donostia (aka: san sebastian)

I'm going back to posting about the trip. There were a few random posts thrown in there (i.e. the cheer leading video), but I just need to get through the trip documentation for posterity sake. The last city we visited in Spain was San Sebastian or Donostia, as it's known by the Basque population.

Everyone speaks Spanish and Basque in the region. The schools even teach in both languages. Below is a written example of the Basque language. It looks similar to Russian to me, but....

Interesting fact: the Basque people have inhabited the area for an unknown period of time. It has been so long, in fact, that historians cannot trace their origin. They are at the origin. Fascinating.

Anyway, we were hoping for sunshine in San Sebastian, but no such luck. It rained most of the day, so instead of going to the beach, we slept in by accident (jet lag finally caught up with us), walked around town and hiked a hill.

I really liked this building. You just don't see architecture like this everyday.

Kent in the pouring rain.

The water-filled harbor.

We saw this statue above us at the harbor and decided to find our way up to it.

Why not? Who cares that we're drenched.

We made it to the statue after waiting around in the San Sebastian Aquarium's art museum while the rain slowed down a bit. It was time well-spent though. A teenage girl, who I think had a thing for Kent, told us all about the Basque culture and Asier Elcoroiribe Lerma, a San Sebastian artist. I actually wanted to buy this painting, but it wasn't for sale.

We found an old fortress at the top of the hill and tour guides who were more than happy to show us around the small informational museum. The thing I remember the most is that San Sebastian has burned down multiple times. So sad.

Here's a view of the city below.

A hike well-worth the exertion, not that it was that difficult, but we were so close to not doing it. I'm glad we did.

We ended the day walking from one bar to another, trying to find the best-looking/tasting tapas and found a great place in the pension (hostel) district. When we got home, it was about 10 o'clock at night and the sun was just setting. It was a beautiful way to end the Spain portion of our trip. And we will be visiting San Sebastian again, but it will be in August next time, when there isn't a chance of rain and the city is in full, beach resort mode.