Andrew Pell: Spanish Sunshine

After 4 big days and nights in Pamplona at the San Fermin fiesta it was time to head for the coast for some more sun, beach and recovery time. Hello San Sebastian, a picturesque Spanish holiday town with some very nice beaches. So dumb (Isaac) and myself (dumber) arrived in San Sebastian on a Friday expecting to walk straight into a hostel.... Yeah what were we thinking!! There we were sitting in an internet cafe searching for any type of bed. No hostels, No hotels and probably not even a park bench spare! As we were about to book a bus out of the place to somewhere a bit less touristy some Irish lassies came to our rescue. They had discovered a 9 bed villa and needed 5 more to make up the numbers. Unbelievably lucky! So 4 Irish girls, 3 other legendary lads from Melbourne and dumb + dumber made the trek to discover that this villa was something else! A beautiful old home full of antiques, books and most importantly a balcony area :) We couldn't have asked for anything more and at 35 euro a night it was a steal! One condition.... No fiestas as the owners live next door!

Our first night feast on our balcony!

4 Irish + 5 Melbournites = a happy villa!

Spanish Cider needs to be poured from a height to create some fizz... Isaac was all over it.

Our 2 storey villa! God knows how we scored this place :)

Sleep, beach, sun, bocadillos (Spanish baguettes), more beach, siestas, paella, tapas, san miguel beers and Spanish cider was basically the run down of our stay in San Sebastian. Ooooh and I almost forgot!!! The WORLD CUP!! ESPANA! Funny enough San Sebastian locals are from Basque country and do not associate themselves with Spain....! So technically we weren't in Spain for the final. Anyhow we found ourselves a crowded little pub with Spanish holiday makers and enjoyed the tense final. Definetly not as crazy as the semi final in Pamplona but still a great atmosphere on the streets after the win.

Beach, beach and more beach.

The food in San Sebastian was some of the best food I have had in Europe. We discovered this Paella restaurant that served up a mean feed of the local seafood dish. Good enough for a second visit the following night! Tapas, Tapas, Tapas.... it makes so much sense... Stand at the bar with a drink or two and then have a munch on whatever takes your fancy. At 2 euro a pop it was easy to burn through a bit of money but definetly worth every cent. After all this food and alcohol, we decided that a run to the Jesus monument was what we deserved. Painful yes but the views over San Sebastian were stunning. After 5 nights here in the villa it was time to say goodbye and head inland to a city called Zaragoza which is halfway between Pamplona and Barcelona.

Time to burn off these Tapas and head for the Jesus monument.

San Sebastian surf beach

San Sebastian sheltered beach - awesome views at the end of our run up.

San Sebastian by night.

Why did we go to Zaragoza you may ask? Well.. First to escape all of the Australians in Pamplona and San Sebastian and secondly for a Xavier Rudd and Ben Harper gig. The venue was an outdoor amphitheatre which was perfect as the sun went down with temperature still hovering around 30 degrees. Xavier played an amazing set that the Spanish loved and then Ben came on and played a mega long set. He didn't finish til 1.30am which was a tad over the top but a good night overall.

Without having any expectiations of Zaragoza it gave us quite a suprise. It was such a cool city with some amazing architecture and some interesting new developments down by the river. 2 nights here was enough and it was time for some more Spanish beach.

Zaragoza main square

Dumb and Dumber pose for a photo with Zaragoza city in the background

I promise I didn't photoshop that moon in to this photo....

Crazy shades down by the riverside

I love this thing!! So cool.

Water feature in the main square of Zaragoza.

40 degrees! Waiting for the gig to start.

The amphitheatre with the river just behind the stage

Xavier Rudd

Ben Harper

Our next stop was back on the east coast of Spain in a little town south of Barcelona called Tarragona. The food here was nothing compared to San Sebastian but the beach was pretty damn nice. We spent most of our time here inbetween wandering through old town, siestas and eating! Tough life hey.. This town was a great little end to a busy 2 weeks of Spanish sunshine, siestas and sangria. I arrived back in Edinburgh, clearly looking alot darker than most (well pretty much all) of the locals ready to start living in this beautiful city as Isaac continues his trip across Europe.