back to basics (Bilbao)

So I have my emergency passport sorted (took less than 24 hours!) and 2 thumbs up to the Australian Embassy who expedited the paperwork and were generally really helpful, polite and understanding. When youre travelling solo and suddenly hit disaster like this, its pretty reassuring to know that you belong to a competent, protective country who looks after its citizens overseas.

Patriotic effusiveness aside, I am finally starting to feel a bit better today and ducked out for brekky in Madrid this morning. Big fan of the Spanish tortilla so far for brekky - photo below. I am writing this from a bus leaving Madrid and taking me back to Bilbao, where I will stay a night, grab the debit card from the police station and the old (now useless) passport, stock up on a few supplies and then head up to Irun tomorrow to commence the walk about 5 days later than anticipated.

It seems a shame to have spent almost 3 days in Madrid barely seeing anything other than my hotel walls and the Australian embassy, but I can say that it does appear a nice city, very green and leafy, though at the moment with a heat wave hitting and temps up to 42 deg C. through the middle of the day, in a way I am glad I havent had the option of exploring the city by foot.