Corinne CrawfordThe following day, I was checking out of my hotel but they allowed me to work in their cafeteria until the mid afternoon when Igor could drive me to my rented room in San Sebastián. I can’t thank Igor enough for his hospitality and taxi service and inviting me to celebrate with his friends.
Igor dropped me off at a corner near my next accommodation, an Airbnb in the Gros neighborhood of San Sebastián across the river from the old town and commercial center districts. The instructions for self check in felt like I was completing a spy mission. Literally, it included finding a specific color bike on the bike rack and opening the lock box, locating a key with a specific number on it, then walking a block and a half to finding a door, etc. I was renting a room in an apartment that had three other rooms for rent and then we all shared the kitchen and two bathrooms. The room was nice and big but it was a little weird to know that there were strangers behind the three other closed doors and to be quite honest, there was a bit of a BO/weird food smell in the common areas, but I mostly kept to my room when I was in the apartment except to fix myself a grilled ham and cheese now and again. It was a 15 minute walk to the other neighborhoods on the other side of the river and I spent a good amount of time just wandering about the various areas of the city. I did a load of laundry at the apartment and I think I must have accidentally used powdered dish soap instead of laundry soap because a few of my items came out kinda washed out including my white shirt which is now a soft pink. This sucks because I don’t have that many clothes to begin with and now I have slightly mucked up the ones I have. So I spent a little time shopping trying to find stuff to spiff up my wardrobe. And something more than just a T-shirt because I love the way the ladies dress here- not super fancy but very nice. Adorable dresses, comfy pants, etc. I call the look comfy glamorous. But honestly it is very coastal grandma.
I have been trying to study the outfits and then look for things like that in the stores but there is a little bit of a problem with the fact that I wear a bigger size than most stores carry here and most of the stores are just small shops with one item in the style so it is hard to find something you like that is actually the correct size, it’s not like you find a shirt you like and then there are a multitude of sizes on the rack. Plus, it has been very hot and most of the stores are now stocked for fall so nothing was found to contribute to what is feeling like my very sad wardrobe. I found a café in one of the squares in town and had a beer and read my book for a while. I then headed back to my room to work for a bit and look for a good time to take an Ebike tour of the city, and try to plan when Igor and his girlfriend will come visit me for dinner in San Sebastián before I go as he had mentioned, and when to do a beach day. San Sebastián has a very iconic beach they call La Concha, the shell, as it is a huge protected curved cove with a sandy beach.
They also have two other beaches, the surfing beach and the local beach. The local beach was a bit farther of a walk and the surfing beach was not protected so it was not a good one for swimming, hence why it is the surfing beach because the waves came all the way into shore. I was also thinking I need to get a haircut.
Sometimes I wonder if my main reason for taking this trip was to be alone to give myself time to think, reflect and regroup, or did I come to be distracted? Or is it both? Which one will give me the most benefit?
