Saturday 1/28: Spain…Wet and Cold

I caught the train this morning around 9am and then Alison got on when it stopped in Bayonne. I hadn’t seen her in so long! It was nice to catch up during our hour ride down to the border town, Hendeye. When we arrived, we had a half an hour before the next shuttle train left to go into Spain, so we located a pâtisserie and got a snack: un jésuit (flaky pastry with cream inside and almonds on top…mmmm!). The train to San Sebastian, Spain only took about 40 minutes and it cost 1.60 euros.

Photo: Alison enjoys her snack

When we arrived in San Sebastian (or Sanse, as the people around here call it), it was raining, cold, and windy. Not exactly how I imagined it would be.

Photo: Beautiful, but very WET.

By about five minutes into our walk towards the hostel, my shoes and socks were already soaked and my feet were super cold. We had to stop and take shelter in a train station on the way because our umbrellas were being blown inside out and the rain was coming at us sideways… When there was finally a break, we headed back out to continue to the hostel. The town is surrounded by mountains and has a nice river that flows into the ocean. Beautiful!

Finally we located the hostel and discovered that it was just an apartment on the third floor of a building. We rang the appropriate buzzer and a Spanish guy came down to meet us. As we were trying to explain who we were (in terrible Spanish), an Australian guy showed up and introduced himself as Matt. He also worked at the hostel and he took us upstairs and showed us around the hostel. Everyone was really friendly and it seemed like all the different guests were hanging out together. Matt informed us that he was getting a big group together to go to a cider house about 20 minutes outside of town where they served a big dinner (two kinds of fish and enormous steaks) and hard cider that streamed out of huge barrels. It sounded tempting, except for the dinner being entirely meat and the fact that after the cider house, they were planning on going out to drink beers and play darts and then after that, dancing! We decided to pass on it because we knew that in Spain, people stay out most of the night… and I’m just starting to get over being sick.

We left all our stuff and headed out to explore Sanse. The beach nearby to our hostel was really nice and I imagine that during the summer it’s absolutely packed with people.

Photo: A teeny little bit of sun...

We had a little break from the rain and the sun came out long enough for us to think that it would be a good idea to hike up the hill that has a huge statue of Jesus on top. Unfortunately we had to stop halfway because it was raining so dang hard and we knew that the wind would just get stronger the closer we got to the top.

So, after standing under a tree for about 10 minutes, hoping that the rain would calm, we walked back down and ran for the church to take cover from the downpour…it was closed. So, we just kept walking in search of a certain tapas bar that Alison had went to the last time she was in Sanse.

Photo: Alison ordering at the tapas bar

Once we’d found it, our shoes, socks, and a good part of our pants were soaked. Mmm, lovely.

Luckily the food there was delicious! The tapas are just little appetizer things…we had tiny bowls of tomato risotto, a fried cheese ball, a fried pistachio (and cheese) ball…which was an interesting color green…and Alison got a seafood crêpe.

Photo: The risotto

Photo: The cheese and pistachio balls

We sat there, eating and drinking cider, trying to warm up a bit. When we noticed that it had stopped raining outside, we went back out to wander around. Unfortunately, our feet were still rather frozen.

We wandered for hours, looking at the beautiful buildings, stopping for a pastry (they are very different from French pastries), and watching some kids’ soccer leagues playing on the beach! I found that pretty amusing…why have soccer fields when you can just set up goals and play on the beach for free? Brilliant.

Photo: Beach soccer

Photo: A square in Sanse

When it started raining really hard again, we ducked into a café where Alison had a coffee and I just tried to thaw a bit. We chatted and made fun of the absurd songs that were playing (mostly in English).

Around 5:30pm, we went back to the hostel where I immediately took off my shoes and socks (unfortunately I hadn’t brought an extra pair of pants) and tried to thaw my feet. Brrr! I stayed curled up in bed while we chatted with an American guy who was in the bunk under me. He has been staying in the hostel for three weeks now and he’s looking for work (as a cook) in Sanse. We had a lively discussion about vegetarianism and the realities of factory farming in the US.

When everyone else left for their evening adventure, Alison and I decided to go out and find some dinner. My socks had dried, but my shoes were still, unfortunately, quite damp. Oh well, at least it wasn’t raining this evening!

It was great walking through town—everyone was out! Kids, parents, couples, old people, young people…the city was very much alive! Quite unlike Tyrosse… Well, it is much much bigger and in Spain people tend to eat dinner around 10-11pm, so it was pretty normal for a Saturday night. We decided to try a Mexican restaurant that we had found earlier. Well, it wasn’t exactly Mexican. They did try, and the food was good, it just wasn’t Mexican. I got a bunch of side orders (beans, rice, tortilla, & guacamole) and the beans were more like baked beans (white beans that were somewhat sweet), the rice was not Mexican, the guacamole had no spice at all (and was a bit sweet), and I suppose the tortilla was pretty normal. I was kinda disappointed because I had hoped to finally have a Mexican meal! It’s been soooo long! (Well, I have made myself burritos a few times, but the tortillas at the store are really odd…)

On the way home it started raining (of course), so my shoes are now quite wet again…