Eventually, in the early hours of this morning, most of my drunken coach mates had reached their stop, and it was back down a very reasonable me, and two other people. The guy who speaks English was asleep now, so he wasn't babbling out into song every two minutes. This was my opportunity to get a little sleep before my stop. I found a comfortable position, and was able to stretch out a little more with less people in the room, and fell asleep.
I almost missed my stop because I'd fallen asleep too long, but I opened my eyes and read the name San Sebastian on the station we were stopped at. I leaped up, grabbed all my things, and threw myself out the door just as the train moved on. I'm not sure what would have happened if I'd slept through my stop, but nothing good would come of it, that's for sure. Still half asleep, I waddled around the station slowly prioritizing in my head as to what to do now. I looked for an information booth, but it was closed. Fortunately however, it had a map of the city pasted outside the window. I made use of it, studying it carefully, trying to memorize the layout of where I'd want to go. I looked up a couple hostels on my phone, but I couldn't find any of the streets and addresses on the map. I finally decided just to do what I had been doing: walk out into the city center, and look for a hostel there. I checked where exactly city center was, orientated myself with my compass, and then headed off across the river towards city center and the Ocean.
The streets were all but deserted here at about 7am, as I walked across the bridge into town. As I walked, I gazed around at the Architecture of the buildings and the layout of the city. It was indeed a beautiful place. I started thinking I should have planned to stay here longer, but I can't stay too long, because I've still got 4 more cities to get through before the end of the month. I came to the first hostel I saw, right down the street I was walking on, and rang the door bell. A ladies voice was heard over the intercom, and I said hello. "Yes?" She said in a thick accent. "Is there a room available for tonight?" She rambled off something in spanish I didn't understand. "What?" I said trying to be respectful. "All booked," and then she hung up the intercom. "Thank you..." I said to nobody as I walked away. I tried 3 more places along my walk through town; all the same story. However, this is to be expected just walking up the day of. I kept walking, determined to find a place to stay for a night, and I finally made it to the beach where a long row of hotels stretched across the boardwalk. Most of them were all 4 or 5 stars, but I was sure there must be a couple 2 or 3 stars shoved in the back there. As I wandered past the line of Fancy 5 stars, just behind them I saw a 2 star and two 3 stars. I tried the 2 star, which was a hostel with dorms. The man at the front desk said there might be some available beds but he wasn't sure; checkout was at 9. What he wanted for a crappy bed in a dorm room was also way more than I was willing to spend for something like that, so I tried the first 3 star. They wanted twice what a room in a 3 star usually costs. I walked away, but then came back just a few minutes later having looked them up on Hostel world. Their entree there had them at less than half the quoted price, and so I walked back in to show the front desk. "I'm confused," I told him "This site says half of what you quoted me for a room. Is there anyway I might get that deal?" "He looked at it, and chuckled nervously. "That's no our price," he said. "Well that's what you have posted as your price." There was a lot of embarrassment in his posture, as if caught in a lie. "That's just not our price," he repeated, not knowing what to say. I felt like he was raising the price on me because he thought I'd just pay it, or maybe there was some other reason. Regardless, I could tell he wasn't giving me the full story. "Maybe someone should change what's posted here," I told him "someone might get confused." I nodded to him knowingly, and he nodded back. I didn't want to get on his case about it. I was just a little grumpy still, from the train ride. I just hate getting screwed over while you're sitting there watching it happen. In traveling, I've found that you mostly just have to accept that people are going to try to get more money out of you whenever they can. It's nothing to get overly upset about, it's just a matter of not being used to an area, and people capitalize on it.
I tried that last hotel, which was sitting right there next to the big 4 stars, looking a little out of place. I walked in and asked if they had a room for the night. They said they had one available and they quoted me a price which was just right around what I expected to be paying. "It's a small room, though," they told me. "That's perfect." I answered them with a smile. When I got up to the room, it was indeed small, but it wasn't at all the size that bothered me. I opened the window, and looked out into the elevator shaft. My little window didn't even lead outside. This allowed for basically no ventilation, and made the room stuffy and uncomfortable. Besides all that, I get to hear the sounds of the service elevator slide past my window every couple of minutes. But I didn't care so much once I finally had a bed to sleep in, and my own shower and toilet. Wasting no time, I crawled into bed and watched The Pink Panther on my colorless TV until I fell asleep.
I woke up a couple hours later, and decided I needed to get out and explore the city. Outside the streets were a great deal more exuberant than they were before. The sun shone through the clouds, but barely, and I could see some ominous storm clouds on the horizon. I walked first, back through where I'd walked to get here, getting a view of where I'd been in the light. I made my way along the walkway to the pier, and through the old city. I checked the map which the front desk had given me, and saw that there was a whole other part of town and a whole other beach on the opposite end of where I was from my hotel. I thought I should go check it out and see what's over there, so I began walking that direction.
San Sebastian is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen on this trip. It's beautiful yellow crescent beaches lay out around a bay with a tiny island in the center. Back in the 11th century it was just a tiny fishing village, and soon became an important military outpost. The city has so much history, and the old structures are all intermixed and blended with the new, so often times you feel like every step down certain roads are leading you further back in time. Walking through the old town is like walking through a scene of Pirates of the Caribbean. Bars and taverns riddle the streets, and are stuffed full of sailors and fishermen gathered around the bar. Looking off across the sea, Islands and cliffs raise up out of the water, colored green with vegetation. The sky (when it comes out) is as blue as the sea, and the sand is a white yellow color and soft as cotton.
I made it over the boardwalk to the little village I was trying to get to, and walked around for a while. I bought a fresh pastry from a bakery in a nearby street, and later had one of the best Eclairs I'd ever enjoyed. When I was tired from walking, I laid out on the sand and thought of what I wanted to do next. I walked around some of the Cathedrals seated there in the heart of the old town, and poked around in a couple bars retrieving the vibe of the city.
As I walked through the docks of the old town, I wandered into an aquarium at the sea's edge. This aquarium was unique because it was, itself just a huge fish tank where glass tunnels pasted throughout, which you could walk through. I spent a lot of time just walking through the tunnels in and amongst thousands of fish, and other sea creatures as they swam all around me.
Upon exiting the aquarium, I found climbing the stairs a little more difficult this time than had been before. My body felt sluggish, as if the pull of gravity had just increased a little. Inside my ribs, my pacemaker began to tick like a clock, pushing up my skin as it throbbed. It was a baby in my chest, kicking and pulling on the strings inside me. It was painful for a moment, but subsided, and left me feeling uncomfortably weak. I've felt this way in small variations for some time now. I think it started when I entered Spain. I wonder if it has to with the magnet in the compass I wear around my neck. I wouldn't think a magnet small enough for a compass would be strong enough to affect my pacemaker, but I took of the compass from around my neck and put it in my pocket just to see if it gets any better.
I walked back to the hotel, passing through the beach on the way, and asked the lady at the front desk where a good place to get seafood was. She listed off a couple places in the old city and showed me where they were on the map. I thanked her, and then went upstairs to my room for a nap and a shower.
That night, I walked into the old city to find dinner. I look for a bit, and finally found one of the restaurants I'd been shown. As I'd looked I noticed that it's actually a lot harder to find restaurants here than in most other places. It seems that most people don't eat at restaurants in Spain. There are bars all over the place, and you can order some food there, but it's not very good food at all. They have a couple restaurant type places built into, or near the large hotels, which are put there for tourists. However, I wouldn't consider that actual Spanish cuisine. This place I found tonight, was a tiny little restaurant buried in the basement of a bar. The menu was one page long and consisted of about 10 items. I ordered an appetizer (as is custom in Spain) and a main course. You're supposed to also order a dessert (Spanish meals are 3 courses, always), but to save some money I always only order 2 courses. I ordered a seafood soup for my appetizer, and then Spider Crab for the main course. It was all very good. I expected for the Spider Crab, that they'd bring out the legs, and you crack them open and eat the meat that way. That's how it's usually served back home. Here however, the just brought me the head, and had the top cracked off it, and just gave me a spoon and said, "Go get em." The look of it was a little unsavory, but it tasted quite good.
After dinner, I got some gelato from a nearby gelateria, and walked along the beach before bed.
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