Europe Tour: Day 10

Fri. 09-07-07 -- San Sebastian, Spain
Originally published on: 10-05-07

This morning we had to get up at 5:30am so that we could catch our 7:15 train to San Sebastian. We checked our email, and we read that Jessie wasn't able to find two rooms for tonight. They booked one room for one night, so we had to look for a place once we got there. We hopped the metro to the train station, got our Eurail Pass validated, and boarded the train.

The train ride took about 6 hours which felt pretty long. However, since we left so early, we got to San Sebastian at 1:30pm. We read in a tour book that there were lockers in the San Sebastian train station, so our plan was to lock up our bags and then walk from hotel to hotel until we found a room. Well that plan didn't last long, because the lockers at the station were out of order! So, we had to lug our bags out of the station and down the street.

First thing I noticed about San Sebastian is that it was warmer than London and Paris. There was still a cool breeze, but there were less clouds and the sun felt nice and hot. The second thing I noticed was how pretty this little town is. The town is located on the northeast coast of Spain and there is a little river that runs through the middle of it. The buildings look old but nice and the whole town is nestled between beautiful green hills.

We walked along the river toward the coast, then crossed a bridge into the Parte Vieja. We stopped in at the tourist information office and I asked if they had a room finding service. The guy handed me a book full of hotel listings and told me my best bet is to go door to door until I find a room. We walked further into the Parte Vieja which is a car-less few blocks of town. The "roads" are narrow, and there are tons of bars and pensions on both sides of the street.

We rang on penion's doorbell and the guy said he had no rooms. We rang another door and no one answered. The third place we rang, Pension Aires, answered and showed us a simple room with 3 single beds for 60 euros. It seemed pretty expensive, but it was within our budget and I didn't feel like shopping around. So we took it. The place was only available for one night, so we'd have to find another place for the next night. The pension owner told me that he'd help me find a place tomorrow, so we were set.

With our room settled, we left our bags and searched out lunch. There were tons of tapas bars where you walk up to the bar and take whatever you like. We didn't really know the system though, so we didn't want to go in and do it wrong. So we searched around until we found a regular restaurant where we could sit down and order food. We eventually found a place that sold Mexican, Italian, and sandwiches/burgers so we grabbed a table. We both ordered burgers, I got one with a fried egg on it. The egg was over easy, so the egg gooed all over the burger and made it VERY yummy.

After lunch, we walked around the town for a while, walked down to the beach and sat down for a while then went to an internet cafe where we typed up some of our journal entries for our blogs. After a little while longer, it was time for Jeff and Jessie to arrive, so we walked to La Plaza de Constitucion and waited for them to show up. Hugs all around when we found them, and then we went looking for a tapas bar. Jessie knows Spanish, so we had a translator that could ask questions!

We found a busy bar and squeezed our way in. The bar had plates of many different appetizer-like things, most of which had seafood on them. We got some beers and started grabbing food that looked good. When we were ready to leave, we told the bartender how many tapas we ate and he gave us our bill. We left that bar and walked around until we found another place that looked good. We ordered more beers and the grabbing of tapas began again. The second place' food wasn't as good as the first, but the beers were bigger, so we hung out there for a while chatting about Jeff & Jessie's recent wedding, Maui, Barcelona, Paris, etc.

We decided to go back to the first place, but they were closing soon... but we did order this sparkling white wine that is popular in this region. I wasn't a fan, but then I'm not a wine fan, so I'm not one to judge. We stopped at an ice cream place and got some ice cream and then grabbed some chairs at an outdoor cafe in the Plaza de Constitucion for a final beer of the night. We planned to meet up at 11am the next morning and walked back to our room to go to sleep. The party on the street is still going strong, so it is quite loud in our room! However we have earplugs which should block out most of the sound.