San Sabastian

We’d had a bit of a big night at the uni orientation bash the night before. In fact, after this photo;

it all becomes a bit of a blur. I seem to remember having a ‘who has the poshest/most colonial accent’ competition with a Portuguese guy who had been to some sort of English boarding school in Lisbon. We also met a Portuguese girl who was aghast at the fact that Jo and I have been married for two years now, and still don’t have children. I think I managed to stop myself from making a Catholic joke. Then we decided that smoking heavily was a good idea (sorry Mum, if you’re reading). After this we stumbled back to the hostel we were staying in. Luckily all the other people staying in our dorm room were exchange students and had been to the same party, and had been kicked out at the same time, so we didn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of drunkenly waking up a room full of people. 

I’m old now, and extremely married, and my idea of a good night out these days is a nice meal and a bottle or two of wine, and the days when a bucket of beer and a fistful of fags seemed like an ideal way to spend an evening are behind me. So this was the first time in a long, long time that I’d been so drunk that I couldn’t see straight. It was horrible. Why do people do it to themselves? Though if nothing else it reminded me of why I usually stick to drinking an amount of alcohol that I would actually be able to lift unaided. 

Anyway, the next day was the trip to San Sebastian. We were not feeling our best. Someone offered to take our picture;

I may never forgive them. 

But it was an almost hyperbolically lovely day in San Sebastian, and it really is the most unreasonably beautiful city, sparkling and sunny and clean and with a slightly wholesome air about it. And if we could love it so much with the kind of hangovers that make you think you’re going to vomit on the bus, so your wife gives your her handbag to be sick in (that’s true love), it must be something special. 

We did try to do outdoors sightseeing, but the natural light burned our dehydrated skin, and the gentle breezes felt like sandpaper on our bloodshot eyes, so we took refuge in the aquarium. I cannot recommend it highly enough if you ever find yourself in San Sebastian. 

They have one of those great glass tube dealies that lets you feel that you’re in the water with the fish, without having to encase yourself in shamefully revealing neoprene, or admit to everyone that those goggles make your face feel weird and that you’d rather not put your head underwater.

Some zoos and aquariums make you feel sad for the animals that live there – they seem listless and unhappy. But all the animals in the San Sebastian aquarium were frisky and sleekly healthy, and the displays were clearly very well thought out, and well maintained. I was especially enamoured of the seahorses (I did take some pictures, but they seem to have disappeared from my camera). They're just the most ridiculously improbable animals, and the way they float about with their undersized fins whirring furiously makes them look like little clockwork toys. Proof that evolution has a whimsical sense of humour.  

They also had a display of baby sharks still in their egg sacs, which was fascinating;

Then, my personal favourite, the jellyfish;

Then, as we were walking back to the bus, we stumbled across this parade. We’re not entirely sure what it was about other than that it was some sort of Basque thing, but it was nice to see so many young people involved in it, seemingly of their own free will;

On balance, it was a pretty good day. I saw seahorses and jellyfish, and a parade, and at the end of it my handbag was not filled with sick, and I don’t know that you can ask for more than that.