SAN SEBASTIAN & GETARIA

Thank goodness our car came with a GPS otherwise we may never have reached our destination.

It was a 4+ hour drive from Vielha to San Sebastian, which again took us from Spain into France and around the northern part of the Pyrenees mountains.  We bypassed Biarritz, before turning south back into Spain and finally at the amazing San Sebastian.

The actual drive was a little hairy for me as I drove the whole way and averaged almost 125km/h, sometimes reaching 150km/h.  By the end of the trip I had the tightest forearms from gripping the steering wheel so hard!

We dropped the car off at the airport, caught a bus into Parte Vieja (old town) and then walked to our hostel, which although it was in a perfect position, it left a lot to be desired.  There was no common room, our room of three bunk beds was so small we had to keep our luggage on our bed and there were only two bathrooms to service around 20 people!

After getting over the shock of the shittyness of our hostel, which we were stuck in for the next five days, we hit the streets to gawk at the many pintxos (tapas) bars that line the streets.  It is said that San Sebastian's old town contains more bars per square metre than anywhere else on earth and the majority of these have bar tops weighed down under a mountain of pintxo excellence! 

After feasting on a few tasty treats, we kept walking for a while before finding a place that had paella.

The sangria was so good and refreshing, but the paella was only just ok, however we didn't care so much as we knew we were in for some great food over the coming days.

After dinner we had a few more sangria's and then took a walk along the promenade of La Concha beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in all of Europe.

The next morning we were up early and out the door in our running gear.  We ran all the way along La Concha and Ondarreta beaches before returning to Miramar Park which separates the two beaches.  This spot is a popular place for relaxation, however we chose it as a great spot to do a bit of crossfit - 100 squats, 100 pushups, 100 lunges and 100 situps - not a bad little 20 minute workout! 

Miramar Palace - it was built in 1889 as a summer residence for Queen Maria Christina of Spain

We then very slowly jogged home for showers.....if thats what you can call them.  They were so bloody small that I was scared that when I bent over to clean my feet, I was going to rear end myself on the tap!

We then went wandering for a coffee, and what better place to look than the Plaza de la Constitucion.  Each time we walked through this attractive arcaded square that was literally 50 metres from our hostel, we wondered what the numbered doors signified........I have since found out that the square used to be a bullring and on the balconies are numbers from the time when they were sold as spectators seats.
We never guessed that one, we just thought it was a hotel haha.

Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and the beach was no longer a viable option.  Well actually, it was still an option, but the severely overcast skies meant that our skin had no real chance of soaking up any solid rays.  Instead we decided to go to the city's excellent aquarium, situated right on the harbour front.

I hadn't been to an aquarium in so long that I was like a fat kid in a candy store, so excited.  We were tripped out by fancy fluoro jellyfish and feared for our lives as huge sharks stared down at us.

The highlights of the visits were clearly the cinema screen sized deep ocean and the long tunnel around which swam monsters of the sea.

I had to laugh when I read the name of this fish - a vegetarian piranha hahaha

a jar of whale sperm.......yummy!

Leaving the aquarium that afternoon, the clouds were still hanging over us, so there was only one thing to do.......hit the streets for sangria!

Amazingly, Gen and Chris who we bumped into at the Tour De France had also come to San Sebastian, so we caught up with them for a Saturday night on the town.  Gen's cousin Caitlin and her boyfriend trevor were also in San Seb, so we all met up at a bar in the old town and made a fairly decent night of it.

pintxos and sangria for dinner at Bar Egosari 

well into the night and we were still going strong

Sunday morning Anna and I woke with fairly severe hangovers (I think mine was a little worse!) feeling sorry for ourselves and craving only one thing......eggs and bacon.  We were hoping to find a bar that did some form of eggs pintxos, but instead came across a cafe that was offering eggs, bacon, freshly squeezed oj and coffee for 8 euro.....SOLD!

Afterwards we walked about 15min out of town to the train station to book tickets to Portugal a few days later, checked out a few of the shops and then hit the beach for some much needed relaxation and tanning!

La Concha beach at about 1pm, tide a fair way out

Fulfilling every idea of how a perfect city beach should be formed, 'Playa de la Concha' is an absolute gem of a beach.  Thousands of tanned and oiled bodies spread across the huge area of sand and the amount of breasts on show was mind boggling.  Seriously I have never seen anything like it, it's like bathers in San Sebastian are too expensive so they only bought the bottoms.  Half the time you wanted to look the other way as an 80+ year old came wandering past with her boobs dragging along the sand, but then there was the other half where there were some great sights to behold!  Even Anna was looking!

looking up at Monte Urgull from La Concha beach

La Concha beach at about 4-5pm, tide a fair way in.....such a contrast!

After a solid session at the beach, our hangovers had diminished in the salty waters of the Bay of Biscay and we were ready for an late afternoon bout of pintxos.

We spent an hour or so back at our hostel talking with our new friends Gabby and Sammy (from Brisbane - everyone in San Seb was from Australia!!) and then showered in the worlds worst showers before we all went out for drinks and dinner.

Taking a suggestion from Lonely Planet, we went to Bar Astelana, which from what we could tell by the pintxos draped across the bar, stood out as some of the best in the city.  Many of them were a fusion  of Spanish and Asian inspirations, and the skewered prawns wrapped in fried rice noodles were beyond awesome.

ontop of the world - prawns, sangria and a pretty bloody good tan haha

However, as awesome as the prawns were, they had nothing on the mini dishes that you could order from the board.  The 'Solomillo a la Plancha' (sirloin steak and roasted vegetables) and 'Solomillo a la Pobre' (sirloin steak with caramelized onion, quail egg and mini fries) was OMG so good that writing this now two weeks later I am frothing at the mouth.....so good!

We had a few more drinks after dinner, but after a big one the night before, we decided to call it quits around 1am, which is actually really early in Spain haha.

The next morning we climbed Monte Urgull which was a reasonably easy 30 minute uphill walk from the old town. The hill, once a military defence point, is now topped by a 12 metre sculpture of Jesus which towers over the bay and can be seen by almost everywhere below.

Although I'm sure some people walk up the hill to admire the statue and say a prayer or do that silly thing where they touch their forehead and chest, most people, like us, climb the hill for the breathtaking views over the beaches of La Concha and Ondarreta and the Island of Santa Clara.

The sun was out in force, so we spent the rest of the day at the beach.
Playing cards, listening to music, reading books, staring at boobs and plenty of swimming were all on the cards as we lapped up our surrounds and thought about our loved ones back home in the Melbourne cold.

One of my favourite things about the San Sebastian beaches are the pontoons that they have bobbing in the water a short swim out from the shore (depending on the tide).  Diving boards and slides attract anyone that can be bothered swimming out there and amazingly we even ran into Anna's school friend Kate Summons who had been in San Seb for the last 3 days, but was unfortunately leaving that afternoon.  Again, such a small world!

attempting a backflip in readiness for the Olympics

didn't go so well

should stick to the slide, a perfect 10/10 entry

That evening we messaged Gen and Chris and told them about the fantastic food we had had the night before and suggested that we go there for the second night in a row.

The food was again so so so god and I was in such a good mood that I couldn't help myself but have a fair few sangria's haha.

Gen and Chris had to leave to catch a train to Lisbon, but the rest of us, including Lachie and Hannah (haha almost the same names) who we had met from our hostel, ended up at another bar and carved up the dance floor for a while.

The next morning I woke with a pretty horrible hangover.  By the time we left our hostel, breakfast was basically over, so we had some fruit from the nearby fruit shop, did some shopping and then again hit the beach for a few hours.

My face (particularly my eyes) was in serious sunburnt pain from the day before, so we called it quits after about 2-3 hours, headed back into the old town for some lunch, got changed and then commenced a nice walk around the beach, heading for Monte Igueldo.

Although it was almost 7pm, the sun was still blazing away, and the beach was still as packed as it had been all day.

Monte Urgull in the background

Thankfully, the further we walked around the beach, the more shade there was, until finally we reached the funicular railway which would carry us up to the summit of Monte Igueldo.

so many beaches in Europe tempting me with games of beach volleyball, I just want to get out there and play!

the funicular takes about 6-7mins to reach the top, with gives you enough time to sing 'funiculi funicular' a few times!

Once at the top, the views make you feel like a circling hawk staring over the vast panorama of the Bay of La Concha. The surrounding coastline and mountains add to the already amazing views to make it one of my most favourite spots in Europe so far!

Anna thinks she looks better in my new sunglasses than I do!

Isla de Santa Clara

The sun was making its way towards the horizon and we did not want to miss it from the beach, so we caught the funicular back down to the beach and made our way back around towards the old town.  The surf had picked up and some surfers had creatively found a spot up against the wall and were catching some decent waves. Pretty good considering the Bay of La Concha is not considered a surf beach!

The tide was making its way back in and the sun was almost down. You would think it would be around 8, maybe closer to 9pm, but amazingly the sun didn't set until 9:45pm!

We decided to give the tapas and paella a rest and went into the harbour area where there is a line of restaurants serving the catch of the day.  We had a great meal consisting of fish and salad, and it was a real bonus when they accidentally left the expensive 8 euro salad off the bill.
Whilst travelling, any sort of win such as this one needs to be accepted with open arms, so there was no way we were going to let them know about the omission.  We paid quickly and got out of there before they noticed!

We haven't had a lot of ice-cream lately because we had so much of it in Italy, however our meals were quite small and so there was still plenty of room left for a post dinner treat.  I splashed out and got the chocolate cone which was oh so good.

The following morning we happily said goodbye to our shithole of a hostel, but unhappily said goodbye to San Sebastian.  We didn't have far to travel though.....we hopped on a bus and after travelling 30 minutes west along the coast, we hopped out at our next destination, Getaria.

Our hotel was the red one in the background, in a perfect position

The attractive medieval fishing village of Getaria, although only 30 minutes away from cosmopolitan San Sebastian, is a much better place to get a feel for the coastal Basque culture.

The village tilts gently downhill to a small harbour and our hotel 'Itxas-Gain' was situated in the perfect position, right at the top.  Guida (me) was very happy to get back onside with a great booking after a not so great one in San Seb!  The old lady and her husband who ran the place were so nice and treated us like we were her children, even though they didn't speak a word of English.

Anna waving from our room

the main street, heading down towards the church of San Salvador and the harbour

After a horrible hour or so where the skies clouded over, by the early afternoon they had gone and the sky was back to a beautiful blue and the sun was back to its scorching best.  Getaria has two beaches, Malkorbe and Gaztetape, and we chose the latter because of its potential for surf.

Luckily there was some surf and I was able to entertain myself for a few hours in the sea whilst Anna sunbaked and read her book on the sand.  She visited me a few times, however the waves were actually quite large once you got out there and so she kept to the shallows.

We have made a bit of a pact that we will try and do some form of exercise in every town/city that we stay in. As we only had two nights in Getaria, we left the beach around 5pm, went home to put our running gear on and set off to sweat it out.

At the end of the harbour is a forested island known as 'El Raton' which means 'The Mouse' on account of its similarity of a mouse.  Whoever came up with this must have been pissed out of their brains because to us it just looked like a green hill haha.

the town of Getaria on the left and Gaztetape Beach on the right

It was a really hard run, about 2km straight uphill to reach the top, and after pausing to admire the views, we dropped to the ground for 15 minutes of pushups, situps, squats and lunges.

half way back down the hill we stopped to look back towards the popular surf town of Zarautz

We both collapsed on our bed that evening, but didn't last long as we were awoken by the couple in the next room fornicating at an insanely loud volume haha.  

That night we went down to the harbour where several restaurants were cooking up the fresh catch of the day on grills located outside on the street, it was a great spectacle.  They all looked pretty similar, so we picked one that looked reasonably priced and had a great meal of roasted king prawns.

Getaria's most famous son, the sailor Juan Sebastian Elcano.  His adventures culminated in him becoming the first man to sail around the world in 1522, after the captain of the ship Ferdinand Magellan, died halfway through the endeavour, being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines

The next day the sun was again out in full force and after some tasty pastries for breakfast, we caught a bus 3km east to the popular surf town of Zarautz.  It is a built up and fairly ugly place, but it has a wonderful long beach with supposedly some of the most consistent surfing conditions in all of Europe.

Spain's answer to Brighton's beach boxes

We looked around town so Anna could fuel her shopping desires and then hit the beach for the rest of the day.  I hired a surfboard for about 4 hours and spent the majority of this time in the water, trying to catch a wave or two.  Apart from being a little windy, the conditions were great and I managed to catch a few waves, but still spent most of the time paddling around looking like a retardo.

shopping and ice-cream, Anna is one happy camper

Arriving back at our hotel around 7;30pm, the rumblings and dark clouds coming from the mountains made it quite clear that there was a storm on the way.

view of Gaztetape Beach from the hotel terrace, not bad!

By the time we went out for dinner at around 9:30ish, the sky had turned a mysterious colour and all of the harbour-front restaurants were busily packing up chairs and umbrellas.  It was obvious that we were not going to get an outside table, so we chose a restaurant that had a great option for 23 euro each which included first and second course, desert and a bottle of wine.

The food was pretty good, service was impeccable and the lightening show that we were treated to from our window was out of this world!  It literally lasted for over an hour; crackling thunder, heavy rain and bright bolts lighting up the sky, it awesome to watch.

The next day it was as if the storm had never happened, the hot sun was back out, there was not a cloud in the sky and the streets were clean as a whistle.  This didn't phase us so much though because we had to catch a bus back to San Sebastian.

We were due to catch an overnight train to Portugal levying at 10:30 that night, so there wasn't a whole lot we could do that day.  We walked to the train station in San Seb at about 1:30pm, hoping to be able to leave our luggage there for the day whilst we went out to kill time, but it was not to be.  There was no place to leave your luggage securely and the pricks behind the counter would not hold our stuff for us, so we were stuck with it.

There was a hotel next door to the station so we tried to offer them money to keep our luggage until that night, but they wouldn't do it for us, so that was it. Luckily we were able to find a great cafe and settled in for a few hours to eat some food, use the internet and booked a number of hostels for the coming weeks.  Drake Street's finest, Angus Tandy and Jules Martin also called me absolutely shitfaced on their way home from another big night on the town, it was very funny.

Right next door to the cafe was a cinema playing English movies with Spanish subtitles, it couldn't have been anymore perfect.  We got tickets to the 4:30pm viewing of the new batman movie and thought it was awesome and a great way to kill off 3 hours!

The next 2 or so hours were some of the worst moments in my life.  It must have been something I had eaten earlier that day that made my stomach gurgle so badly that as soon as the movie finished, I was running to the toilet for a Harry Dunne from Dumb & Dumber episode.

I know exactly how he feels

Finally, after about 4 or 5 visits to a few different toilets around San Sebastian, my stomach settled down and I was safely able to eat again. I don't know what happened, but that has never happened to me before that badly and my god I hope it never ever happens again!

avocado and vegemtie rolls for dinner at about 10pm, just before we hopped on a train to Lisbon in portugal