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Having fun in Spain is easy; certainly it is the country where the opportunities are greatest.
In 2007, the fashion for doing the Camino de Santiago was not as widespread as it is today, and I had not yet taken up trekking. I intended to discover Spain, not limiting myself to weekends in the larger cities.
They recommended the Basque Country to me as perfect for a solo trip. Because I would easily find revelry situations, and indeed I did, particularly on one super evening.
The Way of St. James, but by plane
I was in an unusual situation, I had just hooked up with a girl who would later put up with me quite a bit (by my standards). I wanted to be good by ignoring women, and we talked often. I stayed away for 10 days and always used public transportation.
I can say that I, too, have done the Camino de Santiago. Although I actually did it by plane to Santiago, then bus to the station and on foot the last mile to the center filled with rowdy pilgrims. Perhaps that is where my aversion to the more famous camino was born.
I love walking in nature but prefer shorter or otherwise less crowded routes, although I was very gratified by the Path of the Gods .
The city is considered by most to be simply the end or beginning of the journey. In reality it is also worthy in its own right. Besides the festive rounds of walkers, I remember as now a fantastic pulpo a la gallega.
I went to nearby La Corunha, nothing memorable but I liked the idea of doing the whole north coast, the northern waterfront of Spain.
At the time there was no google maps and I did not rent cars myself, I traveled by bus and train between the main cities, with the idea of also seeing beautiful views between the ocean and the mountains that are immediately behind, the Picos de Europa. They are called that because they are the first visible from ships coming from America, but I almost didn’t see them because I always caught cloudy weather, by the way a typical situation in the area.
This was my route on google maps.
Trip to the Basque Country, the itinerary
I stopped in Oviedo, Santander (where I spent an afternoon admiring the surfers’ stunts) with a final stop in San Sebastian, a city I loved, partly because I really enjoyed it.
San Sebastian was a base for several day trips:
- Bilbao to see the Guggenheim museum
- Zarautz for the beautiful beach and savor the authentic Bascoche spirit is more watered down in the big cities
- Pamplona to do the route of the street bullfighting that takes place during the festival of San Firmino
- Biarritz, a fashionable French resort located near the border, which I remember mostly for a memorable crepes
In San Sebastian there are two beaches one very large one on the gulf where there is a small island in the middle and a more exposed one where there are often mighty waves, and where I spent a couple of hours being swept ashore along with a multitude of kids.
Having fun in Spain, epic evening in San Sebastian
More adult fun was one evening in the downtown alleys filled with locals and cheerful people who were in the mood to party, very easygoing and predisposed to include strangers. I chatted, joked and danced a little with everyone and had a great time.
The previous year there was Italy’s World Cup victory. In the final against France there was the famous episode of Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi; I don’t know if it was because he was French or had a past in Real Madrid, in any case in those parts the former was not well liked. At the end of the evening, my new revelry friends and I were ushered out of the bar in closing, but we stayed and made a racket in the alley, and missing the DJ’s music, we danced to stadium choruses including, it stood out, in Italian...and Zidane’s mother is a pu…..
Having fun in Spain in Madrid always party
For someone who likes to change and try everything, it seems strange to go on the same trip again a few years later, but life is more fun if you break the rules once in a while. And speaking of having fun in Spain, I can’t help but mention a weekend with the friend I later went to Cuba with.
I went back to Madrid six years after the first time I had been sick, both to enjoy it better and because it inspired the friend I went with. Being a rather pleasure-loving fellow, I knew he would enjoy the Spanish pace. So he did, so much so that while we saw a couple of museums, mostly we experienced bars and restaurants; a recurring activity even on the Spanish trips I made thereafter.
Arriving late in the evening, I took him to the Hamon House, a place overflowing with hams hanging from the ceiling; he was thrilled that we could dine late. Another memorable piggy lunch was at a restaurant I remembered well from the previous time. I yielded to him and another time we had lunch in the very central Placa Real, where instead we were fleeced and ate a ‘meaningless paella.
For a few days such a vacation might have suited me, too: almost all food, alcohol and nonsense. But for a real trip we were not compatible, and the following summer we got into Cuban trouble.
The importance I give to the novel The Adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are explained in the account of the trip to Holland and Brussels, where I saw the copy of the above statue.
Previous stop Christmas in the Balearics and traveling with mom
Next stop Traveling sick, even of love in Valencia
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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