Hello from the opulent, stunning, luxurious (and every other over the top adjective you can summon) Hotel Maria Cristina in San Sebastián, Spain! At this moment, I am listening to howling winds and a hailstorm as I eat the most delicious chocolate and contemplate having a beer. It's all good.
Getting here was a bit touch and go. Leaving the night before official "Snowmageddon" at home had us a bit concerned. We stared at this:
from the inside of our cosy airplane and wondered if we'd take off on time, or at all. We were off without much of a worry though, and a short 6.5 or so hours later landed in Brussels, a city whose slogan simply touches my heart "Welcoming. European. Efficient." Love Brussels. More of that (hopefully) next week as for now, we're onto Bilbao and then a sleepy bus ride to San Sebastián. In truth, the entire trip has been sleepy. Or at least attempted sleepy - time shifts and the act of actually flying gets me pretty tired, but it's wired and tired which is not necessarily a good sleep combination. You grab what you can when you can but all in all it's tiring. Poor me. Even worse? When we arrive in San Sebastián, we can't head to our hotel and sleep because our dear friend Alex is here to pick us up at the bus station and deliver us to our hotel. He'll likely want to talk. Jerk.
We arrive in our room and can't really wrap our heads around the crazy beauty of it. The Santa Maria Cristina is San Sebastian's premier hotel, part of Starwood's Luxury collection and on Conde Nast's Gold List. The place is pretty awesome. I'd never think of staying here at full pop, but through some luck and an amazing friend we are lucky to call the palace (not a typo) home for the next six nights.
Saturday morning now, and we decide to go full throttle and order room service. Everyone does this, right? Yeah, I know. But once? We can do it once? Eating croissants in your cozy bathrobe after being awoken by said croissants at, what, 930am is a pretty normal thing to do on holiday, right? Yeah, I know. But once. We did it once! Andrea can never have orange juice again. The bar was just set so high.
We're soon off to meet Alex, Raul and their friend Uri who is in town for the weekend. It's a big weekend here in San Sebastian - it's Carnavales! Everyone is dressed in costume and the beauty of this is that no one is too cool for school - when I say everyone dresses up, everyone does! Young and old take to the streets ready for fun and adventure. Our first adventure of the day takes us to one of two of San Sebastian's vegetarian restaurants. Featured on the menu is typical fare - quinoa, tofu, salads and duck. Only in Europe. It is here we meet the last member of our weekend sextet, Adrian. Everyone is quite excited for what the night will bring. To be honest, Andrea and I have no idea what to expect but in the care of these Fab Four we are in 110% - Vamanos! as they say in Spain (and Dora The Explorer).
We need a nap. A good one. As a bit of a precursor, tonight is a perfect storm of fun for our boys - first, it's the airing of the Melodifestivalen. This is the 53rd year for the festival - Sweden's music competition to select their entry for Eurovision. Most countries just pick their performer, but not Sweden, oh no. Swedes are very serious about their pop so they run this competition over what seems like months - complete with live telecasts and dial in voting - to determine who will represent. We are all gathered at Alex & Raul's tonight for (I think) the semi-finals and the whole thing is completely insane but totally fun. We hear a 'back when he was cute' (sorry, Andrea) Leo DiCaprio lookalike, some Swedish Housewives (their real name), an Ali G wannabe and one of the winners to the next round, a woman whose song is titled "Only Dead Fish Float Upstream". It was pretty catchy. We're eating fondue and drinking wine and laughing at our costumes. Which brings us to the second part of our evening: a Carnvale party themed to a popular 80s Spanish television program called UNO DOS TRES. We are all in 80s garb (which suffered a bit of a translation gap as Andrea and I were cast offs from Dynasty and the boys looked like cute geeky nerds). The party, hosted by Drag Queens, was in a cavernous warehouse, with two dance rooms and Raul will be DJing in both rooms over the course of the night. What can I say about this party that will make it sound as fun as it was? It was the type of party where you wished all your friends were there to see it, live it, experience it and dance it. No one was hanging by the wall. No one was waiting for better music. I'm not sure if anyone was even talking. But everyone, and I mean everyone, was in costume and everyone was dancing. Most guests dressed up in groups, so we had the Flight Attendants, the Equestrians, the Amazons. There were lotsa abs and lotsa leg and not much cellulite. It was a straight girls nightmare.
Listen, there isn't really much I can say here. We photobombed about 1000 pictures. I caressed the abs of a wee Amazon. We returned to the hotel with bouillon cubes and a sleeve of condoms at approximately 6am. Oh, relax. It was a straight girls nightmare, remember? *eye roll* I'm sure Alex & Raul do this every weekend. Lucky bastards.
Good Morning Sunday. Or, suuunday?! Already?! Alex, Raul & Uri are set to pick us up at 2pm for an afternoon at the Cider House. Adrian, who lives 15 minutes away in France (I don't understand how this is possible either) will meet us there. Surprisingly, we're all coherent! And starving! A quick drive takes us outside the city and we arrive at a rustic farmhouse dating back to 1527. This particular cider house, the Petritegi, is family owned and run. You walk in, grab a glass, sit at a large picnic table and continue to eat and drink all the cider you can for about 3 hours. What a way to spend an afternoon!
Pleasures like this don't come easy, though. I became a rough and tumble woman this afternoon, learning to crack walnuts WITH MY FINGERS! I am so much better prepared for life now you have no idea - there is video. It is awesome, as, obviously, am I.
The food was incredible - fresh bread, chorizo, omelettes, cod with peppers, big ass steak, cheese, and those hard earned walnuts.
We leave, stuffed, happy with belly aches from laughter. God, I love it here.
Monday brings us to a planned walking city tour with our Alex acting as tour guide. Unfortunately, the weather isn't quite cooperating. To be honest, the weather has been horrible - damp, rainy, cold. Simply not weather we are used to at home. No matter how much you layer, your bones are still cold. Not fun, but tough luck, get on with it! We manage to walk the length of the gorgeous (weather or not) San Sebastián beach before it starts to pour - a remarkable type of rain, really. Hard, almost hail, coming at you from all sides making an umbrella pretty useless. We seek refuge at the funicular (come on, who doesn't love a funicular?!), the top of which is a landing pad for spectacular city views and a rather interesting amusement park, now closed as it's off season.
More food, more ice cream, more pop songs and the promise of more tomorrow ... spa day, and Arzak. I know what you're thinking ... you were Born to be Basque too.
Love this entry!! A very good resume of a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteLooks amazing, Olgie! Can't wait to hear about Arzak!!
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