DAY13 - Tuesday 29 June
Both snows only took a short one hour nap before leaving the hostel for San Sebastian. The bus left Barcelona at 7:30, and we arrived in San Sebastian at 1pm. The Basque country side proved to be beautiful with many hills, trees, wheat patches and tunnels which went through numerous rocky mountains. When we arrived in San Sebastian, we were greeted by a day long wage reduction strike. The strike was peaceful; however, 70% of the businesses were closed, so we had to go on a quest for food upon checking in to the hostel. Old part of town was completely shut down – even McDonald's was closed! So we headed down south towards the Romantic New town, and the Playa de la Concha. We fortunately came across an open tavern that served affordable pork loin bocadillos for 4 euro each. We walked into the bar, and the first thing we were told was that we had to wait for our food for about 8 minutes because they were out of bread and his son was out trying to find more. As we waited, the owner gave us a free tapa de patatas allijo (fried potatoes with garlic olive oil), a type of basque pintxo. He made sure to explain how to eat them: sprinkle some paprika and eat with toothpicks. I guess we looked like newbies in the area. Eventually, the bocadillos came our way, and it was AMAZING! Tons of swiss cheese with tasty tenderloin in french bread :) When it was time to pay, a snow handed over 10 euros, and was given back 5 euros in change...? The owner cut our bill in half just because he felt like it!! We got lucky :D
Then, we were ready for the beach! We lied out on the beach for about 2hrs and touched the Dover waters, which was surprisingly warmer than the Mediterranean water! We went back to our hostel, named Roger's House, took a shower, and got ready to go look for dinner. We wandered around new town, and eventually settled at a pub called Krunch. One snow was excited about salad, and the other snow ordered a sarten de pollo (chicken grilled on a hot plate with curry sauce). Coffee was calling our names, so we proceeded to walk along the beach to the Cafe de la Concha for some Cafe con Leche and brownies for dessert. Pretty much the town was done for the night, so we went back to the hostel to get some good night's rest :)
It's the last day of June!!
After checking out of the hostel, our plans to drop the backpacks down in a locker was a complete fail... We tried the bus station and two different train stations, but all locations did not have lockers! (How strange is that??) Hence, we lunged our bags all the way back to the beach, and our packs joined us for a bath in the sun. On the way to the beach, we stopped at a market inside Centre San Martin where we bought freshly baked whole wheat french bread with nuts and grains, smoked salmon, and tasty havarti cheese. We made our sandwiches by the beach, and proceeded to lay out on the sand.
When we left the beach, we were able to see the true community of San Sebastian come to life after the strike day. People of the town were charming and helpful and there were so many families out and about. San Sebastian is a great, serene town that both the snows are ready to live in :P The great French influence also contributes to its charm, and especially to its pastries! (num num <>
San Sebastian turned out to be lovely and relaxing, and also left us with a yearning to one day return again. Now we are in the bus and making our way to our last stop, the LOVELY city of Madrid.
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