Crossing over the mountains into Basque Country, one encounters some spectacular scenery. Lush, rolling green hills intersect with jagged climbing limestone… with little towns and villas dotting the countryside like some sort of storybook illustration. It’s views like these that make me understand why people lug around extremely fancy cameras (Rod, you know I’m talking about you!). There was only one problem though: cloudy skies… mist… fog. Growing up in Hawaii I knew that green hills meant lots of rain, and it looked like we were going to be getting wet. Rainy days at the beach… Bummer! I suppose it was bound to happen. We have had pretty good weather so far on this trip, but we were due for some rain at some point. Oh well. We’d just have to make the most of it.
Day 1
It wasn’t quite raining yet when we arrived, so we decided to walk the beach while we could and check out the scenery. There are three city beaches in San Sebastián, but the main one is the most famous: La Concha. It’s called La Concha because quite literally it is shaped like a sea shell. The sand here was light and super fine and the waters were cold… but not too cold: Perfect for swimming on a sunny day. I was determined to go swimming here at some point even if it ended up raining on me.
The town itself seemed pretty lively and I suppose that was understandable. It’s right across the border from France, so there seemed to be a lot of French and British tourists around. Finding a place to eat was no problem, as there seemed to be good looking seafood places everywhere we turned. We settled on one that seemed to have decent prices and were treated to some the best seafood I have had in a while. The fish I had was superb (I think it was Hake), and the mussels that Ana ordered were savory with a touch of sweetness. I didn’t try the fish stew that Los ordered, but it looked really good as well.
We started chatting with the the waitress and found out that her family was originally from Portugal. This made for interesting conversation (in Portuguese) as Carlos’s parents are from the Azores and Ana was born in Brazil. She quickly gave us the lowdown on the party scene and sent us on our way to a bar called Tas Tas. Not Ta Ta’s (Breslin, get your mind out of the gutter), but Tas Tas. We got there and the place was packed, sporting 2 for 1 beer specials. Our waitress did us right!
Day 2
The next day we awoke only to discover that it was raining outside. No beach bumming today… Instead we decided to driver over to the next town called Donibane and do a little hiking along the coast. Supposedly one can hike all the way from France to San Sebastián: We wanted to pick a bit of that trail to get some exercise and see some cool vistas. The rain was very light here, almost misty, making for good cool weather hiking. We didn’t hike very far… a good thing as we stopped pretty often to admire the great views of the ocean and the coast.
Day 3
After another late night party binge, we finally made it out to the beach. The morning was a little bit rough for myself, but at least the sun had finally come out. I was ready for that swim I wanted, but for some reason no one was in the water. Was the water too cold now? I walked down and saw what the problem was: Jellyfish! I spent the better part of the afternoon debating whether to go in or not, and finally saw one or two people swimming. I went in and was fine. The jellyfish were in the water, but I wasn’t getting stung. My luck wouldn’t last though, as I got stung on the way out of the water… right on my throat. Ouch! Turns out vinegar is the way to neutralize stings, though Los kept offering to “help me out” by pissing on my neck. Thanks man.
Check out the pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/SanSebastian
… and here is San Sebastián on a map:
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