Donostia / San Sebastián

Everyone raves about San Sebastián, the city on the Atlantic in the Spanish Basque Country, where they speak a language that makes Catalan nothing. And they should all be right, Donostia is a pearl. However, because it's Semana grande (the Assumption of Mary), there were about 500,000 other people who wanted to vacation by the sea with endless parties. Here you can already see them bustling around one of the three bays, at half past eight in the evening, of course:

The city bathes me in travel happiness: In BlaBlaCar, I meet two sweet ladies with whom I spend two evenings, eating pintxos (which are tapas here) and catching up on my entire ice cream needs that I have neglected so far. Teresa and Lola love the city and are also my tour guides! The two of them are the perfect balance to my first strange Couchsurfer on the whole trip. Well, what can I say, Iñaki is not creepy or dangerous, but I think he has slight compulsions. So he shouts at me as soon as I enter his loft, asking me to take off my shoes before I could even ask. But even funnier was his description of how I should shower, I got a photo instruction for that - no joke. He monitors his cats, hopefully just his cats, with a camera and likes to turn the lights on or off from a distance (when he's not even at home). Well, let's leave it at that. But the next day, Ramunxto welcomes me, and he and his two roommates make my time here pure pleasure. During the day, I go on "athletic" excursions and enjoy the sea, and in the evening, the whole flat is out on the "street", partying.

I already start sweating quite a bit here, which is certainly not only due to the humidity. The sharp leaves on the remote coastal paths know how to defend themselves.

During my sporty bike ride to the highest mountain here on the coast, which by the way is finally lush green again, I must have made a miserable impression. The bike was way too big and squeaky, and I struggled up the hill when Antonio (76) catches up with me and comments on my legs: You can already see that I don't ride a bike... thank you, that hit home. :D But of course, he didn't mean it that way and is delighted to accompany me to the summit to tell me about his life as a retiree. I could have also stayed in one of his two houses, but I'm quite happy with Ramunxto.

How quickly time passes here. After almost 5 days, it's time to go back to France. I'm already dreading having to speak French again. But maybe the break did me good. 

So what do I take away from Spain? Since I have crossed so many different regions and especially met such different types of people, the impressions are also very specific to the place and the person. But what almost everyone has in common is their closeness to each other. I often notice how close people get to me, even though they never mean it intrusively, it's just the way Spaniards (and French people) are. And what particularly touched me is the affection and familiarity among friends here. It's as if they are all one big family.