San Sebastian, Spain: Oct. 24th & 25th

With hind sight being 20/20, we concluded that our time in San Sebastian was a vacation from traveling – just the thing we needed after more than one month on the road.

We arrived to San Sebastian with Colin and Rebecca after a four hour train ride filled with conversation, card games, drinking wine, snacking, and a few of the ‘can you eat four crackers in one minute’ challenges. Ben completed the cracker challenge, no problem…

The four of us shared a room in a great hostel in the heart of town. It is owned and operated by a gentleman from Dublin named David. The hostel has hardwood floors, full kitchen for guest use, clean bathrooms, tons of DVDs to watch, free internet, breakfast all day for free, all the tea and coffee you can drink, and the beach is 80m (250ft) from the front door. David’s place was one of the best hostels we have stayed at during our time in Europe, no doubt about it. Our first evening in town was spent walking through Parte Viejo (Old Town) and taking in the beach view. Old town was a mixture of retail shops and bars serving tapas, sangria, vino and beer. We stopped in for a happy hour and enjoyed a taste of the local culture – and sangria! To our surprise the night life was not very strong in this Basque town, so the rest of our evening was spent making burritos and soup in the kitchen and watching movies.

Wednesday morning was completely dedicated to a good sleep in. A big breakfast of eggs, cereal and toast fueled us for the day. Colin joined us for the hour walk up a nearby hill to see the city and surrounding area. On the way up it we saw tons of wild cats living in the woods. At the hill’s apex was a huge statue of Jesus that guided our way to the top. From the hill top we had a 360 degree view of the area: the massive Atlantic Ocean took up the north while San Sebastian and other towns were to the south. Our descent was quick and was followed by a stop at the market to grab supplies for dinner that evening. The four of us spent the evening relaxing, watching movies, eating, drinking and meeting other hostel-mates from around the world.

The following morning we said our ‘hasta luegos’ to Colin and Rebecca and it was next stop, Bilbao.

Salud!