The next campsite was in a small town called Zarautz (San Pelaio). There is a long clean beach which a group of us went down to for a swim once we arrived in the afternoon. Only a bit warmer than Cornwall! The sun was out and lying on the beach was very relaxing! The crew that were left (about 15 of us), headed into town for dinner and drinks. We found ourselves sitting in a cafe on the foreshore drinking a really strong but delicious sangria! After sunset we wandered along the beach, sat around an esky full of cold beers for a few hours and then headed back to camp.
Next morning we were up to enjoy breakfast, but not to serve, woo hoo! We did help out with the packing up of the campsite, but this didn’t take long, there was only about 60 tents and 15 crew. Once the tents were down a few of us went for a short hike up the cliffs to a view back over the beach. It was a really nice view and again, another bright sunny day! After our walk we had another swim and some lunch in town at a nice little pincho’s bar we had walked past the other day. After saying some more goodbyes to the remaining crew we jumped back on the train and headed to our hostel.
Our first morning in San Sebastian we were keen to get out an about and have a look around the town that so many people rave about. Our hostel is very basic, feels like its someones apartment with bunk beds throughout. The lounge room even sleeps 8 people, including Christine the first night as no rooms had two spare beds the first night! It is in a great location, just on the edge of the old town. We headed into the old town and found a square with a few café’s for some breakfast. The first thing you notice is that it is a lovely old town, with more great pincho’s, but once you order them you notice how much more expensive it is than the smaller Spanish villages. 
After breakfast we headed down to the port and then spent the day walking around the bay. The bay is very sheltered from the swell as there is a big island in the middle of the entrance to the bay. At the end of the beach are some wonderful sculptures. They are large pieces of rusted iron stuck into the side of the cliffs and rocks in the water. The cliffs are also quite impressive and the pavement has been done in such a way to create some blowholes with the waves crashing in under the pavement. 
We then took a cable car ride to the top of the hill (Monte Igueldo). On top of this hill is an amusement park for kids, but also some spectacular views of the bay and San Sebastian.
After a siesta back at the hostel it was time to get the party started, tonight was the final of the soccer world cup, Spain v Netherlands, which are 2 of the teams Damien has been supporting throughout the tournament. We strolled through the old town looking for a bar that wasn’t too busy as Christine wanted a seat, but quickly became apparent that this was not going to happen. She wasn’t feeling 100% so she decided to head back to the hostel.
The night was great fun, sadly no massive screen and the majority of the crowd were tourists, but the old town was jumping, every bar was jam packed. Most of the game I stood in the street, watching the game through the door way, partially because it was so hard to get inside, and partially once inside its so hot and smoky that you just want fresh air. It was also quicker and cheaper to buy beer at the convenient stores (a backpackers trick) rather than the bars!
Things I remember about the evening, Soccer, even at the highest level is a boring game, I was partying with a lot of French who had come across the border for the night, Aussies, other random tourists and people from the South of Spain. Some of the bars, I guess the real hardcore Basque people, weren’t even showing game. These bars were far quieter, so a good spot to run into to get something to eat. Eventually, someone scored, a Spanish player, Woo Hoo, and with not much time remaining the whole town was just going nuts for the remainder of the game. After a few more celebratory beverages Damien decided it was time to call it a night and find the hostel. Great in theory, but walking home I stumbled into about 10 of the crew from Pamplona. It would have been rude not to join them for a drink, it had been 2 days since I had seen some of them!
The next morning was a bit of a slow start! I woke up with an empty plastic beer cup beside my bed. The funny thing was, it was a 750ml cup, where the hell did this come from!?! Christine also told me when I got home I had gone to the kitchen in the hostel and found a group of Scandinavians looking for bread, apparently I was only too happy to oblige, getting our day old baguette and hoeing into some bread and nutella with them at some early hour of the morning!
After a morning siesta down by the port while Christine ran back to the hostel to get a jumper we walked out around the headland. There was another big iron sculpture, but not as cool as yesterdays. We then climbed up the hill to where the giant Jesus Statue sits at the top. There was a museum of the history of the town, some old fort ruins and great views.
After our walk and more pinchos for lunch we headed to the beach for a relax and a swim. It was very
nice chilling not doing anything and the swim refreshing, but it seemed the beach was very dirty. Lots of rubbish floating in the water, not the nicest of Spanish beaches we have seen. To extend our beach time we ended up buying some food at a market and then sitting on the beach eating a picnic and watching the sun set. That night we got talking to Nazareth in our hostel. She is living there over summer, but is normally from Madrid. She wants to learn English and seems to be at about the same level we are at with Spanish (somewhere between minimal and basic). It was nice talking to her and we ended up organizing to head to the beach together the next morning. 
We were up at a reasonable hour as it was our last day in San Sebastian and wanted to get in a swim before taking the bus in the mid afternoon. We packed and headed out for a quick breakfast before returning to the hostel to wake and collect Nazareth. We then spent a few hours sun baking, chatting ‘spanglish’ and swimming. It was really nice to be able to chat to someone who was just starting to speak English (many Spanish speak English quite well), and was happy to put up with our ‘baby spanish’.
Our bus took us back to Bilbao, where we first were 3 weeks ago. When we walked into the hostel we were staying at, we were amazed to see one of the passengers from Pamplona, who had then been in the same hostel as us in San Sebastian and now in Bilbao. She is also doing a blog, but focusing mainly on the food she eats rather than the places she has been, quite interesting, I will find the link and you should check it out! We just had a quiet night, feeding ourselves from the supermarket, although Damien did manage to drink a bottle of Spanish Red wine on his own, was quite nice!
Our last day in Spain the trip we didn’t have any plans, we had seen and done most of Bilbao when we were first here. Damien did want to buy some Hazelnut Schnapps that the PP Travel guys had been drinking, at 3 euro a bottle seemed like good value! Sadly we didn’t find any, not that we looked too hard!
We ended up taking the metro to Portugalete, about 30 min ride, on the advice of the girl at the hostel. This was a suburb of Bilbao, but at the mouth of a river. After a quick look around we were recommended Café Nautica for lunch. We had the 12 euro set menu, which was amazing. 3 courses and also included a bottle of water, red wine and coffee. The entrees were amazing, we both had fish for main and Christine chose both the desserts (that’s her thing!). The service was also good, the waitress didn’t speak English, but was still super helpful.
After lunch we crossed the river on a gondola type bridge thing, apparently there is only a couple like it in the world. Christine decided she wanted to walk across the top of the bridge so she did this to get a good view and cheap thrill. We wandered along the coast, saw some amazing properties we could easily live in, and had a sit on the beach, still full from the huge lunch! After a bit of a look around Algorta, the suburb we had ended up in we jumped back on the train and headed back to the hostel. A few beers and another bottle of that red wine and we called it a night, preparing for an early flight back to London in the morning.
Next morning we were up to enjoy breakfast, but not to serve, woo hoo! We did help out with the packing up of the campsite, but this didn’t take long, there was only about 60 tents and 15 crew. Once the tents were down a few of us went for a short hike up the cliffs to a view back over the beach. It was a really nice view and again, another bright sunny day! After our walk we had another swim and some lunch in town at a nice little pincho’s bar we had walked past the other day. After saying some more goodbyes to the remaining crew we jumped back on the train and headed to our hostel.
Our first morning in San Sebastian we were keen to get out an about and have a look around the town that so many people rave about. Our hostel is very basic, feels like its someones apartment with bunk beds throughout. The lounge room even sleeps 8 people, including Christine the first night as no rooms had two spare beds the first night! It is in a great location, just on the edge of the old town. We headed into the old town and found a square with a few café’s for some breakfast. The first thing you notice is that it is a lovely old town, with more great pincho’s, but once you order them you notice how much more expensive it is than the smaller Spanish villages. After breakfast we headed down to the port and then spent the day walking around the bay. The bay is very sheltered from the swell as there is a big island in the middle of the entrance to the bay. At the end of the beach are some wonderful sculptures. They are large pieces of rusted iron stuck into the side of the cliffs and rocks in the water. The cliffs are also quite impressive and the pavement has been done in such a way to create some blowholes with the waves crashing in under the pavement. We then took a cable car ride to the top of the hill (Monte Igueldo). On top of this hill is an amusement park for kids, but also some spectacular views of the bay and San Sebastian.
After a siesta back at the hostel it was time to get the party started, tonight was the final of the soccer world cup, Spain v Netherlands, which are 2 of the teams Damien has been supporting throughout the tournament. We strolled through the old town looking for a bar that wasn’t too busy as Christine wanted a seat, but quickly became apparent that this was not going to happen. She wasn’t feeling 100% so she decided to head back to the hostel.
The night was great fun, sadly no massive screen and the majority of the crowd were tourists, but the old town was jumping, every bar was jam packed. Most of the game I stood in the street, watching the game through the door way, partially because it was so hard to get inside, and partially once inside its so hot and smoky that you just want fresh air. It was also quicker and cheaper to buy beer at the convenient stores (a backpackers trick) rather than the bars!
Things I remember about the evening, Soccer, even at the highest level is a boring game, I was partying with a lot of French who had come across the border for the night, Aussies, other random tourists and people from the South of Spain. Some of the bars, I guess the real hardcore Basque people, weren’t even showing game. These bars were far quieter, so a good spot to run into to get something to eat. Eventually, someone scored, a Spanish player, Woo Hoo, and with not much time remaining the whole town was just going nuts for the remainder of the game. After a few more celebratory beverages Damien decided it was time to call it a night and find the hostel. Great in theory, but walking home I stumbled into about 10 of the crew from Pamplona. It would have been rude not to join them for a drink, it had been 2 days since I had seen some of them!
The next morning was a bit of a slow start! I woke up with an empty plastic beer cup beside my bed. The funny thing was, it was a 750ml cup, where the hell did this come from!?! Christine also told me when I got home I had gone to the kitchen in the hostel and found a group of Scandinavians looking for bread, apparently I was only too happy to oblige, getting our day old baguette and hoeing into some bread and nutella with them at some early hour of the morning!
After a morning siesta down by the port while Christine ran back to the hostel to get a jumper we walked out around the headland. There was another big iron sculpture, but not as cool as yesterdays. We then climbed up the hill to where the giant Jesus Statue sits at the top. There was a museum of the history of the town, some old fort ruins and great views.
After our walk and more pinchos for lunch we headed to the beach for a relax and a swim. It was very
nice chilling not doing anything and the swim refreshing, but it seemed the beach was very dirty. Lots of rubbish floating in the water, not the nicest of Spanish beaches we have seen. To extend our beach time we ended up buying some food at a market and then sitting on the beach eating a picnic and watching the sun set. That night we got talking to Nazareth in our hostel. She is living there over summer, but is normally from Madrid. She wants to learn English and seems to be at about the same level we are at with Spanish (somewhere between minimal and basic). It was nice talking to her and we ended up organizing to head to the beach together the next morning. 
We were up at a reasonable hour as it was our last day in San Sebastian and wanted to get in a swim before taking the bus in the mid afternoon. We packed and headed out for a quick breakfast before returning to the hostel to wake and collect Nazareth. We then spent a few hours sun baking, chatting ‘spanglish’ and swimming. It was really nice to be able to chat to someone who was just starting to speak English (many Spanish speak English quite well), and was happy to put up with our ‘baby spanish’.
Our bus took us back to Bilbao, where we first were 3 weeks ago. When we walked into the hostel we were staying at, we were amazed to see one of the passengers from Pamplona, who had then been in the same hostel as us in San Sebastian and now in Bilbao. She is also doing a blog, but focusing mainly on the food she eats rather than the places she has been, quite interesting, I will find the link and you should check it out! We just had a quiet night, feeding ourselves from the supermarket, although Damien did manage to drink a bottle of Spanish Red wine on his own, was quite nice!Our last day in Spain the trip we didn’t have any plans, we had seen and done most of Bilbao when we were first here. Damien did want to buy some Hazelnut Schnapps that the PP Travel guys had been drinking, at 3 euro a bottle seemed like good value! Sadly we didn’t find any, not that we looked too hard!
We ended up taking the metro to Portugalete, about 30 min ride, on the advice of the girl at the hostel. This was a suburb of Bilbao, but at the mouth of a river. After a quick look around we were recommended Café Nautica for lunch. We had the 12 euro set menu, which was amazing. 3 courses and also included a bottle of water, red wine and coffee. The entrees were amazing, we both had fish for main and Christine chose both the desserts (that’s her thing!). The service was also good, the waitress didn’t speak English, but was still super helpful.
After lunch we crossed the river on a gondola type bridge thing, apparently there is only a couple like it in the world. Christine decided she wanted to walk across the top of the bridge so she did this to get a good view and cheap thrill. We wandered along the coast, saw some amazing properties we could easily live in, and had a sit on the beach, still full from the huge lunch! After a bit of a look around Algorta, the suburb we had ended up in we jumped back on the train and headed back to the hostel. A few beers and another bottle of that red wine and we called it a night, preparing for an early flight back to London in the morning. 
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