better off alone [hondarribia & san sebastian, spain]

In the morning we took a bus up to Monte Igueldo, a mountain next to the beach. It was extremely windy and cold but had some amazing views up the coast. Being up there looking over it all made you feel as though you ruled the land... spectacular.

Back on the bus I slept heavily until we arrived in our next destination: a coastal village called Hondarribia. It was very resort-y, aka clean, bright, and generally wealthy. However, off-season there are very few tourists so we were able to mix with the locals a bit. Being carnaval, there were a lot of people outside of cafes and in the streets. There were the old men in their berets (or "txapelas" in Basque - also the name of one of my favorite restaurants in Barcelona that serves Basque food). There were children playing. There were songbirds singing. And I'm not exaggerating - I could have filmed a movie.

I took off on my own to the beach and walked around for some pretty views. Nothing too amazing, but very pretty and clean. Remarkably clean, actually. I started to get hungry as I headed back to the town so I ducked in to one of the many bars serving pintxos, their version of tapas, and ordered calamari and patatas bravas. It was the best calamari I have ever, will ever have in my life. Enormous, thick strips cooked absolutely to perfection with crispy, fresh breading - I was in heaven. I ate every last crumb and smiled with satisfaction...

Back in San Sebastian I was forced again to play tag-along because I really wanted to go into the old city for carnaval. Unfortunately, we ended up at an Irish pub because it was "where the locals go." (I'm sorry, isn't it an Irish pub??) I had a few tequila shots to numb my irritation and enjoyed the few locals who stopped by in costume. (The picture shown above is from my brief encounter with carnaval the night before.)