San Sebastian- Basque Country (Region of Spain)
Our last stop in Spain was a chilled out beach town known as San Sebastian or to the locals Dona Stia! The drive into San Sebastian was a beautiful one, green hills, tunnels through mountain ranges, however cloudy overcast sky's and rain rain rain. We were heading to one of Spains most famous holiday destinations and one of the stops I looked forward to most and it was 16 degrees and raining, :S arghh this was not ideal. It seems as though as soon as September 1 hit, Summer was over and the heavens opened, and the temperature dropped 10 degrees !

As the bus approached the bayside of Dona Stia, I was already excited, regardless of the weather, I knew that I was going to love this place, it was so so different to some of our stops more recently, finally some wide open spaces, parks, Beaches, Surf shops, relaxed beachy culture and of course the SURF !!!!! YEW. Our hostel rooms had been flooded so Ryan and I were re located to an old ladies house in the main Pinxtos/ Bar street, we were on the 5th floor and had our own terrace, pretty cool place !

The day of arrival was the end of a rowing festival and wow these Basque people could party, they were everywhere and very roudy, all wearing their appropriate team colours and chanting their teams songs with Sidar pouring going on all over the place. The people of San Sebastian drink Sidar, Calamuchos (red wine and coke), and eat Pintxos which are much like Tapas however absolutely delicious. Some of my favourites included small portions such as Callilera which is cows cheek and croquettes which are potatoe filled crispy balls.

The first night we went on a Pintxos crawl, which allowed us to experience the culture and nightlife in San Sebastian, we satisfied our stomachs with delicious meals alongside calamuchos and sidar, the sidar was great fun to order as it is a local tradition that you have to challenge yourself and see how high you can pour it from the bottle ! Most the time the floor was covered with alcohol by the end of the attempt. We also hit up a bar and got drink specials and met more friends, 2 girls from Canberra I think. Most our time in San Sebastian was spent hanging out with Cam, Rob, Amanda and Tara, some great new friends we had mad and we were sad to leave them today !


The 2nd day still didn't bring sunshine, Ryan and I decided that our bodies looked as though we were in need of exercise, therefore we came up with the idea of a jogging tour ! ROSCO AND RYANS jogging tours of San Sebastian. We had a map with all the sites marked out, and fantastic look outs, so we took our cameras and hit the jogging trails. This was such a blast, mucking around along the way getting some very funny pictures, as well as appreciating the fact that this was the last time we would see a beach in Europe. We jogged for around 2 hours, covering most of the major points of attraction, as well as fine tuning our euro fat rigs haha

That afternoon, the sun peeped through the clouds, so while the others visited the aquarium, I had an urge to go for a surf ! The surf beach De Playa Zurricho was awesome, The waves were around 4-6 foot, I hired one of the best boards in the shop ZULU surf from right across the road. I chilled out, kicking back out the back and just took in the ocean air. How Relaxing ! This was my kind of place, a place where I could stay another month no worries. Don't worry Im on the bus as I type on the way to Tours in France, So I did leave haha.
In the evening Ryan and I hit up the Sidar house, this was a big warehouse, layed with picnic tables and large sidar barrels filled with 100s of litres of alcohol, it was a blast, they had pressure triggers attached to the barrels, so the fun and games that occurred while trying to fill our glasses with the group was insane.This also included a 5 course meal, all small portions of traditional local food, yum yum, when they bought our a piece of meat we were wrapped as we had not seen steak in quite a while. We met many new friends on this experience, Hayley and Melissa are two names that ring a bell, Hayley has offered for us to stay at her place in London when we go to the UK, she is working their and had her own place, so this is fantastic news.

Our last day was spent laying on the beach on34 degree day, with Rob, Cam, Amada and Tara, what a great day it was, chilling out on a pontoon that had a slide and a diving board, the swim out was a tester on all our fitness haha … or lack of fitness. Later Ryan and I went shopping, got a new small backpack each and I got new shoes after that last ones getting ruined in the tomatoe fight.

Anyway it was sad once again to leave an awesome city, however it has left us rejuvenated and refreshed for our next few stops being Tours in France, Switzerland and Italy with Alberto J xox Rosco