Day 16
Now to my favorite Spain experience so far! On Thursday, we got out of class in the early afternoon then headed right to the bus station to kick off our free weekend. A group of eleven of us decided to spend our weekend in San Sebastián, a beautiful beach city in northern Spain (Basque Country). San Sebastián is known as one of the best beach towns in all of Europe; I can vouch for that! After our six hour bus ride (oof!) we made it to San Sebastián and caught a taxi over to what I thought would be a hotel. I made a reservation for half our group at a place called Pension San Vicente. Word to the wise: pension doesn't mean hotel. Not even close. It's a boarding house haha. So we get dropped off in the middle of a busy alley in San Sebastián at 10:00 at night (oof!) and we don't see anything that looks like a hotel. Amidst bars, restaurants and a giant church, we see a little door with "Pension San Vicente" marked on the third floor. We get buzzed in, climb up a narrow staircase in almost complete darkness and walk in to somebody's apartment. The pension consisted of just our two rooms, two tiny bathrooms and a hallway (oof!). We're all confused but manage to nod and grin through everything the manager is explaining. It was far from luxury but for five broke college students, it was more than enough. After a late dinner, we decided to hit the hay.
Day 17
On Friday, my weekend roommate, Hannah, and I woke up earlier than the three guys staying with us so we went out to find some cafe con leche, figure out where exactly the beach was and track down a supermercado. It was pretty chilly, in the mid-60s, so we were worried it would be too cold for the beach but the sun prevailed and made for a perfect afternoon! But before we woke up los chicos (at 11:00, how lazy!) we bought some groceries to stave off our hunger. I think that's when I became the mom for the weekend haha. We got back and announced we brought them food; they were elated. We ate our food on the floor in Hannah's and my room - the "dining room" - and left for the beach around noon. The beach was beautiful, right on the edge of the city with chilly but clear blue water. After two hours or so of beach shenanigans and wishing we had brought more than three towels for the nine of us (we meet up with other chicos from our group), we got lunch and explored the town a little before returning to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner, the half of us that liked seafood decided to find a restaurant on the water and splurge a little. I'm almost completely certain our dinner was caught less than an hour before it was served because I have never had such fresh, delicious seafood in my life. San Sebastián is known for its gastronomical delights; I can now vouch for that too. After dinner, we joined the rest of our group and the now eleven of us explored el Parte Viejo, the old part of town. It was a great night!
Day 18
On Saturday, it stayed in the 60s and was cloudy so we were grateful we had our perfect beach day on Friday. We decided to hike up one of the two hills that surrounds the crescent shaped beach at the center of San Sebastián. After about fifteen minutes of hiking, we were at the top of San Sebastián with a perfect view of the town, the beach and the Atlantic. We stayed for a little while then decided to head back down to get lunch before four chicos had to get back on the bus to go back to Madrid. After we ate and said hasta luego to the chicos, Hannah and I took a pass on our siesta and went shopping in downtown San Sebastián. All I needed was an H&M and I got what I needed! Now I have some cute Spanish clothes to wear back in the states, including one awesome pair of pants that I will have to control myself not to wear every day. For dinner on Saturday, we ate at a delicious Italian restaurant then had the best gelato of the trip so far. After dessert, we walked down to see the sunset on the nearly deserted beach, around 10:00-10:30. After taking in the gorgeous view, we were hungry again (not surprising) and decided to get some pinxtos, the Basque version of tapas. My favorite was sort of a Spanish "sushi": a small slice of bread with crab and salmon on top. So good. Soooooooooooooooo good. It's making me hungry right now! We were all pretty tired at this point so we went back to our little pension and called it a day.
Day 19
Today, Sunday, we slept in a little (for me that means 8:15 according to my internal clock) and we headed to the bus station around 11:00 to catch our 12:00 bus back to Madrid. We weren't so sad to leave because we're coming right back to the northern coast on Friday for our weekend in Santander, another beach town very close to San Sebastián. The weekend was a huge success, made even more enjoyable by the fact that we had to organize it on our own, find our own means of transportation and some form of shelter to stay in for the weekend. And we didn't have any problems at all! That's all I have to report on for our weekend! Now to start that homework...
Carrie
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