San Sebastian!

Yep, this weekend I went to San Sebastian. I've been slacking on the blogging, for which I do not apologize, simply because I am in Spain and I'll get around to it. That seems to be the Spanish motto--take your time. But I need to do it before I forget! Speakign of which, I finally finished the Toledo entry for anyone who is interested in going back to that page for additional pictures and and info. 

 

Anyway, San Sebastian was totally fun. The occasion for going was one of the girls' birthday, so we headed up Saturday morning and some went home that night and others went home the next day. The bus was pretty nice for only seven euros and the ride lasted about an hour and a half mabe an hour and fortyfive minutes. San Sebastian is located right next to the ocean with an amazing beach called La Playa de la Concha--Conch shell beach, basically, because it is shaped exactly like a conch shell, complete with an island in the center, like a pearl in the middle of a shell.

 

 

 

Our hostal was situated right in la Parte Vieja, the oldest part of the city, and a huge church was literally right outside my door. Another church, which I got to briefly explore the inside of, was down the street to our right. La Parte Vieja is filled with pinxo bars and souvenier shops and traditional artisan shops and all kinds of things. Right behind La Parte Vieja is a mountain, atop wich is a huge statue of Jesus. I ended up not gettign the chance to walk up to Jesus, but the next morning we took a hike up the oposite mountain on the opposite side of the whole beach which gave us an amazing view of the whole city.

 

 

 

Saturday night we all went to a sidreria, which is a traditional cider house in the basque country. Inside, the tables are tall since traditionally you stand. One wall is lined with huge barrels of cider, each one with a different flavor. The way it works is you pay one price, and you get all the cider you can drink and a meal with about 4-6 courses depending on how you count it. First course is bread, fifth "course" was a repeat of the fourth, and last course was a light desert of cheese and apple jelly. The dishes in between were fish dishes (I have honeslty never enjoyed fish more) and the most mouth watering steak. In between dishes, you go and get a little bit of sidra to drink, then come back and eat a little, then go get some sidra and so on. We had so much fun! But we were sadly, very obviosuly american drinkers! I laughed so hard at that dinner! But it was not cheap, let me say.

 

 

 

When we left and came back to the hostal, a huge festival was going on and all the local townspeople were dressed up like gypsies. Two huge statues of gypsies were directly in front of out hostal! What luck we had! And they sang long into the night.

 

Next morning was the hike up to the view, and then we headed home aorund three in the afternoon.