THE great European rail journey: when the words 'europe' and 'train' are used in the same sentence, it's hard not to have this image of long journeys through the alps, beautiful scenery passing out the window, and stretching out in those little 4 person cabins that you always see in movies. It wasn't until our trip to San Sebastian did I realise just how far from reality this was.
Since our time in Portugal had come to an end and we are now trying to get to the UK by mid October to meet up with one of Mike's friends, we decided to abandon our original plan to travel Madrid-San Sebastian- France and instead just head straight to San Sebastian on our way North. (Since we were coming from Porto, Madrid would have been basically 2 long travel days for only a 3 night stay, and from what we had heard we had seen the best of Spain in the places we had already visited). This meant that all that stood between Portugal and Spain was one tiny twelve hour train trip... On an overnight train.
The Spanish rail company Renfe run what they call a 'trenhotel' between Lisbon to just over the French border, passing through San seb. It basically is just that, a hotel packed onto a train, complete with a cafeteria and a fine dining carriage. It has a range of accommodation from 1st class private cabins, same-sex only mixed 'dorms', to the tourist class sleeper seats. Thinking that we could use the overnight train as an opportunity to save on a night's accommodation, we opted for the tourist seat, just to test how sleeping in a seat could be. After battling with the online booking system (Spanish websites seem to reject every credit card we have), we managed to confirm some seats. All seemed well.
We arrived at Coimbra B station to board the train, and walked down the aisle to find our seats. The train was arranged in rows of two large-ish, reclining seats on each side of the aisle, and then at the very end of the carriage there was a group of four seats, with two of the seats facing backwards. There were only 8 seats on the ENTIRE train that faced in the opposite direction to the way the train was moving, with seat backs up against the wall so they couldn't recline. So of course, which seats did we end up getting?? If anyone ever travels this journey, never ever get seats 9A and 9B- the backwards seats.
A nice English-speaking conductor let us swap to some normal seats for a few hours, telling us that the people who would take those seats wouldn't be on for about 3 hours. Just as we were settling in to get a bit of sleep before the rightful seat owners came, we must have crossed over the border to Spain, meaning the nice conductor finished his shift. I woke to a Spanish speaking man asking for our tickets, saying something to me I couldn't understand and pointing to our backwards seats. We still got the point- get back to where you belong.
At about 1am, 7 hours into the journey, they finally dimmed the lights in the train. The other people in our little four-sweater had the smart idea of swapping so that mike and I could sit opposite each other and stretch our legs out, and we managed to get a bit of sleep (if you count 4 hours sleeping upright as enough to rest for one night).
We arrived in San Sebastian at 6.30am Spain time (though it was only 5.30 for us running on Portugal time), and when we got off the train it was still pitch black.. And raining. An hour later after walking in the rain, getting lost, and eventually getting a taxi, we had made it to our hostel.So while it wasn't the best start to our 3 nights in San Sebastian, it actually turned out really good.
Our first day started off cold and rainy, and since beach was out of the question, sleep and Spanish hot chocolate were on the menu so we could stay dry.
We also found out that it was the last day of the San Sebastian film festival that day, the Spanish version of the big international film festivals like Cannes. We looked up on the website and found out people like Dustin Hoffman and Penelope Cruz had all been in town that week, and since it was the last day, we thought we could try and escape the rain by buying tickets to one of the films. Once we realised that all the good tickets were sold out and the rest were foreign films with subtitles, we decided to give it a miss becasue we probably would have fallen asleep. But it was nice knowing we had actually timed something good this time and were in town when a major event was happening!
By about lunch time the weather started clearing up and we noticed people wearing blue and white soccer jerseys on the streets. Little did we know what we were in for. It turns out there was a special Derby football match between two of the teams from the Spanish Basque region: San Sebastian v Bilbao. By mid afternoon, the entire streets around the 'old town' area (especially the street of our hostel) were packed with football supporters preparing for the game: drinking outside the bars, singing and chanting team songs and even a couple of people playing marching band music. It was such a crazy vibe to experience, and you could easily be mistaken to think the game was on that afternoon- kick off didn't actually happen until 8pm. The Phillipino- Spanish guy at our hostel told us that people in the Basque area of Spain are actually really friendly, and so although the majority of the supporters in the streets were wearing the blue and white of San Sebastian, the other team supporters could drink alongside them without any hassles. He was quick to mention though 'if this was Madrid, they would all be fighting'.
When game time came, we decided to tapas- hop along the bars so we could get some food and watch the game in between. San sebastian has this certain type of tapas called 'pinxtos', where all the bars lay out this buffet of food served on these little toothpicks and basically you just grab a plate, help yourself to a few sticks, and then pay at the end. So you can go into a bar, see what sort of food they have on offer, grab a stick or two, and then move on to the next place.
After a bit of food we managed to find a bar with a tv that we could actually see (the rest were too packed), and watched the second half of the game. San seb won 2-0, so the town was in full party mode that night when all the supporters returned. We cleared out of there before that time, and watched a bit of the cheering and chaos unfold from the balcony of our hostel.
Our next two days in San Sebastian were beautiful and sunny, and we spent our time soaking it all up on one of the two big, beautiful beaches in the area and getting our last bit of Spanish sunshine... I even went swimming (last time I think I will for the next 4 months!).
We also went for a walk up to a big hill that had beautiful views over San Sebastian:
Our nights were spent with people from the little hostel we were staying at- Rogers House. They took us to a place with €1 tapas one night, and on our last night they cooked us a big paella so we got our last fix of spanish food. Albert, one of the guys that worked there, was a really sweet guy- he tried teaching mike and a few others how to make roses out of napkins; he gave me and a few of the girls there origami paper crane earrings that the other hostel guy, Mario, had made; and every time I walked into the kitchen he would say 'how are you Shelby?'... I was impressed that he managed to remember all of our names!
By the end of our 3 nights, it was time to say goodbye to Spain. San Sebastian was a really amazing place and completely different from what I expected- I thought it was a small beach place similar to Ericeira in Portugal. It actually is a pretty modern beachside town, with a beautiful old quarter and a developed, rich persons resort side of town.
Since it is so close to the border there was a lot of French influence there, with lots of French series on the streets, and every second person in the bus could be seen with a baguette in their shopping! Although the nights were pretty cold, the last few days of sunshine was the perfect way to end our time in Spain. I'm going to miss that country.
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