http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Spain , Basque Country , San Sebastian en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:36:13 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:36:13 UTC Mention the Basque country in northern Spain and many will think of ETA maybe bombs liberation movements and strange language. Fewer will think of the beautiful scenery the great food and the extremely friendly and hospitable people. A shame. But itrsquos not without reason the area is associated with violence. For years and decades groups from this region have fought for independence fro http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-347886.html 17th NovemberDrove from Villafranc to Olite today. We visited the castle. The king who built it back in 1402 wasnt interested in war but building his castle he wasnt that successful as a king but he has an awesome castle.Theres alot of rooms for the queen and the king but not many for anyone else. In a dark part of the grounds was an egg shaped thing and theywould put in ice there and stor http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-346902.html Dear Diary I havent written in you for a very long time and feel very bad for doing so. It has been such a whirlwind journey for me so far and have been finding it hard to sit down and actually write. At the moment I am sitting in a cibercafe internet cafe in San Sebastian in Spain. I am surrounded by a whole heap of guys playing quake or some other game maybe counterstrike. It is very nois http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-345325.html San Sebastian has the potential for having the most idealistically beautiful beach in Europe beyond what I could explain so check out the pictures....Furthermore the downtown has much to offer in the way of shopping tapas bars party scenes and charm that only a middle sized city could have.If it wasn't for the mediocre weather cloudy with highs in the 70s September we would have stayed for http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-334261.html We did as the locals do and had a nice long sleep in. The sun had come out so we decided wersquod spend the day at the beach. We gathered a day pack and hit the supermarket to buy supplies. We headed to the surf beach and set up camp. We threw fifteeny around went swimming read our books and generally just chilled out. We were all shocked to see old men using the beach as some sort of naked ca http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-328773.html My head was a little seedy in the morning and I was adamant I had heard 13 bells ring. I couldnrsquot believe I had slept until 1pm. Jez had thought the same but when we looked at our watches it was only 1030am. We realised later that they had some weird bell system. The weather outside was overcast and a light drizzle. I wasnrsquot going to let that stop me from hitting the beach. Jez begrud http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-328772.html We had another early wake up call but were more accustomed to it now. We made sure we had hardly unpacked anything the night before so we could make a beeline for the bus we could also make a quick escape if Terry and Sam started talking about guns again. It was quite cold due to the high altitude I guess. We watched a few films on the bus and stopped for lunch in Burgos. It is a very religiou http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-328770.html We arrived in San Sebastian the Basques countries most stylish city I loved it as soon as we arrived. We were surrounded by three beaches hot sun and all the gelarto we could get our hands on. We enjoyed walking around the town and got accoustomed with the Pintox bars so many choices of delousious food lined up in front of eyes. We soon got the hang of ordering and devoured as many as we could. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-327404.html Ya estoy en Damasco con ms de 40 con lo bien que estaba en Donosti ests son las fotos de mi ltimo bao en el Atlantico.Sama dndm burada hava ok sicak 40 memleketimde iki buuk hafta kaldim gnde birde yagmur yagadi havalar burdan daha ok serin ona ragmen her gn denize girdim iste son kere. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-314222.html after waving goodbye to the fabulous group of kids that we had in the third shift me and 4 of the other teachers jumped on a bus to san sebastian a 3 hour trip away to chill out by the beach.we stayed in a hostel called ocean view and it certainly had the most stunning view of the water after we had settled in we had a walk down the streets with an ice cream and obviously stopped off in a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-311318.html Cheryl and I made it through the long and relatively sleepless overnightertrain to San Sebastianbut let me tell you a little story about overnight train travel in Spain Getting down to the train platform first of all was like going through airport security with the XRays lineup to show tickets and the typical flight routine. Boarding the train you would think at first glance that it was http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-311186.html San SebastianToday was our play day in San Sebastian. No history lessons just sun sand and surf. The pictures tell the real story. This is more of a Spanish getaway destination rather than international although there is a film festival that has been compared to Cannes.San Sebastian is in the middle of Basque country which would explain the enormous amount of people basking in the sun. T http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-300723.html after pamplona we were all very happy to lie low for a few days. we had a rough start the the day as we were up early to catch the 7am bus but once we were all packed up and ready to go we got to reception to pick up our passports to find that the 24hr reception was no longer after calming down alex and a few hours we jumped in a cab and headed into town to pick up the hire car. after much disc http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-300218.html HI everyoneWe are sorry that it has taken soooo long for us to write another entry but we have been crazed Ok sooo here is the deal. Kyle an I finally made it to Bilbao to go to his friends wedding. The first night that we got in we met up with all of their old friends and had Punchos and beers at a tapas bar and just hung out all night. The next day the family of both the bride and http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-299972.html After the plaza de toros action and a small party with breakfast we headed out of town to the Basque Country coast of San Sebastian. This drive was even more beautiful than the previous one I would absolutely go back if anything just for the drive through the countryside. We arrived into San Sebastian and it was raining quite a bit. So we checked into a hostel and found a short nap waitin http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-299753.html Hi allFirst of all thanks to everyone for your comments. We are in Bruges at the moment and thought we had a spare hour or so to do the blog and we loved reading so many people's comments. Sorry to the LKS staff for the photos but you know you loved emSo we've had an exciting start to the trip really. Started in San Sebastian for four nights with Belle Foat where we intended to spend our da http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-299117.html alrighty then. soooooo i know ive been bad about the blog and i said that i would immediately let all of you know if i was alive after the run but i do have valid excuses.some people called me crazy for wanting to run with the bulls. well... you may want to classify me as legally insane because i ran with those puppies not once but twice san fermin is probably the coolest festival or thing ev http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-298285.html Arrived in Madrid after a delayed flight. We surprised ourselves and saved 30 euro by getting ourselves from the airport to the hostel. It was so hot when we arrived and soon found ourselves getting into the Spanish siesta routine. We stayed in a busabout hostel in the red light district of Gran Via it was not bad at all. On our first day we navigated with our map around the city and looked like http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-298090.html After scoring waist high waves in Mundaka Spain I headed back to Biarritz on June 12th in order to meet up with Dan Cooke and his two friends Mike and Harry. In London they bought a van for us to travel around in. Her name is Lucy a 93' toyota Lucidia turbo diesel for 900...she's been very good to us so far. We spent the night at the hostel in Biarritz catching up over a few drinks. Neve http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-293613.html 19.Juni TordagBarbo insisterte p at vi skulle smake p den tradisjonelle mat retten fr vi dro avgrde neste dag s det endte opp med han skrev opp det vi trengte s dro jeg og Andrebass kjpte det nr vi sto opp Seint vell og merkeselflgelig. Barbo kom hjem til lunch mekka det som skulle mekkes. Det ble en skikkelig digg frokost fr han viste oss noen bilder fra klatre turene sine og noe http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-289991.html Sorry I have fallen behind And I am running out of itnernet time as we speakI have been to san sebastian Barcelona Florence and now in Rome.. and tommorrow I will be flying out to athens.. I will write about my adventures soonMylis http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-288399.html Well friends tomorrow is the big day. Less than 24 hours from now I will be on my way starting my Spain adventure I have been home for almost two weeks now. Those weeks have been spent catching up with old friends spending time with family purchasing my first car A 2005 Silver Nissan Sentra Special Edition...for those of you who are curious. Woo hoo and of course...shopping my little hear http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-278038.html http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-275535.html James Leah and I had been waiting for ages to escape the Spanish heat by having a swim on the north coast at San Sebastian but as luck would have it it was the one overcast day We only had a few hours here so started off with some sightseeing. We randomly wandered into lsquoPlaza de la Constitucionrsquo where a local brass band was playing and people were dancing. Itrsquos so neat to co http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-262214.html Last weekend we went on a trip to the Basque Country. The weather was fabulous and we got to see both the countryside and the city. I would recommend visiting Northern Spain to anyone who makes it over here it is an entirely different part of the country. We flew into Bilbao on Friday morning and took a bus to San Sebastian. It was a lot of fun getting to see the country from the bus. It was http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-252075.html The trip to San Sebastian didnrsquot start off ideally. The safe containing the money for the trip was stolen from the international student office so we were asked to pay for our entry into the aquarium which initially was included in out signup fee. I could understand but at the same time I felt it was a little tacky.The bus ride over was a lovely trip through the French countryside back i http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-249683.html So after Sitges on Tuesday I got even more sick because I was out all night. So Wednesday I basically slept all day and had a nice day of rest. Thursday I went to my early morning econ class not feeling too good so I skipped the second one to come back and take a nap. Though before I took a nap Lauren and I went to our caf to have a chocolate croissant. That day in Spanish almost all t http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-245324.html So sorry for my bloglessness of late. We were without internet pronounced eenternet here for quite some time.On January 16 we moved into our flat. Flat without vitality or animation lifeless dull. Having lost its flavor sharpness or life stale. This hardly begins to describe what we moved in to. I will spare the details but one salient point is that we shared the flat with 10 ot http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/San-Sebastian/blog-241844.html