Karissa's European Adventure: Final days in San Sebastian

Hey guys,

I woke up to Lorraine and I being the only ones left in our room because Connie had got on an early flight to the Greek Islands. Lorraine and I had breakfast and said our goodbyes as we had to check out by 9am. Lorraine was flying back to London and left pretty much straight away but I hung around to use the free Internet on the hostels laptops as I had time before checking into my next hostel with Chloe.

As I left the hostel I was hating life carrying around my huge backpack through the old town of San Sebastian searching for my next hostel 'Surf Backpackers'. I had no contact with Chloe as she was still in Pamplona and had no service or Internet so I went to the hostel and decided to hang out on the couch in the reception area until she arrived. The hostel seemed pretty casual and I got to see lots of people come and go and use the free wifi on my iphone as I ended up waiting for four hours before receiving a text from Chloe saying she was only just leaving Pamplona. I was so glad to finally receive a text so I knew where she was and decided to check in and after meeting some of the girls in the apartment style accomodation I took my book and decided to read it along the boardwalk whilst listening to waves crashing against the rocks, which was so peaceful!

Our apartment had around thirteen beds and it was actually over capacity that night as the hostel had stuffed up so there was one girl staying on the coach in the living room. The girls were really nice and I chatted with them until Chloe arrived. I remember being so happy when I heard Chloe's voice as I was so excited to finally have a travel partner. Chloe looked so exhausted and tired after camping for the past 5 days but she showered and we went to a really nice pintxos bar so she could try the amazing beef cheeks that I had been raving about. After our beautiful dinner we walked around the streets of San Sebastian and along the boardwalk before headeding back to our apartment to relax. Chloe had run with the bulls the night before so we watched lots of you tube clips that night on our phones whilst she was searching to see if anyone had posted videos of day three's bull run. I was also watching you tube clips on La Tomatina to see what I was in for in August as I was also attending this festival. I remember going to bed that night content to have someone I knew staying in the hostel with me and excited to be travelling with Chloe and exploring around Europe with her.

The following day I woke up to my surprise I was looking at the face of a man that hadn't been there the night before. The bunks in our room were so close that it felt like I was in bed with the guy that my roommate had picked up after her night out lol The girls that we were staying in the apartment with had gone out the night before and I walked out to the living room to find a couple of extra bodies the girls had picked up and it looked like a bomb had hit it! After the guys left I skyped my mum and dad which was so nice to hear their voices!When talking to my dad I always wonder if he is still on the other end of the phone call because I seem to do all of the talking as I try to fill him in on everything I've been up to on my travels.

After my Skype session Chloe and I decided to walk to the bus terminal and book our bus tickets to Madrid for the next day. When we got there we had no idea where to buy tickets and after asking another group of Aussies where we could get them from realised they had no idea either. It was lucky that a lady heard our conversation and told us where we could buy the tickets from which was lucky.We ended up getting our tickets after I spoke the little Spanish I knew for 33 Euro for a 6 hour bus ride which I though was really cheap. After we got our bus tickets we then went to an Internet cafe and booked our accommodation for Madrid at a place called 'Cat's Hostel' which we found on Hostelworld.

After we bought our tickets we walked back along the river into 'new town' San Sebastian and got photos near a beautiful cathedral and Chloe also did some shopping at Zara which had huge sales and amazing clothes. We sat next to a church that was the last thing left standing back in the days of a war involving Napoleon. The church still had charcoal/burn marks on the exterior from where they attempted to burn it down in the 'old town' hundreds of years ago which was pretty cool. We ate a huge chorizo and chicken pizza as well as carbonara pasta whilst sipping on a few glasses of wine and chatting which was really nice.

That day we also walked up a mountain to the Jesus statue which had an amazing view of San Seb but was a bit of a struggle as I was so unfit lol On the way back down the mountain we saw loads of children and families and could hear music being played which made us curious to find out what was going on. We asked one of the Spanish fathers what was happening and he informed us that they were celebrating San Fermin Day. We decided to stick around and watch as we were excited after sensing the hype around the upcoming performance. We watched as the young children sang traditional Spanish songs and held their newspapers in the air which was so cute!They then counted down in Spanish and had a mock bull run with a man running along behind them with a fake bull (wheelbarrow). I also have that video on my facebook which you guys should watch because it looks so cute!I remember thinking 'no wonder the Spanish locals get so into it as they are apart of days like this one from such a young age'.

That night back in the apartment was spent eating popcorn, chatting with the girls in the hostel and packing for Madrid. Next stop Madrid!