6/23: San Sebastian

Got up around 10:30 this morning since the church bells nearby had decided to go crazy and just chime out of tune renditions of nothing at useless intervals. We decided to go buy some fruit and go for a walk, so to that end we located a fruit stand and bought peaches and bananas. Went to the tourist office for a map and after some consultation we decided to walk up to the Sacred Heart statue on the top of Monte Urgull. To get there we walked along the ocean (far above the actual water, on a sidewalk, kind of like right above La Jolla Cove), which was absolutely gorgeous. The water here reminds me of Hawaii, or the Virgin Islands, with that deep azure in the distance the icy pale blue where it foams and froths at the rocks. It reminded me particularly of Hawaii because a lot of waves kept crashing and spraying on the rocks. The gentle waves of the Mediterranean this is not.

We walked up Monte Urgull, which turned out to be a rather rigorous uphill hike. The scenery was absolutely stunning, with great views of the sea, the small islands in the bay, and very green green green on the hill itself. The view from the top is really fantastic as well, and we sat and ate our fruit and looked around before heading down the other way so we could see new sights on our way down. Apparently we chose the long, hard way to go up the hill, because this was much shorter and less difficult, but oh well.

We were hungry, so we finished our seaside walk and got provisions for Spaghetti alla Cecci and went back to the hostel for home-made calimocho and home-cooked food. It´s so hard to cook and not be homesick, but at the same time it helps us not be homesick. It will be nice, however, to cook with our own stuff, like our knives and pots and pans and acres of counter space. Oh, how I miss you, counter space!

After lunch we walked around a bit and had ice cream again (for which I refuse to feel bad), and now we´re blogging and uploading pictures which is taking forrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So. Expect a pic update soon.