Northern adventures

My family (alright, basically my Dad) decided, way back in June, that we needed a vacation. Specifically a so-called family vacation. I figured that, as the years go by, we´ll have less and less chances of actually doing stuff like this--my brother and I will eventually leave the nest, after all (to my mother´s horror and consternation).

So, we´re stuck for two weeks in the North, in San Vicente de la Barquera. I´d never heard of this small town, but apparently it´s actually somewhat famous? Famous for what, I have no idea. I personally think that though it´s nice that it´s cooler here than in central Spain, it´s too cold if it´s August and you can´t wear shorts. Also, the sun: where is it?!? it´s shown up a total of 10 minutes in two darned days. Yes, foggy mountains are all nice and good, but let me not see fog 24/7, please.

It was a pretty long car trip, but I´ve lived through worse. It was only 5 hours.

 A view of the town´s port.

Yesterday was my brother´s birthday. It was decent, but pretty normal for a birthday. We even did our scheduled study times (though I begged really hard for my bother to get time off from studying...but my Dad is darned stubborn). I´ll post a pic or two later, when I actually have a decent internet connection that won´t require three hours to upload a picture.

Oh, when we went to take a walk in the morning, the whole family: my mother, father, brother, grandmother and I got stuck in the elevator. It was a bit nerve-wracking, especially when we realized that:

1) We really seriously honest-to-goodness weren´t moving
2) Repeated attempts to use the emergency phone just gave us a dial tone and no answer (I will curse those people to eternity if they were on vacation or on coffee break).
3) 10 minutes went by, with nothing happening.
4) We realized that most people in the apartment building were probably at the beach (wierdos, NO SUN!) or out walking (like we were supposed to be).
5) Our cellphones refused to work inside the elevator

We felt rather trapped. But I kept myself calm thinking "Wait until I get to blog about it!" ¬ ¬. It didn´t help that i kept getting flashback to the Resident Evil elevator scenes.....

We finally got saved by an old man who happened to hear us or the beeping shriek of the elevator alarm that sounds when you´re attempting to call the emergency line (stupid people should check that it actually WORKS!!). We weren´t trapped in between floors....it was the elevator doors that were stuck, thank God. Tugging, grunting, and voilá, freedom!! I swear, those first few breaths of air were pure ambrosia. Nothing like being stuck in an elevator to make you appreciate the disgustingly humid air of the outside world.