After running (well, speed-walking would probably be more accurate) frantically from the funicular to the bus station (we were trying to catch a bus that our new German and Finnish friends said was cheaper than the rest), we had our heading set for San Sebastián. Now, there's a little history here. I came pretty close to studying in San Sebastián for the entire semester with USAC, and the main thing that kept me from doing that was that the program ended near the same time that the Westmont orchestra tour would be ending, which wouldn't have really worked out. In fact, I talked so much about San Sebastián freshman year of college that Dsan dubbed it San Obsession :) All that being said, I'm really glad I ended up studying in Sevilla, because I would've frozen in San Sebastián. We weren't even there in the winter, and we were slowly turning into hielo.
Anyhow, here's us taking some of our first steps in San Sebastián. On the upper left is Tori with our German and Finnish friends. Right below that picture you can kind of see the Puente de María Cristina, which was modeled after the Alexander III bridge in Paris (the big ornate one with the tall golden monument pillar things on it - great description, I know).
A chilly beach. Swimming, anyone?
After getting settled in our hostel, we headed back out to walk around for the evening. Here are some scenes from the street.
In the last post, I talked about the guy we met up with in Bilbao that spoke a ridiculous number of languages. Well, one of his friends said the marina had some good places to eat, so we figured we could explore the area (we didn't end up find a place to eat there, as you'll see later). That top left picture of Tori and Michelle has got to be one of my favorites of the two of 'em from the whole trip.
Bike.
On either side of the main bay in San Sebastián, called La Concha, are big hills, perfect for defending the bay from mischievous pirates and for sightseeing. In the hopes of accomplishing either of those two activities, we trekked up the hill on the eastern side of the bay. You can see on the signs that there are two languages posted; the one on the top is Basque, and on the bottom is the Spanish translation. Basque is really interesting; linguisticians (I thought I was making that word up, but apparently it's real) say that Basque has no linguistic roots to any other language we know of.
As stated previously, it rains a lot here. Hence, verdant hillsides abound.
The view from the top.
We descended the opposite side of the hill down to the ocean. There was a guy playing trumpet to a background track blasting from his generator-powered amplifier. Cheesy, but at least it was jazz, and somewhat live (well, kind of). I wonder what his reaction would have been if I had accidentally tripped on the power chord from the generator to the amp in mid-song.
I think this is some kind of exposition center.
The next morning, we found a Dia (!) and bought breakfast to make at our hostel. To be more accurate, we actually found the Dia the night before when searching for a place to get dinner, but it was closed. Our plan B (or C or D, not sure what it was at that point) was a Chinese restaurant we found; it was pretty good, but when we asked for tap water, the lady brought over bottled water and charged us €1.50 for each. AHHH. What's the deal with Europe and serving free tap water?! Anyway, back to breakfast. It smelled up the whole room with the delicious aroma of fried bacon and toasted bread.
Oh, I should tell you about the hostel! It was called Olga's Place, and yep, you guessed it, Olga is Russian. I loved meeting Russians in Spain! It was like finding a tiny piece of home while thousands of miles away. The not-so-good aspect of the hostel was the British girls down the hall that came home drunk at 3 or 4 in the morning and decided to hang out in the lounge for an obscenely long time before finally going to sleep in their room.
After eating, we wanted to subir (y "bijar" - Tori y Michelle) the hill on the other side of the bay. This one was taller, so it had a funicular that you could take up to the top. We walked over there on the shore; it was SO windy and cold. We did see a guy swimming though. When he came out, we cheered for him, and he just gave us this look...not sure how to describe it, but I don't think he was very amused. Those cold Basque people...ha.
And then, for maybe about ten minutes, the sun poked through the clouds. We were so happy to see it. And just like that it disappeared. And started raining.
Before going up the funicular, we walked to what they call the wind combs. They were sculpted by Eduardo Chillida and are so heavy that they had to be brought over to their current locations by a train track built specifically for their transport. The brick floor that you see in the bottom left has these blow holes in it that propel a huge gust of air skyward when big enough waves strike the wall.
After leaving the sculptures, buying a baguette and coffee at a coffee shop, getting told we couldn't eat our baguette at the coffee shop if we wanted to eat it with the melocotón jam we brought with us (Europe, man, I'm telling you...), and eating our food instead in the funicular station, we were riding the funicular up to the top of the hill. Though it was cloudy, the views were gorgeous on either side. The views even made up for the poor taste of the commercialized hilltop (someone thought it'd be a good idea to build an attempt at a small theme park on the top). Then, we walked down the road for our descent (you had to pay again if you wanted to take the funicular back down).
I'll leave you with one last view of the bay before heading out. The island in the middle is actually a giant sleeping sea turtle. I had hoped to see it swim around before leaving, but we had no such luck.
Well, that's our visit to San Sebastián in a nutshell. Last part of our trip to the north (Santander) is coming up in the next post! Tsa luego!
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