The train ride to San Sebastián was the most ridiculous of all. From Bordeaux we went to Hayenne where we had one hour of waiting time, which wasn’t too bad as we were hungry and we could have nice baguettes close to the station. But the next train was a TGV to Irún which took 5 MIN. in total!!! Well, good that we needed to reserve seats there (1,50 €), otherwise we would actually have had to be standing next to the door....wait...oh right....that’s what we actually did. In Irún we had two more hours to wait, which we used for a quick stop at the Internet café to top up Tim’s phone and for our first Spanish beer which I ordered in Spanish – yeah! After Tim’s first language lesson, we got back on the train (after a security check with luggage scanning – thanks to terrorism) for another 15 minutes. Crossing borders is a difficult thing, especially when it comes to the Spanish/French border – we will make that experience later again.
In San Sebastian we were staying at Tim’s former work colleague Itziar, who was working until 8 pm so we use
d the time to reserve our trains to Madrid and Barcelona – another brave act of me, reserving the seats in Spanish. Tim’s first impression of Spain was that people are very loud, which I cannot deny. Equipped with a city map and some advise from the tourist office lady we walked to the BEACH. San Sebastian is not only small enough that you can easily cross is walking, but it is located on a beautiful bay, surrounded by two green mountains in between which you find two wide and long beaches and impressive rocks. It was so nice and we got a proper holiday feeling there – finally! Despite that, it wasn’t too touristic and not very expensive.
Itziar offered us her bedroom and moved for two nights to her sister’room. She was so nice and even gave us her keys so we could come and go whenever we wanted. Her cat Inuyasha was very curious about the two strangers and explored our backpacks carefully. We went into town at night, where we solved the mystery about the “Pinchos” that we read about in our travel “Bible”. Small snacks
spread all over the bar which people just take and the bar staff knows in the end how many you have to pay. In the harbour there was a festival for the fishermen with live music. We drank Kalimotxo (red wine with coke). For Tim the first time (didn’t like it) and for me a reminder of the good old Madrid times (just liked it because of the good memories). We continued along the beautiful beautiful beach promenade to an alternative, left-wing, socialist, basement bar which hosted an open mic night where Itziar’s step brother was playing. There was actually a guy with a Wacken Festival T-Shirt J. The world is too small. The people playing there were by the majority pretty good, although some things didn’t really fit (the guy singing some “yeahs” and “uuhs” in between the lyrics) and the small groupie-like girls clapping the wrong rhythm. Was great fun!
The next day we bought ice cream and went to the beach and along the sea until Itziar met us during her lun
ch break. She and Tim went swimming while I was working hard to make my pale skin look a bit brown. I did not really know in which direction to look, because everywhere there were topless women or naked old men, which were hard to avoid. So I decided to lean back and close my eyes. An option which Tim did not have when he was introduced to Itziar’s work colleagues on the way to the shower....all gorgeous and sexy women, TOPLESS, which he had to kiss on both cheeks :-D. He said he behaved very cool, although that was something we was neither used to nor prepared for. A situation which can actually happen in a beach city where people just spend there siesta on the beach. Another peculiar moment was when we went through the streets and a man with a surfboard and surf suit came running out of the house for his daily evening wave ride.
Afterwards we climbed the mountain with the giant Jesus and had an amazing view. Back down we had to admit that we were way to sunburned to continue walking in the sun and went back to the flat to write for the blog. In the evening we met some of Itziar’s friends for a drink and some more bocadillos. We also went to a square which hosted the concert of some speed metal band (very funny). San Sebastián is a very political city as there is the on-going discussion about the independence of the Basque Country, but this give it an interesting atmosphere. Very tired again, we went to bed early.
San Sebastián is definitely a place to go!
Franzi
In San Sebastian we were staying at Tim’s former work colleague Itziar, who was working until 8 pm so we use
d the time to reserve our trains to Madrid and Barcelona – another brave act of me, reserving the seats in Spanish. Tim’s first impression of Spain was that people are very loud, which I cannot deny. Equipped with a city map and some advise from the tourist office lady we walked to the BEACH. San Sebastian is not only small enough that you can easily cross is walking, but it is located on a beautiful bay, surrounded by two green mountains in between which you find two wide and long beaches and impressive rocks. It was so nice and we got a proper holiday feeling there – finally! Despite that, it wasn’t too touristic and not very expensive.Itziar offered us her bedroom and moved for two nights to her sister’room. She was so nice and even gave us her keys so we could come and go whenever we wanted. Her cat Inuyasha was very curious about the two strangers and explored our backpacks carefully. We went into town at night, where we solved the mystery about the “Pinchos” that we read about in our travel “Bible”. Small snacks
spread all over the bar which people just take and the bar staff knows in the end how many you have to pay. In the harbour there was a festival for the fishermen with live music. We drank Kalimotxo (red wine with coke). For Tim the first time (didn’t like it) and for me a reminder of the good old Madrid times (just liked it because of the good memories). We continued along the beautiful beautiful beach promenade to an alternative, left-wing, socialist, basement bar which hosted an open mic night where Itziar’s step brother was playing. There was actually a guy with a Wacken Festival T-Shirt J. The world is too small. The people playing there were by the majority pretty good, although some things didn’t really fit (the guy singing some “yeahs” and “uuhs” in between the lyrics) and the small groupie-like girls clapping the wrong rhythm. Was great fun!The next day we bought ice cream and went to the beach and along the sea until Itziar met us during her lun
ch break. She and Tim went swimming while I was working hard to make my pale skin look a bit brown. I did not really know in which direction to look, because everywhere there were topless women or naked old men, which were hard to avoid. So I decided to lean back and close my eyes. An option which Tim did not have when he was introduced to Itziar’s work colleagues on the way to the shower....all gorgeous and sexy women, TOPLESS, which he had to kiss on both cheeks :-D. He said he behaved very cool, although that was something we was neither used to nor prepared for. A situation which can actually happen in a beach city where people just spend there siesta on the beach. Another peculiar moment was when we went through the streets and a man with a surfboard and surf suit came running out of the house for his daily evening wave ride.
Afterwards we climbed the mountain with the giant Jesus and had an amazing view. Back down we had to admit that we were way to sunburned to continue walking in the sun and went back to the flat to write for the blog. In the evening we met some of Itziar’s friends for a drink and some more bocadillos. We also went to a square which hosted the concert of some speed metal band (very funny). San Sebastián is a very political city as there is the on-going discussion about the independence of the Basque Country, but this give it an interesting atmosphere. Very tired again, we went to bed early.San Sebastián is definitely a place to go!
Franzi
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