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Living in Spain

a travel blog by Jason Kester


Frustrated by the lack of world-class limestone climbing in the States, I've moved Blogabond TransGlobal Headquarters to Pamplona, Spain for a while.

Guess I'd better start learning Spanish...
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Kendal, United Kingdom




permalink written by  Jason Kester on May 1, 2006 from Kendal, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
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Salisbury, United Kingdom




permalink written by  Jason Kester on May 1, 2006 from Salisbury, United Kingdom
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Bilbao, Spain




permalink written by  Jason Kester on May 1, 2006 from Bilbao, Spain
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¡Pantalones Pantalones!

Onate, Spain


These last few weeks have gone by fast. Flew to England, bought a new car, packed Helen's entire world into said car, booked a ferry ticket and drove to Portsmouth, visiting everybody we knew in England along the way.

Here's the plan in a nutshell: I needed some time off work, and Helen needed to get out of America. Frankly, I needed to get out of America too, since I seem to work so much better from a little terrace overlooking a square. I like my walls made of stone.

We've been looking at places to live in Europe, but haven't settled on anything for certain. So now we're just going to roadtrip around for a while until we find a place worth stopping. I guess the requirements are a cool town with a good vibe, plenty of climbing nearby, and of course, a fast internet connection so that I can work. Once we find all that, we're gonna stop for a while.

Now we're in the little town of Onate, having done the whirlwind tour of Basque crags around Vitoria-Gastiez. This is a really cool town, and the climbing up the hill in Araotz looks pretty good. If the rest of the climbing around here is as good as what we've seen, we might not make it out of Spain!


permalink written by  Jason Kester on May 20, 2007 from Onate, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
tagged Climbing and RoadTrip

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Moving the HQ

Pamplona, Spain


So it's official. I'm livin' in Spain! Signed a year lease on an apartment in Pamplona, and am now sipping my Cafe Solo' on the terrace overlooking Plaza del Castillo. It is all good here.

There is tons of great climbing within an hour's drive of this city. We've been sampling a bit of it, but mostly we've been trying to sort out little details for the apartment. Helen has gone into Nesting Mode, and is busy finding kitchen towels and throw pillows and all sorts of stuff it would have never occured to me to buy. I've been trying to get phone lines and DSL set up in broken Spanish.

San Fermines is about a month away, and I'm starting to think about gathering a pile of Blogabonders here for the festivities. See how many of us can get gored Running with the Bulls! If this sounds like a good idea to any of you, let me know and I'll find a way to make it happen.


permalink written by  Jason Kester on June 3, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
tagged Blogabond, Apartment and PlazaDelCastillo

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!San Fermines!

Pamplona, Spain


San Fermines just kicked off here in Pamplona, and the town is going nuts! It's just after noon, and already we're down 3 liters of Calimotxo from where we started. Just spent 10 minutes dumping buckets of water off of our balcony and onto the crowds in Plaza Del Castillo.

If you're not yet in Pamplona, get here. Now. I'll buy you a drink (or at least dump one over your head).

permalink written by  Jason Kester on July 6, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
tagged SanFermin and Fiesta

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San Fermin Day Two - Family Style...

Pamplona, Spain


Day One of San Fermines was Huge. Thousands of wassailing wastrels in red and white packing the back alleys of the old town. Elbow to elbow carnage of spilled drinks and shouted enthusiasm. I need new clothes!


After a late night, we were all up bright and early for the Running of the Bulls. Carnage ensued, and eventually we made it back to the place in search of siesta.

Pamplona actually cleans up pretty well, and 40,000 gallons of water later the streets were safe for parades and marching bands. This is the part that makes it into the tourist brochures. It's actually pretty cool!

The sun is setting now, and spirits are starting to kick up again. There appears to be a crowd of lads in the square cheering enthusiastically for the Blogabond She-Squad on the balcony. I think I'll have to go investigate...




permalink written by  Jason Kester on July 7, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
tagged SanFermin and Fiesta

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San Fermin catches it's breath

Pamplona, Spain


Pamplona has finally settled into its groove, and San Fermin continues apace, but somehow not as franticly as it was the first couple days. Everybody knows they're in for the long haul, and they're pacing themselves a bit better now. Don't get me wrong, it's still basically insane, but at least people have stopped peeing on our front door.

Caught the encierro from inside the bull ring on Day 3. It's standing room only at 8am, as the fighting bulls are put away and they start releasing younger bulls into the ring to play with the crowd. These young bulls have their horns nominally padded to keep them from poking through anybody, but they are still capable of tossing anybody that strays too close (or doesn't run fast enough).

It's a pretty simple game, really:

1. See how close you can get to the Rampaging Bull

2. Attract the attention of the Rampaging Bull to impress your friends.

3. Land.

4. Try to get up and escape before the Rampaging Bull tosses you again.

5. See how far you can remain from the Rampaging Bull.

The nice thing about Sanfermines mid-week is that you can walk around in the daylight and not be immediately doused with gallons of Kalimotxo. You may get smacked in the head by some guy in a big mask, but for them most part it's a pretty family friendly time. After the fireworks are finished at night, the place transforms back into party mode and you'd best just roll with it. We had 3 separate marching bands colliding under our window at 3:00 this morning. It's probably best if you don't plan to sleep much this week...


permalink written by  Jason Kester on July 12, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
tagged SanFermin, Fiesta and Encierro

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Pobre Mi

Rodellar, Spain


San Fermines just kept going, and after 6 days of wassailry we'd had enough. Time to pack up the car and head south to Rodellar for a few days of climbing.

Got back last night to clean streets and quiet sleep. Nice...

permalink written by  Jason Kester on July 16, 2007 from Rodellar, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
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Big Weasel!

Biguezal, Spain


Hey! I have absolutely nothing new to report, except for the fact that I've now been to one of the three silliest named places on the planet. Biguezal is only a half hour from our place, so it was an easy one. I've already done Heol y Cyw in Wales, and I'm not really sure what the third place is, but I bet somebody will suggest it to me.

The folks are in town, and we've been showing them around the countryside. They've fired up a blog of their own, so if you honestly care what my parents are up to, you can go read that.

Spain still rules.


permalink written by  Jason Kester on September 21, 2007 from Biguezal, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain
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Jason Kester Jason Kester
14 Trips
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Hey! I wrote Blogabond so I guess that makes me your host. Welcome!

I spend about 9 months a year on the road, chasing the sun around the world in search of good climbing and surfing. I carry a laptop along with me, and take on small programming contracts to take care of expenses.
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