San Sebastian

Where do we start???

San Sebastian might be one of our favorite cities in Spain. The bus ride from Bilbao to San Sebastian only took about an hr and a half (and only 9.55 Euro) in a clean well maintained bus (this detail is for our mother's ease). Our hostel sort of deceived us in how long it would take from the bus station, and therefore we ended up taking a city bus after walking for about 20 mins along the river. However, once we got to the hostel, we were welcomed with open arms. Our hostel, Ocean View is literally 30 meters away from the beach! From the common room, you can see the beach and the consistant perfect surf. The hostel was an apartment on the 2nd floor that had 5 rooms and had a very cozy homey feeling to it - but that feeling was amplified by the unparalleled company. The place is owned and run by a man by the name of Sebastian (from Argentina), Gabby (the mother figure who is also from Argentina) and Naeski (dont know if I spelled his name right but he´s from San Sebastian). Right away we met some of the guys who live there on a long term basis because they are currently attending the uni in San Sebastian(SS). They were from from Italy, Germany, France, and Rhode Island (I suddenly have a desire to pursue a degree in engineering in SS...Mom, what do you think? =]) We really enjoyed our stay and they made us feel like family.

Ok so we guess we should talk alittle about what we did there. The weather wasn´t so great when we first arrived. It was raining on and off so we just walked around Centro, Parte Vieja, and all along La Concha beach. It is a pretty beautiful beach, not as big as I (Rachel) thought it would be but still nice. If only the weather was better we could have laid out. At night, I went with a couple of the other hostelers to get pinxtos. Michelle didn´t come along because she wasn´t feeling too well and it was probably better that she rested (Swine Flu). We went to this tapas bar called Gandarias.They had amazing pintxos. I had a pintxo with patete and shrimp and a lil bit of caviore and mayo. There was another one that had like a mixed crab or lobster with mayo and a piece of salmon on top. I also had the salted cod, and this delicious small piece of steak called solomillo. Of course it was paired with red wine (Side note: you can get a 1.5 liter bottle of Sangria at the supermarket for 1.09 Euro, that´s dirt cheap!) Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to round up other people to go down to the bar called On Darra on the corner to just hang out. It was also where Jennifer Logue, our new friend and soon to be famous indie artist was having a show on Tuesday night (this girl has some pipes!).

On our second day, the weather was a little iffy but we got up, went to the Lidl (supermarket) and bought some fruit and vegetables and gazpacho because we decided we needed to eat something besides bread and cheese. After we had lunch, we went to the beach and it was actually not that cold! It was nice just taking in the ocean breeze and relaxing (our student roommates would give us a play by play on the status of the weather "Oh we have about 30 mins then it will likely rain...they were always spot on!).

SS is also known for their International Film Festival. I'd like to say we planned it but we were lucky enough to experience the festival atmosphere - which takes over this tiny town. There were movies in Spanish, English, French, and German. Brad Pitt was there a couple of days before we got there for his movie Inglorious Basterds. We also heard that Dustin Hoffman was there too. Too bad we missed them! We tried to buy tickets to one of the movies that was playing- Los Secretos de sus Ojos but they were sold out =/. But, when we were deciding on what to watch, this lady came up to us and gave us a ticket for a movie she couldn't see anymore. So sweet of her! It was a movie about the chinese and japanese and what happened during the Rapings of Nanjing, but there was a guy in our hostel who wanted to see it far more than we did so we gave the ticket to him and he came back saying that it was depressing. I´m so glad we didn´t see it then!

So back the truck up, when we are on our way back to the hostel after trying to buy tickets, we are strolling along minding our own business and out of NO where this guy about 22 years old - walking to some phat beats playing on his ipod - who clearly had never seen an asian before, saw Rachel and I believe got SO curious he just had to reach out and ....POKE HER IN THE NECK. Really? C'mon. Who does that? A simple "hello" would suffice... geepers....

After we got over the sock of the poking (which someone should mention to that kid does not translate the same in real life as it does on facebook), we walked by the convenience store right below our hostel and caught the aroma of a chocolate croissants fresh out of the oven and we couldn´t resist, so naturally we bought one. Yummy!

We were able to do our laundry at the hostel for 5 Euros for washer and dryer and Gabby, being the sweetheart that she is, even folded all of our clothes (underwear included...). That night we went to this bar called Tas Tas and it was "popping" up in there. I, Rachel, was surprised how crowded it was on a Monday night and they had pretty decent music. We barhopped to a couple of other bars before heading back to the hostel for bed.

On our last day, we had to check out by 11-12 but left our luggage in one of the lockers until we had to leave. A bunch of us climbed up to Monte Urgull (a.k.a. The massive Jesus statue) and it was breathtaking. We sat along one of the walls of the castle and had a complete 180 view of SS! We hung out up there for about an hr just taking it all in....gorgeous! If the weather was a bit nicer we could have stayed up there all day. On our way back down we stopped at Bershka so Michelle could buy a very cool and trendy jacket and we had dinner at a burger joint. Yes, I know what are we doing eat burgers in SS? Sometimes you just crave one and it was fairly good! Mine was a hamburger with scrambled eggs, bacon, and mushrooms. Michelle had a hamburger with red peppers. We also bought gelato, toffee caramelo..YUM (Ok seriously, this was the best gelato in the world)! We went to see Jen´s show at around 830/9 and let us say that she is one talented girl! We were actually somewhat sad when we left the hostel for the bus station. However, we are going to Barcelona, another city another adventure.