I left my heart in San Sebastian

Cailin, me, Laurel in front of Playa de la Concha

atop Mount Urgull

poor little guy...

This weekend, I fell in love... It's a pretty serious affair, we spent all weekend together and I never once got bored. In fact, as the days passed I found myself falling deeper and deeper in love! Oh mon amour, thy name is San Sebastian, Spain. Early Friday morning Laurel and Cailin and I lugged our backpacks stuffed with gummy candy, peanuts (because they didn't have peanut butter in the exotic food section of Auchan!!!! quelle horreur), and a tasty meat snack (dried sausage mmm) to Bordeaux St Jean train station. We took the TGV train to Hendaye, a cute little border town, and then the Eusko Tren from Hendaye to San Sebastian. What we quickly realized is that, even though it's only 2 hours from Bordeaux, San Sebastian might as well be a whooole different planet. It's located in the Basque region of northern Spain (Donostia is the Basque name for the city), which means that the culture and language is very specific (and very unlike Spanish and French). Plus, instead of the gray skies of Bordeaux, San Sebastian looks like a little cove of sunshine-y paradise, complete with sparkling blue water, golden sand, gorgeous views, and old beautiful boulevards. We made our way to the hostel easily (because SS is so small that you could probably walk across the whole city in a half hour), and were smitten to find that our fellow hostel-mates were a group of Europeans/Americans also studying at University of Bordeaux. Quelle chance! 

We spent our first day picnic-ing on Playa Zurriola, which is the surfing beach. Although we were a little optimistic in wearing bikinis and shorts (the weather was warmer than Bordeaux but it wasn't THAT much warmer...), we got a kick out of the old man sitting next to us who was completely nude except for his swimcap. After a stroll around the old city and dinner of tapas and sangria, we met our new hostel friends for a night out on the town. The next morning we awoke, still sandy and full of calamari, and met our friend Jason (another berkeley student studying in Bordeaux). We took a funicular up to Mount Igueldo where we saw an AMAZING view of the entire cove paradise that is San Seb. This place is seriously breathtaking! We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on La Playa de la Concha (the biggest of the 3 beaches) soaking up the sunshine and "profiter"-ing from the gorgeous weather. Our last day in San Sebastian started with being being waken up at 9 am by a strange horn parade in the streets. But we took advantage of the early start and set out to climb Mount Urgull on the other side of the city from Mount Igueldo and complete with a giant Jesus statue on top. Again, we were just blown away by the natural beauty of San Sebastian. It felt like all of the colors of the world were intensified: the water, the sand, the sky, the greenery, the clouds, just magical! We climbed down the mountain and decided to have our last meal of Seafood Paella, and I'll just say that if I had any vegetarian-bone left in my body it no longer exists... Something about ripping a crustacean apart with your bare hands just makes you feel like a bona-fide carnivore. We left San Sebastian sleepy, a little bit sunburnt (HOORAY), but 100 percent satisfied. This vacation was absolutely one to remember, and if anyone feels like going to Donostia anytime soon I would be more than happy to play tour guide :)