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Published: December 14th 2008
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On top of the first mountain
A little dreary behind me but still a pretty town and beach. San Sebastian, the last trip of my trip to Spain, is on the north coast of Spain in the Spanish Basque Region where they too speak a different language (not Spanish) although I found that most of the people knew Spanish also. The only problem was reading the menus!
Friday
Left on a Friday afternoon on the longest bus ride ever - luckily I had an economics paper with which to entertain myself. We arrived in San Sebastian (the city all the Hollywood starts go to for movie awards in Europe!) around 11 at night and it started raining as soon as we stepped off the bus. We hailed a taxi (for the 5 minute ride) to our Pension, which was recommended to me by my host mom who had lived there for 3 years. The building was “antique” and even had an in-room shower (I didn’t take part in that!), but the owner was very kind especially after she learned that I knew Aurea. We went out for tapas that night and found a great tapas restaurant. The tapas experience in Pais Vasco is completely different from anywhere else in Spain. When you enter the bar, its already covered
with plates full of delicious-looking tapas; all you do is ask for a drink and a plate, then you choose the tapas you want and tell the waiter how many you ate when you’re done. The down side is that all the signs indicating the tapas’ names were written in euskadi (their language) so I almost never knew exactly what I was eating - but maybe its better that way since everything was delish!
Saturday
Woke up, walked along the marina and climbed the coastal mountain (very small) up to a little museum of San Sebastian History. The two men working that day were very enthusiastic about trying out their English which consisted of “hello” “come in” “free” and “good-bye!” We enjoyed the museum for a while and especially the view from the top (the museum was inside a fort) although the day was very dreary and bit rainy. We went back down, walked around the historic district for a while and found a place for lunch. Afterwards we walked along the board walk to see the huge waves crashing against the rocks of the harbor. Since it was rainy and cold, we decided to visit the Aquarium.
They had a 50 foot tunnel going through the fish, turtle, shark and sting ray tank that I could walk through. They even had a fish petting zoo - at least I think that’s what it was!
We did tapas, they actually call them “pintxos,” again for dinner then headed back to the hotel.
Sunday
Walked along the Playa de la Concha (Shell Beach) which is so named not because it has any shells, but because it’s in the shape of a shell. Believe it or not, there were people swimming - I stuck my feet in but was afraid I’d lose a toe to frostbite, so I decided not to swim. We took the funicular up to the top of the other mountain which had better views (especially since it was such a beautiful day) and a little theme park on top. A little boat ride took you around the top of the mountain so you could see the views, then we went through a little cave filled with card-board statues of Peter-Pan, Hercules and two topless Little Mermaids! I don’t think Disney would have approved.
We spent some time walking around at the top then took
Petting Zoo
I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a petting zoo, but since all the Spanish kids were reaching in to touch the fish, I did too! the funicular down and went for lunch at - you guessed it - a tapas bar.
Since half the group was leaving that afternoon, we went back to the Pension to check out since we were staying in a cheaper hostel for the night. Upon check out, the owner presented us with a lottery ticket for the largest lottery in Spain (drawing on Dec. 22 - keep your fingers crossed!) She even sent one home for Aurea.
Later that afternoon, we came across a Christmas fair selling holiday sweets from different regions of Spain. After sampling lots of good stuff, we headed to the movie theater and saw “Un gran dia para ellas” (A great day for the girls? Is there movie titled this in English?) which was cute. This movie theater had assigned seats and even people who took you right to your seat!
Monday
Had to get up really early in order to catch our bus at 7:40 (we didn’t taxi this time, but probably should have).
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