Traveling to Santander, Day 9

Thursday was an early day. We had to get up at 5am to get ready, packed and off by 5:30 in order to get to the airport on time. I had a flight that left around 10:30am from Cologne to Bilbao, Spain, Leanne had a train that left from Cologne to Nurnburg, and Supy had a flight that left from Dusseldorf to JFK.
So we packed everything up, said our goodbyes to Eva, and headed to Cologne. But as we passed that same McDonalds we stopped at 2 days earlier, we decided to pull back in, because Supy had noticed a huge puddle of muddy water in the parking lot. I don't think I mentioned it yet, but the first day we had the car, someone bumped us while parking or something and left a nice scratch on our rear right quarter panel. We were afraid we were going to have to pay for it, so Supy decided we should use the mud to cover it up. It took about 10 minutes of supy splashing it on the car, and me trying to peel out in it, before it looked like we had just gotten back from a safari trip! But in the end, it worked! The car rental agency was more concerned about asking where we had gone, to notice the scratches that seemed to blend into the mud!! :) Awesome job supy!
We got to the Koln/Bonn airport with plenty of time to spare. We all had breakfast together one last time, before supy left for Dusseldorf, and I went into the security area of the airport. We had had an awesome 8 days together. What a great road trip!
My flight was pretty good to Bilbao. They had given me an exit row, but my seat didn't have a seat in front of it! I had SO much leg room! And on top of that, there wasn't anyone sitting in the seat next to me! It was a great flight!
When I got to Bilbao, I took the next bus to Santander, and after being up and traveling for the last 9 and a half hours, I finally arrived! I called up Kat and Katy who I was staying with, and headed over to their apartment.
After I had settled in, I met up with Elodie and Esther and ate Manolos! Manolos was this food place right across the street from my piso last year. The food is great and it was just so convenient! So we grabbed some of that and headed to the Ayuntomiento plaza to eat it and watch the gente (people). I immediately saw three of my students from last year!
After about an hour of hanging out with them, I left to go watch my Mom perform live via webcast from Calgary, Alberta, Canada! It was great to see her all the way from Spain, and to think that while I sat there watching her on the screen, she was on the other end at the exact same second, staring out into an audience full of people and a camera!
After that, I went back to Kat and Katy's. I mixed up some Calimocho (drink of the North of Spain consisting of half red wine, half coca cola) and met up with Elodie and Esther to play some darts at El Dorado! After that, we headed to Mala Espina and danced the night away until 4am!