Today has been an interesting, slightly challenging day but exciting too. I have to report that our plans have changed. Instead of the beautiful Northern mountains and beaches we have decided to tackle the heat of the South of Spain.
Let me tell you why. This morning we got up at 8am, after a frustrating night of trying to find places to stay in the North. We could barely find anywhere that was not booked and if we did it would have cost us more than a week's budget for one night.
Determined, we searched and searched this morning for a way to continue our plan of travelling the northern coast but it just wasn't possible. We expressed our frustration to an Austrian girl in our room who told us she was getting the overnight bus to Seville. At this point, ding, Nicola and I looked at each other having the exact same thought... and that is where we are now, on our way to the South of Spain. The bus journey is just over 9 hours long and goes through the night. Nicola has changed her flight and will now fly back from Málaga.
It is shame we cannot explore the North but we are excited to see the beaches of the South and also go to Granada which has been suggested to me by so many people. The overnight bus is a step up from being hostel-less and sleeping on the streets of a northern city which is how it was looking this morning. After a morning of researching and planning I was very happy to escape the hostel and explore León.
We walked the perimeter of the old city, part of it is surrounded by the original wall and you can walk along it. This was was fine until we reached a narrow bit and Nicola went from excited to clinging onto the wall like an elderly crab in seconds. We survived the wall and moved onto the palace and a building which Gaudí designed. They were both interesting buildings and we enjoyed looking around.
León is a really nice city to spend time waking around the streets and taking in the atmosphere.
Before our bus we went back to the hostel for a few hours. The woman on the desk wasn't overly happy to let us in but she told us we could stay for a 'ratito' (little bit of time). We made the most of that ratito by charging our phones, packing our bags, showering and even washing our fruit!
The bus left at 22.10 and I think the Austrian girl was amused to see us at the bus stop. We have her to thank for our new plan.
So far it hasn't been too bad - tv screen, place to charge phone and I have 2 seats to myself at the moment. It does remind me of South America a bit in the fact we had a stop and everyone else knew to get off but we stayed on the bus oblivious to the fact the bus was 'closed' for half an hour. I don't know how they expect us to know that, there must be some secret code of buses.
Hopefully I will sleep tonight and be ready for the sun tomorrow.

Ps. I have made all the pictures portrait in this blog so hopefully they are the right way up.