The Basque Country

---

SAN SEBASTIAN Day 11

I woke up to the rain still pouring down but San Sebastian is beautiful even with the rain so I ventured out anyways. My roommates were a group of Japanese teens studying Spanish. The communication in the room was slightly entertaining with me trying to speak some Spanish and them trying to speak some English.

I headed out to the waterfront, Playa de la Concha and Playa de Ondarreta. People here seem to really enjoy active lifestyles. There were all kinds of people running, biking, walking, and even swimming. Lots of people were out at the beach with their dogs running around, which made me miss my fuzz balls back at home.

From the beach I headed up Monte Urgull, which has a statue of Christ at the very top. The walk up was a little tiring at times but well worth it when you see the view of the whole San Sebastian. While I was catching my breath and having a small snack at the top of the mountain, under the statue of Christ, I could hear some music coming from way below in the old quarter (Parte Vieja). I followed the music down and found a free concert taking place in the Constitution square. It was a fun, upbeat music and people were dancing around listening. After the concert ended I continued wandering around the old quarter looking at all the shops and pintxos bars.

A very unique and interesting part of San Sebastian culture is the pintxos bars. On the bar tops throughout San Sebastian you can find a selection of finger food and small sandwiches. All you do is go up take what you would like, eat it, and then tell the bartender when you leave how many you had and you pay for what you ate. Usually about 1 - 1.5Euro for each item but the finger food is by no means small. A lot of the food is made up of seafood.

I headed back to my hostel to get some sleep before I headed to Lisboa, Portugal the next day.

---