and two hearts bonded together, right? That is actually true, taken from a romantic point of view. Love nurtures itself out of simple thing, like contemplating the moon together, caressinga cheek, holding a hand, ruffling the hair. But life and its practicalities usually show us a different perspective of things. However, as long as that bond reminds tight, love's simplicity would outstand. As it should :)

Calvin and Hobbes is propriety of Bill Watterson and Universal Press Syndicate.

On the personal note, today I totally behaved. I got some work done and I didn't spit at anyone on my way home. See? *patpats self* :P

Ok, so today we will be taking the last stage of the walk Penny and I during our first day together. At the end of Ondarreta Beach, the "Winds Comb" start. The "Winds Comb" is a walk that goes round the Igeldo mountain, which is the mountain that closes the city from the east. Somehow like the New Promenade went around the Urgull mountain, in the west side, but much shorter. The tennis club, a gym, a pool and a restaurant are the only buildings along this walk. Just as its name states, it is really windy in here, above all at the very end of it. However, the waves aren't as spectacular as in the New Promenade, but the wind blows as fiercely as I've ever seen it.

The "Winds Comb" is the last bit at the base of the mountain in the background.

The "Winds Comb" is also well known because Eduardo Chillida, a famous Basque artist, designed a set of three huge modern iron sculptures to be placed in the rocks and in the base of the mountain. Here is a view of the end part of the "Winds Comb", with the sculptures.

In this second view, you can notice some strange holes in the floor with a little stand around them. The sea beats under the floor so fiercely, that the wind emerges through those holes. So if you stand in the base of the holes, you'd better not be wearing a skirt. There is a nice place to remain seated, fairly protected from the wind, with great views of the Bay. It is usually packed, because people love to go there and read. It is a lot of fun to watch how tourist stand by the holes with curiosity, and how the kids duck to peek through them, and they are startled with surprise when the wind suddenly blows. I can't really tell you how many undies I've seen in there :lol:

When the sea is brave, (remember the huge waves pics? :wink: ) even water comes out of the wholes as is being a geyser. It is cool to watch that, but it is difficult to remain in there those brave ocean days for more than 5 minutes before freezing :?

The "Winds Comb" is at the base of the Igeldo mountain. This mountain has a funfair and a hotel in its top.

You can either take a long bus or car ride to its top, or grab the funicular, so obviously, funicular it was. The funicular dates from 1912, and it is a pretty scary thing. It looks (and sounds) like it is going to fall at anytime. But hey, we survived the ride :wink:

I took these when we were taking the funicular down. See the slope? And how old it looks? :?

The funfair is as old as the funicular, so it's a pretty cheesy thing.

But the greatest thing about it are its views. Check them out :)
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So we took a lot of pictures, enjoyed the views for a while and then went up a tower to have even greater views.

The tower has a compass on its top, and towards the north, you can see nothing but the ocean and the sky. It is overwhelming and totally relaxing. So beautiful.

This is my personal favourite between the ones I took:)

When we came down,we went for a ride in the roller coaster. Let me tell you that the roller coaster is as old as the funicular, and the wooden coaches are scariest thing ever. It was kinda funny how this guy told Penny to tie the coach up with a little chain that could offered no protection whatsoever and could be removed with the baby finger of a newborn :roll: Anyway, the ride was a lot of fun. The roller coaster went down the slopes pretty easily and it looked like it wouldn't go up again :lol: But we survived this ride too.

And after so much walk, so much sightseeing, and so much surviving, it was lunch time!! :D The food was just so, so. Penny and I had paella, and it wasn't that good but at least it wasn't paella from a Chinese restaurant, huh Penny? :lol: And, once we had eaten, we took the funicular down again and luckily enough, at the base of it we grabbed a bus to go back all the way to the car. I checked the time when we were arriving to theparking and it was six hours later since we parked. Whoa! :shock:

When we arrived home, my parents were napping, and go guess what we did..nap, oh yeeeeeeeeeah. It felt really good. We wanted to go watch the fireworks that were to belaunched at night, and also go get some nice sandwiches from a typical bar in the Old Part, so bf was picking us back at 20'00pm. But... that shall be for tomorrow. Let us catch some zzzzzs, man did we deserve them :D