viatge a Sant Sebastià 1 - trip to San Sebastián 1

This past weekend, I went with friends to San Sebastián , a coastal city in País Vasco (the Basque region of Spain). It was a great first trip and an amazing city to visit; the weather was nice, there were 3 beaches to cater to surfers and sunbathers alike, and it was quite cultural. Here's how it went down:

Thursday, September 10 (DAY 0) - We bought tickets for the 11.10pm bus on Thursday night, so we could arrive at a dreary 6.40am Friday morning in San Sebastián and have a full day ahead of us. Taking the bus from Barcelona to San Sebastián should have been extremely simple; we had already bought our round trip bus tickets with the company Vibasa and the Barcelona Nord bus station is practically next door to our residence (Residencia Onix). Vibasa had 3 buses leaving at the same time that would all stop in San Sebastián at some point; one was an express and the other two would finish in other cities. Now, a modern computer system should be able to recognize that some people are headed to San Sebastián, others to other cities, and seat them in the appropriate bus at the appropriate fare. But that night, something was amiss with the booking process, because some seat reservations were double booked (i.e. my roommate and another guy were both assigned Bus 2, Seat 5)!

The night got off to a good start when the bus drivers insisted on directing us to the wrong bus, until finally I realized that they were looking at the bus number on our return ticket instead of the outbound one. After shuffling between buses for 10ish minutes, we finally settled down in the right one. When more people boarded at Barcelona Sants station, though, there was a problem. Vibasa had 3 buses leaving at the same time that would all stop in San Sebastián at some point; one was an express and the other two would finish in other cities, and we were taking one of the non-express buses. Now, a modern computer system should be able to recognize that some people are headed to San Sebastián, others to other cities, and seat them in the appropriate bus at the appropriate fare. But that night, something was amiss with the booking process, because some seat reservations were double booked (i.e. my roommate and another guy were both assigned Bus 2, Seat 5)! So, some of our group had to switch to the other non-express bus to make things work.

After 7.5 hours in a cramped bus, we arrive in San Sebastián, still before sunrise. We gathered our group together in a park before moving on. The park was my first encounter with Euskara, the language of the Basques. As these signs show, it’s much more separated from Spanish than Catalan is:




The Wikipedia article on Euskara suggests that it’s not even of the Indo-European family, but the last pre-Indo-European language that is around in Western Europe, a linguistic isolate with no family members. The only reason for faint resemblance to Romance languages is because Euskara adopted a fair number of Romance words through contact with Latin, then Gascon, Spanish, and Aragonese (words like the Euskara “Parkea” for Spanish “Parque” and Euskara “Kalea” for Spanish “Calle”). Any reputable website one searches will agree that the true origins of Euskara are unknown; as an example, one can consult this page from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for Basque Studies. Signage tended to be in both Euskara and Spanish, and just like in Catalunya (with Catalan and Spanish), people spoke both languages. Some Catalans may aspire to have an independent Catalunya one day, but the Basques could be regarded as more fervent in their desires for independence, considering the existence of the terrorist group the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which translates to “Basque Homeland and Freedom”) and demonstrations of solidarity with other autonomy/independence movements like the one in Tibet (see photo in the post about Saturday). The clash of identities is even present in the town’s official name, “Donostia-San Sebastián” – “Donostia” is the Euskara name for the town and “San Sebastián” the Spanish one; residents are called donostiarras in both languages, NOT san sebastinos.

That morning we walked to our hostel, in the “Old Town” area, dropped off our bags since it was too early to check in, and walked around. San Sebastián has a lot of neat buildings, and even in the dreary cloudiness of that morning (the only extended cloudy period that weekend; the rest was all sun!) they looked pretty cool.



It also has 3 beaches - Ondaretta and La Concha for tanning/swimming/etc. and Zurriola for surfers. Trying to find a bite to eat, we headed over to the area by Zurriola beach, and found this exhibition of sculptures by Manolo Valdés that was sponsored by La Caixa:




Bored by the cloudiness and needing to kill 2 hours before check-in, the guys in our group went to see the Aquarium, recommended by www.sansebastianspain.info as one of the top ten things to do in San Sebastián. Entry was pricey (8 euros for students, 12 for adults), but the Aquarium was a jack-of-all-aquatic-trades: it included an extensive section on the naval history of San Sebastián; an aquarium with walk-through tunnel, tropical specimens, sharks, etc.; and an exhibition of mixed-media art by Alfred Bikondoa inspired by Paul Valéry’s poem “El Cementerio Marino”. The auditorium there is also one of the sites for the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the 57th edition of which runs from September 18-26 this year. The album below includes photos from all 3 sections of the Aquarium:



I continue describing this trip in the next post.