Today was absolutely incredible! Since it is Saturday, we got a bit of a break from the academic portion of the trip and got to sleep in a bit, which was nice! After yet another hotel breakfast where I enjoyed some tortilla and fruit, we hopped on a bus to go to my most anticipated location of the trip: San Sebastian! Located just along the border of France (We could even see France from the coastline!), San Sebastian is a resort town known for it’s lovely beaches, and was even a destination spot for European royalty during the summer, as we learned from our tour guide Mangel. Once we arrived in the city, we got to explore around this amusement park area, which was super fun and had incredible views of the city. We then got toured around the streets of San Sebastian by Mangel and got our bearings of the city while taking in the breathtaking coastline, cobblestone streets, and beautiful old buildings. After the tour we were released for some free time, where we indulged in some pintxos, my favorite pintxo being anglerfish! Since the Basque country is well known for it’s cheesecake, we all got some afterwards (I got mango flavored, pictured below!) and it lived up to it’s reputation.
We then walked around and explored the city for a bit longer before heading back to the bus to head to a small beach town called Zumaia! We enjoyed some amazing karaoke for the whole ride by Cameron and Jonathan, who kept us very entertained with their singalong session on the way to the beach. Once we arrived at Zumaia, we walked throughout the village until we got to the beach, which had incredible views and rock formations! We got to do some walking on the beach and explore some small caves before heading back to drive back to Bilbao. While this bus ride was slightly less entertaining and involved a lot of power napping, it was still beautiful driving through the Basque countryside and throughout the mountains. Once we got back to the hotel, we all got gelato(because one dessert in a day is never enough in Spain), before having some relaxing time before dinner.
To our surprise, all 19 of us were able to be seated at a Mexican restaurant, which was absolutely delicious! It was very fun to all be able to hang out as a Plus3 group. Overall, it was an incredible day of seeing other parts of Spain and I am looking forward to what the rest of the trip has in store.
