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Published: March 11th 2011
Hey everyone sorry it has been so LONG! I have been a busy and a bit preoccupied so this blog is going to cover a few weeks. Rather than bore you with the repetitively tedious days of work and tutoring I will focus solely on my weekends which brought so many new experiences.
The weekend of the 25th to the 27th I woke up bright and early to catch the 6 hour bus ride to San Sebastian Donostia. Upon arriving in San Sebastian the sun was shining and it was so beautiful. I headed to the tourist center to grab a map of the city and sign up for a tour the following day. Afterwards I headed to my hostel where I was greeted by a very typical Spanish man who ran the hostel. He spoke no English but I understand everything 😊. After storing my stuff in the locker I headed out to explore part of the city. The first place I headed was the beach. I spent a while walking along the shore; it was so relaxing. I continued down the board walk and headed up the hill to the old fortress on the top. After hiking through
the path, the numerous stairs and constant turns I was rewarded with a stunning view of the entire city. It was such a clear day and I could see for miles across the land. It was an amazing sight and I decided to have a picnic overlooking the ocean. It was such a peaceful place. After lunch I headed toward the fortress, which also consisted of a giant Christ overlooking the city, and heading into the museum. The museum explained more about the city and housed many artifacts from the battles that had occurred there over the years. Upon leaving the fortress and heading back down the hill and I continued walking through town taking pictures of numerous places before heading to a pintxo’s bar. This is kind of similar to Tapas but with such variety and is absolutely the best food I have found in Spain yet. The Basque country is known for their food and now I know why. After dinner I headed back to the hostel to call it a night.
On Saturday I woke up bright and early to a very dark and unwelcoming sky. At least Friday had been beautiful 😊. I started off
my morning by walking along the beach; I have to do this as much as I can when I have the opportunity. It surprised me how many people were out swimming, kayaking and running on the beach in such cold weather. I guess they’re used to it. I walked the whole length of 2 of the 3 beaches in San Sebastian and ended at the fishing pier where numerous sculptures were stuck into the rocks. It was so interesting to see, and I actually understood numerous concepts behind the works (I guess I actually learned something in my sculpting class). I stayed and watched the fisherman for a while, they were constantly catching fish and just throwing them on the pier, would bait up again and continue fishing. After leaving the pier I headed back down the beach to some of the parks and headed up another hill to the old palace. It was more modern and house like than most of the palaces I have been to but included lots of history about it. After the palace I headed back into town and stopped off at the Cathedral in town. San Sebastian has two big religious buildings a basilica
and the cathedral. The honestly face each other on a long street, mocking each other. The cathedral was very simply but powerful. The outside was beautifully constructed but the alter was literally a cross; nothing else. I am so used to golden alters with numerous images of Jesus, Mary and angels. It was so interesting to have just one simply cross and yet it affected me more. After leaving the cathedral I headed to the information center for my tour. There were 10 of us on the tour and I was the only one whose first language was English so I let the tour guide speak in Spanish the whole time and I understood almost all of it 😊. It was a great feeling. Our tour took us through the history of the city and throughout the old part of town. I had been to most of the places we saw on the tour (the city isn’t very big), but it was interesting to learn more about the history and go into the basilica. The tour lasted about 2 hours. By the time we finished it was really starting to rain so I headed to a restaurant for dinner and
San Sebastian Donostia
Christ overlooking the citythen back to my hostel to try and warm up.
Sunday brought another day of rain. I packed all my stuff up and headed out to the beach. When I started walking on the beach there was a sun break and I was so happy, then the monsoon hit. I was drenched within 1 minute, just on one side, because it was raining sideways 😊. I couldn’t help but laugh. After leaving the beach I headed down to the port to go to the Naval Museum for my last sight of the city. The Naval Museum was interesting but not what I expected at all. I thought it would be about the Spanish navy…no. It was actually about the relations with the Philippians and pretty much talked about the history of the Philippians. I mean it was good information but it really should have been more about Spain in my opinion. After spending a while there I headed to another pintxo’s bar to grab some more food before picking up my bags from my hostel and getting on the bus back to Madrid. Even though the weather was not great for the entire trip I loved the city, and
would truly live here if I could(sorry mom).
The next week of work and tutoring went normal as always. Friday was supposed to be carnival at my school, unfortunately it decided to snow in El Molar so they postponed it until the next week. Sandy and I decided to meet up on Friday to run some errands around Madrid. I headed to her house and we relaxed a bit before heading out to the city. We started our day at “Taste of America” (an all American grocery store 😊) to buy some supplies for my apple pie making on Sunday. When it is your birthday you have to bring something for all the teachers to eat at school so I am making them a traditional apple pie. It was Sandy’s first time at this store and she was literally like a little kid in a candy store….no literally all she bought was candy 😉. After leaving the store we caught the metro to sol to try and find her a costume for our party on Saturday. We headed to a phone store to research a contract for Sandy, where I got to be the translator between her and an
employee, and then headed to a frozen yogurt shop. I wanted something to remind me of home and frozen yogurt with fruit was just the thing. It was another first for Sandy and she loved it. After leaving the yogurt shop we continued to wander around looking for a costume for sandy. We had a blast trying on wigs and goofing off in the shops. Finally Sandy found a shirt and sun glasses to be Janis Joplin. After getting her costume we called it a day and headed our separate ways.
Saturday was another great day. This weekend in Madrid was Carnival, so we were celebrating with a costume party at our friend Javier’s house. It was also the weekend before my birthday so we were celebrating that as well. We started our day with a long “dinner” at 1 that literally finished right before 6. Javier cooked an amazing meal and we had a blast trying to personify our costumes. Some of the costumes were great! Two Spanish guys dressed up as old Opera singers from Barcelona. They wore wigs, dresses (stuffed with pillows for padding 😊), and even make up. The Spanish really get into their costumes.
We had so much fun. After dinner more people came over including Laura and a few of her friends who were visiting from North Carolina. Finally around 11 we decided to leave Javi’s house and go get my favorite drink for my birthday, Caprioska fresa. The bar was super crowded but we hung out for a while visiting and having a great time. Soon after we all headed home, it had been a long day, but it was truly a great birthday party with numerous laughs.
Sunday was a very relaxing day. I slept in nice and late, finally getting up to make the apple pie and chatting with a few people online. Monday is my real birthday and carnival at school, this weekend is my trip to Amsterdam and I am looking forward to everything in this next week.
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Katie
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Hey thats really pretty, reminds me of Barcelona!!