Day 8

We are now in the Rioja region, I will apologise in advance for the dip in quality of these blog entries over the next few days! Lorgrono is quite a large town which sprawls out a long way so the scenery wasn't very exciting in the morning. I had some more German tutoring and listened to 1984 rather than marvel at the surroundings. My Spanish is still very poor but I can now order a coffee with or without milk (we average 2-3 coffee stops a day!). After Lunch we picked up a really lovely Polish air hostess who has a passion for everything Greek. I enjoyed listening to her describe the food and culture, perhaps my next adventure will be some Greek Island hopping.

Tonight's Aubergue was "donitivo" so you didn't need to pay anything at all but simply give a donation. It was a pre-fab hut but had everything we needed (bed, shower, toilet, kitchen). We found ourselves together with many who had been at the previous hostel and the atmosphere was fantastic. A very glamorous Persian lady offered to cook everybody dinner and using the very limited cooking facilities she knocked up a delicious three course meal that left nobody hungry.  Together with a few bottles of Rioja this made for a very enjoyable evening full of chat, dancing and the usual cultural exchanges. We attempted to learn "thank-you" and "I love you" in everybody's language. The evening was topped off by a singing performance from an elderly Spanish man who had once sang for the King.