I woke up much later than I normally have this week; around ten o’clock. Normally we have classes, about three hours at Lacunza starting at 9:30 going to 11, then we have a break til 11:30 where me and a few of my friends will get coffee at a cafe right next to Lacunza, and then go back to class until 1. Today was on the weekend though, so I didn’t have to wake up and get ready by any particular time, and was able to catch up on some sleep I had missed throughout the week. I had sort of made it a habit to not get back to the hotel until really late every night because that’s just how the days went–wake up, go to class, get lunch, go to whatever activity was planned, go back to the hotel, and then go to the bars. That last part sounds like an absurd thing to do every day, but the bars in Basque country are very different from other places in the world, being that they are the main places to eat, and instead of drinking being the main focus they are based much more heavily on this. There’s also a huge emphasis on the social aspect at these bars, and even though I wouldn’t say I’m the most talkative person, I still end up chatting with a bunch of strangers every night.

Anyways, after waking up late, my friend and I went out to get something to eat that was close to Lacunza and we ended up going to a Japanese place that I can’t remember the name of. On a side note, it really surprises me how many Japanese restaurants are in San Sebastian, way more than I thought there was going to be. At the restaurant, we tried to read and failed to read the menu because it was as if we were trying to translate Japanese and Spanish at the same time which we weren’t too great at. Luckily we were seated at the bar next to a woman from the area who explained some of the items, gave recommendations and even offered us some of the food she wasn’t going to finish. After going out for food twice a day for a week and meeting a ton of locals, I can definitely say stuff like this isn’t rare at all. The pre-trip readings showed the history and resilience of the Basque people, and the one or two shows I watched gave a snapshot of the place itself, but I really could never have gotten a feel for how hospitable and kind the people are as a whole. We try our best to speak in Spanish, and while I do know some, it is barely enough to order food and hold a conversation, so a lot of time we rely on the patience of the locals or the fact that most just speak English anyways. The food was great, which is the norm for here because it is considered one of the food capitals of the world, having the most Michelin stars per capita out of anywhere in the world.

After leaving the restaurant we met up with a few more of our friends at La Concha beach. We didn’t go in the water, but we did end up playing a bit of soccer and someone who was also visiting San Sebastian joined in. Something about being in the city might just make people more sociable; the slow paced life makes it feel as if there’s not a stress in the world. Even being here for just a week has almost made me fall in love with the lifestyle and city, there’s something about not being rushed in eating, walking, talking, or anything really, that makes you enjoy life that much more. 

After getting sunburnt at the beach, we went to Parte Vieja, which definitely has the best food in our opinion. Combined with that, it seems to have the most bars in a very close area, making it easy to go from one to the next. The reason we go from bar to bar, aside from just changing up the scenery and people, is that most places specialize in one type of pintxo or another, so we’d get a pintxo or two from a bar, a drink, and go on to the next. The night went on like this until we got back at about 12:30, which is pretty good all things considering.