San Sebastian

Getting to the hostal wasn’t too bad, and Alyssa came down to let us in (because the reception closed early, being Christmas Eve). Much happy rejoicing and catching up ensued, while we made more pasta for dinner and I skyped my family at home. After, we opened the Honey Rum I brought from Granada for just that purpose. We got two shots in began were skyping friends from home when one of the workers knocked on our door (we were in a room for 4, but had it to ourselves). He wanted to know if Americans celebrate Christmas on the night of the 24th, or on the 25th. There was a group of Argentinians there that celebrate on the 24th, and were having an argument about American traditions. Upon spotting our alcohol, we were enthusiastically invited to share in the company and bring it along. So, we went out and shared shots of rum for shots of Baileys for a little before heading to bed around 1am.

Fri, Dec 25th: CHRISTMAS. I woke up at 9:30 to sunshine and birdsong. Took a shower (first present to myself) and ate some chocolate cereal while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. Lovely morning – not really anyone up or about besides us. By around 11 we went outside and were led to the top of the ocean-side cliffs by Alyssa (who had done this the day before) to "see Jesus." There is a giant statue of Jesus on a stone pedestal at the top of this cliff, overlooking the entire city. It was a BEAUTIFUL view from there, sunny and warm! I was in a light jacket and was warm after the climb. The only strange thing was that Jesus had a radio tower strapped to his back...

We walked down the other side as we tried to remember the order of The 12 Days of Christmas... and failed (although we looked it up later and had gotten pretty close). Saw the ocean and more of the city since we walked the opposite way than Alyssa had the day before. Swung back through the hostal to eat crackers and tuna for lunch, before heading back out to the beach. We wrote Merry Christmas and Feliz Navedad in the sand before continuing along the ENTIRE length of the beach. There were some cool rock formations that we climbed on about halfway around, but we went to the sculptures that were ‘fighting’ the one we had seen at the base of the cliff on the other side. Beautiful, but getting cold and time for our Skype dates, so we headed back. We were late enough that Amelia had to stop part way and call her family from a pay phone to make sure they knew she was coming (while doing this though, she dropped her phone card and if fell into the TINY crack between the metal counter-surface and the glass wall – disappearing in a freak-chance of an accident). Amelia skyped home, and then there was a little time before Alyssa had to, so I called home again, but nobody answered. So we started a game of cards until they called me back. Then more pasta for dinner (four days in a row now) before Alyssa called home. We finished the rum (sharing with 8 people the night before drained it pretty fast) and played Rummy for a few rounds until I won. :)

Sat, Dec 26th: Amelia and I had changed our plans to stay an extra day here so we could take a day trip to Bilbao. So we got up reasonably early to buy bus tickets at the station to the smaller city. However, that was made really difficult by the fact that there is NOT a bus station... there is a location the buses leave from, but you have to find the little hole-in-the-wall tienda that sells tickets, and each company is in a different one. Not only that, but frequently they only take cash! So we finally got tickets and got on a bus for the one hour trip. Got into Bilbao around 11:30, and took the tram directly to the Guggenheim Museum there. It was cold and wet, so we were hoping to spend as much time inside as possible... turns out we spent 6.5 HOURS in that museum, and saw EVERYTHING in it!! It was amazing – my favorite part was the building itself and the second floor, which was dedicated solely to Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the [first] Guggenheim Museum in New York. Amelia’s favorite part was Wright and the videos being played on the first floor, while Alyssa liked the steel structures we got to walk in on the first floor. The entire place was amazing though! We left just in time to catch a tram back to the bus station and get on our return bus at 7. Got back to San Sebastian and tried to buy our tickets for Barcelona the next day, but couldn’t (we couldn’t find the ALSA tienda, and then the guy working there was really rude and unhelpful). So we rushed to the market to buy food for MORE PASTA for dinner, along with food for the next travel day. Made dinner, and I was so hungry that I ate all of mine and half of Amelia’s plates... which made me feel very uncomfortable later, because it was a LOT of pasta on an essentially empty stomach. ;) It was after 10pm when we were done, so we pretty much just packed stuff up and got ready for bed (Alyssa’s bus to Madrid left at 9am the next morning, and we wanted to get up and say goodbye to her).

Sun, Dec 27th: Alyssa is always so quiet in the mornings, I don’t know how she does it. But we got up to give her hugs goodbye, and then she left and Amelia and I began getting ready. We still didn’t have tickets yet, so we wanted to try and buy them first, and then figure out what to do with ourselves. Got out by 10:30, and then bought tickets for an 11:30 bus with a two hour layover in Zaragoza (which is somewhere in the middle). Another long day of bus travel...