In Donostia

Here I am with the famous Bahía de la Concha behind me. (I have since shaved.) The weather is gorgeous.

Here I am with the marina behind me. These first two photos I took on my second or third day in San Sebastián.

I arrived at about 9:30 Sunday evening, July 4, after a very long train ride during which I alternately napped, read, looked out the window and followed Disney´s animated feature UP as it played on the overhead monitor of the train from Madrid. I kept chiding myself for watching television or sleeping instead of looking out at this country which I´d only visited once before. Then I wondered why I wasn´t more compelled to take in the sights outside the window of the (not so speeding) train. Then I recalled my first impression of the Spanish countryside 27 years ago: it´s very like the California landscape. Which is beautiful, but I´ve seen it a thousand times and this is probably why I wasn´t drawn to the Spanish landscape.

The only hitch on this whole journey came when the taxi driver dropped me off at 26 Boulevard, Quinto Izquierda. "Twenty-sixth Boulevard" seemed an awfully New York-like, bustling metropolis kind of a name for the street of a relatively miniscule city and "fifth to the left" I found positively puzzling. I wandered about a bit, dragging my large suitcase behind me, asking incoherent questions in my rapidly disintegrating Spanish but I eventually figured it out. Turns out the name of the street IS Boulevard. (Technically it´s Alameda del Boulevard but everyone calls it Boulevard.) 26 is the address and, getting out of the elevator or arriving on the landing from the stairs on the 5th floor, the Legorburu residence is the door on the left.

Here´s the woman who greeted me when I came through the door, my hostess Maritxu. Maritxu means Maria in Euskara and she was very pleased to learn that, essentially, this is also the name of my mother and my grandmother.

Maritxu is bright and well-informed about the goings-on in the world - both past and present - but, as she´s raised seven children in her life and now must take care of her husband who at 90 needs constant care, she hasn´t had much opportunity to see this world which she finds so varied and interesting. So, she´s arranged for it to come to her. She´s hosted students from Lacunza, the local language school where I´m getting lessons in Euskara, for 15 years.

She makes her lodgers a delicious breakfast and dinner and helps us with our Spanish. I haven´t learned enough Euskara to even have the most halting conversation with anyone in that language but my Spanish is certainly improving!

Above is a picture of Maritxu and another Lacunza student she´s currently hosting, Kieran from Toronto. Turns out he´s a French teacher, too. But he´s here to immerse himself in Spanish and is quite serious about it so even between the two of us, we speak in Spanish. Needless to say, our conversations are brief, without ornament and a nightmare to anyone who cherishes the Spanish language, I´m sure.

Sorry for the tilted view of my room. This whole blog thing really stretches the limits of my ability with things cyber so you´ll just have to tilt your head. Maritxu´s apartment has a small second story out of which they carved a library and a small bedroom with its own bathroom. I love my aerie and sleep very well here. And the view...

...is spectacular. The Parte Vieja of San Sebastián is nestled against the Monte Urgull which you see in the background. Atop of this small mountain sits a tall statue of Jesus Christ which Maritxu calles the Sacred Heart. The church you see glowing in the bottom foreground is the Santa Maria, an exquisite 18th century church dedicated to the Virgin.

About 45 minutes after I arrived, the sun finally set - well past ten p.m. - and this is the view I had just before I went to bed on the first night of my two weeks in Donostia.