Viva Espana!

So my fall break began with a 4:30am bus ride from Florence to Pisa, a severely delayed flight from Pisa to Madrid, and a five and a half hour bus ride from Madrid to San Sebastian to visit two friends studying engineering abroad for the year! I finally got to Spain around 10pm, but the long trek was 100% worth it! If you're not familiar with San Sebastian its a beautiful city right on the beach with incredible food and a language I can actually understand! My taxi driver told me my Spanish was really good and considering I spent most of the conversation nodding, smiling, and wondering what Jose was actually saying, I'll take it! The first night they took me to this incredible restaurant that their Spanish roommate took us to, and although I can't tell you what the restaurant was called I can tell you I ate cow stomach and anchovies! Impressed?! This picture is super blurry, but it's clear enough to see I had an amazing time!

We ended the night grabbing a drink a bar and headed back to their apartment after the longest travel day ever! The following day I got to experience San Sebastian in the daylight and we spent the day hiking to the top of Monte Urgull to visit Jesus (a huge statue overlooking the city)!

And here's some absolutely amazing pictures of the coast, that really don't do it any justice!

After we saw some more of San Sebastian we stopped for Pintxos the San Sebastian version of tapas and a beer which was awesome because I haven't had a beer in forever in day! We had some amazing traditional Spanish food including tortilla (Spanish omelette) and croquetas (kind of like a rice ball, but all kinds of amazing!).  We headed back to their apartment for a siesta and then went grocery shopping for dinner. The friends I visited live with a student from Spain who cooked us an amazing Spanish meal, beef in this incredible cream sauce with a beautiful salad with onions, goat cheese, and a balsamic glaze, yum! We finished the night at a nightclub right on the beach, that we stayed to until around 5:30am, which is totally normal for Spain, no complaints! The following day we slept super late and spent the day walking along the beach and more pintxos of course! Here's some pictures of the beach which was about a five minute walk from their apartment!

After spending the afternoon on the beach we headed to Hotel Monte Igueldo, located on top of a hill overlooking San Sebastian. Not only did this hotel offer amazing views, but it also had a few small amusement park rides, which of course we had to try out!

After another incredible day in Spain we grabbed a quick bite to eat at 100 Montaditos, which offers 100 different types of small sandwiches and awesome Tinto De Verano (basically Red Sangria), which I will miss terribly! We called it an early night, because we had an early bus to Madrid in the morning, and a day exploring the city!