Buenos días a todos! I just arrived back in Madrid this morning from an amazing weekend trip to San Sebastián with my friends Erika and Jenna. It was by far the most relaxing travel experience I have had so far! A beautiful beach surrounded by gorgeous mountains and a town known for its gourmet food? Traveling doesn't get much better than that. It was definitely the refreshing weekend I needed!
First a little info: San Sebastián (also known as Donostia) is on the Northeastern coast of Spain--about a 30 minute train ride from France. It is in the Basque Country, so everything, from the street signs to the restaurant menus, is written in both castellano (Spanish) and vasco (the Basque language). It also has a really cool culture!
On Friday morning, we left Madrid and took a 6 hour bus to San Sebastián. When we arrived, we found our bed and breakfast, called Hospedaje Donostia, unloaded our things, and listened to one of the owners, Amalia, explain everything about the town. Then we decided to do a little exploring! We walked along the beach, took some pictures, and walked around the old part of town. Then we went out for pinchos for dinner! Pinchos are like tapas; there are probably dozens of pincho "bars" in the town, and the idea is to hop into one, try a couple, stay about 10-15 minutes and then go on to the next. They're hard to describe so I'll just show you some pictures:
Then we went back to the Bed & Breakfast and I had the best night of sleep I've had in a month. When we woke up the next morning, Amalia had made us scrambled eggs--they were to die for. I am usually not an egg person but I devoured them! With a cup of coffee and a couple slices of toast, I was good to go for the morning of hiking we had planned. We hiked up one mountain (well, more like a tall hill) to get to the top where there is a statue of Christ that was erected by Franco to be modeled after the one in Brazil. The building underneath the statue is a museum about San Sebastian's history, so we walked through that and then admired the amazing view from the balcony.
After that, we hiked back down and went to the aquarium--which was interesting because the main tank is actually a part of the ocean! Then we went to the main family beach called La Concha, and spent a slightly chilly afternoon there, ate sandwiches and did some homework. For the rest of the day, we did some shopping and had a fancy Basque dinner at a restaurant called Juanito Kojua--my meal totaled about 40 euro, but it was definitely worth it: my rice with clams was delicious, and the veal was amazing as well. (We made up for the expense by buying groceries the first day and eating sandwiches and fruit for lunch each day.)
On Sunday, we checked out of the B&B and decided to scale the other "mountain" by ways of a funicular: an old-fashioned train that felt almost like an old rickety amusement park ride. The view was amazing from the top of that mountain as well, so we went to a cafe at the top and spent some time reading and enjoying the cool weather. Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach. There was definitely a bit of a culture shock at one point: even though it was a family beach and not designated topless, more than a few older women around us decided it was totally okay to take off their tops while we were there. Just slightly awkward!
For dinner, we had pinchos again and were able to watch part of the Barcelona-Madrid game on TV at the restaurant. It was pretty fun to see the crowds in all the bars and restaurants and hear the cheering!
That pretty much concludes my weekend--it was definitely relaxing and refreshing just being around the beautiful water and mountain scenery.
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