My way: Get the fuck out of it

I was excited to get a front-row seat on the bus from St. Jean to Pamplona. But then the driver made me fasten my seat belt and I realized as he honked before going around tight curves that if an oncoming car ignored his honking, I would be the one the car drove into. And there were a lot of tight curves. (I survived.) There was also a lot of construction, which made the bus driver super mad. I've seen some grumpy bus drivers beofre, but this man was truly exceptional. He was already mad that we had to stop for the road crew (who, like most every road crew, didn't look to be doing anything besides holding up traffic), but then when they let a bunch of cars go through but made the bus keep waiting, he really lost it. "Fuck! It takes fifty years to make a road. Fifty fucking years!" He hit the gas like maybe he was going to plow right through the workers, stopped just short of them, and started yelling at the guy with the hand-held stop sign. "What is this? What are you doing?... Fuck! You have to work? I have to work. I have to get this bus to Pamplona. I'm already late. Fuck!" Then he pulled out his cell phone and started bitching to someone on the other end. "Vive les vacations!" yelled some French person from the back of the bus. It was all pretty hilarious, to me anyway, but I was afraid the bus driver would start yelling at me if I laughed at him. I had to bite my tongue really hard to keep from cracking up. Once we were finally allowed to go, he bitched to himself the whole way through the super narrow construction site (¡Hostia! he kept saying -- another good Spanish expletive), except where we passed trucks (there were some big trucks carrying lots and lots of hay) and he paused to bitch to the hay truck drivers about the construction situation. I understand road rage pretty well, but still I bet he has high blood pressure.

That particular bit of construction not withstanding, Spain has really nice roads. Maybe the nicest roads I've ever seen anywhere. And Pamplona has a ridiculously nice shiny new bus station. (When I was last here five years ago, it was basically a dirty garage.) At least they've got something to show for the construction boom, I guess.