San Sebastian - Donostia

San Sebastian (Donostia)

View from of the city from Mount Igeldo with

Island of St Catalina and Mount Urgull in background

San Sebastian (population: 186,000) or Donostia in the Basque language is one of the most charming cities I’ve been to so far. I don’t think I have enough adjectives to describe how beautiful this city is and how much I liked it. I fell madly in love with it. It has such a good vibe to it, such a welcoming and enjoyable atmosphere. I felt very much at ease and enjoyed so much walking along its beaches, along its wide boulevards next to the water, the narrow streets on its old town and hiking one of its smaller mountains for some of the most spectacular views of the city and the Bay of Biscay. I arrived around noon on Friday, took a bus to the old part of town and walked to the hostel for which I had written down the address. They did not have any rooms available for the 2 nights I was staying there. I walked to another hostel nearby which did not have any rooms either. However the guy at this second hostel called another place for me which did have a room available for the 2 nights. I walked to the hostel and even though it was a little bit pricier than what I was planning on spending I felt so good when I walked in I decided to stay. The place is run by a young couple who themselves love to travel/backpack around the world so they really understand what your needs are when you are on this kind of trip. They were very helpful in providing me information as to what to and where to go while in the city. That first afternoon I spent it walking around the city center and around the old part of town. Even though the temperature was very nice (it was somewhere in the 60’s) it was very foggy and you could not really see much of the mountains.

A foggy afternoon - View from Mount Urgull

The following day I woke up early and headed to Mount Urgull. That was on Saturday and the weather could not have been better. The fog had cleared up and the temperature during the day reached somewhere around the 70’s. I did not have to be carrying my coat around and I even got a suntan on my face. As a matter of fact there were some people sunbathing on the beach. The hike to the top of Mount Urgull takes about 30 minutes. Once you get to the top you find a small park and the Mota Castle; a fortification with cannons all around, a big statue of Christ and some of the best views of the city. I made my descent from mount Urgell and walked along the beach boulevard all the way to the other side of the bay to visit mount Igeldo. During the walk I got hungry and had to stop to get lunch and a coffee to recharge my batteries. But before going to the top of the mountain I walked to the end of the beach were the sculpture called “The Comb of the Wind” is located. It was great and very peaceful and relaxing to sit by them and look at the waves crashing against them.

The Comb of the Wind

Afterwards I took the funicular to the top of mount Igeldo for even more spectacular views of the bay and the city. There is a small amusement park on top of mount Igeldo so the place was rather filled with families with small children who seemed to be having the time of their lives. As the sun began to set, it started to cool down so I decided to head back to the city and begin once again the almost one hour long journey.

View from Mount Igeldo - Old Town

San Sebastian at 7PM

San Sebastian at night

On the way back, it was the high tide time and there were a couple of surfers taking advantage of the waves that were being formed. Of course I had to stop and watch them for a little while. It was unbelievable how much people there were out in the old part of town once I got there sometime close to 8 o’clock. What called my attention is how many families were out on the streets walking, eating tapas and having a glass of wine or beer right outside many of the pintxo bars. And when I say families I mean the whole gang: kids, parents and both sets of grandparents. One thing is for sure: the people from San Sebastian really know how to enjoy their city and everything it has to offer. Another thing that really called my attention, or that I observed in San Sebastian (I’m an observer by nature and since I was by myself I had more time to observe these things) is that there were a lot of couples with twins, and a lot of couples with adopted kids. I have no clue about the statistics of these 2 items there but I’m telling you it is something that does stand out. My conclusion??? For some odd reason, which I’m still trying to figure out or trying to come up with a theory, couples in San Sebastian have a hard time conceiving and they undergo fertility treatments. In many cases these fertility treatments (and this is a proven fact) result in multiple pregnancies and hence the many couples with twins. And then there are the couples who do not become pregnant with these treatments and they end up adopting