That’s it. This is last episode. We made it little bit more west on the north coast of the Spain, we tried surfing and most interesting climbing. Enjoy this last piece of puzzle and see you in next adventure.
DAY 43 – SAN SEBASTIÁN
San Sebastián, finally. I’ve heard from Lena that everyone is talking about it so let’s see it. City itself is mix of everything. High and new buildings, green, beaches and sea. We have few stuff that we need to buy and we’re struggling hard to get them. Then I was hungry and Lena started talking about local food at restaurants which were around until I said let’s have it in this one. We’re used to “no englese” and that Spanish “vegetarian” means with fish but this experience was wrong right from the beginning. It was obvious that they don’t want us in this restaurant. Then they didn’t get that I was ordering day menu and Lena just one meal so we ended up with 2 day menus + Lena instead of fish got hamburger paty with egg and chips… I, on the other hand, have choosen meal containing only stomach chopped on pieces with pepper sauce because I’m choosing meals randomly since I have no clue what’s written on the menu. Every meal was served to wrong person and under pressure of waitress we had to order drinks even tho we didn’t want any. So we were both too full and having bad vibes. First really bad experience this trip I’m pretty happy about this ratio. After that we healed our souls with the second best ice cream I’ve ever had and continued exploring and moving on to our next spot.
DAY 44 – ZARAUTZ
Zarautz is worldwide known surfing paradise. Lena is working for next 5 days and it looks like there’s going to be rainy days. I’ve never been surfing (nor swimming in the sea properly) so that just gonna happen now.
I watch the sea and waves are really big for me so I’m pretty nervous. Beach looks wonderful and I’m going to search for surfschool with nice deal I found on the internet. 3 days – 100€. School is called North something and is rated super good in trip advisor. (Which I don’t use but it’s nice recognition point when you see their sticker somewhere.) I walk and walk along the beach untill I’m almost on the end and there is “Noor surf school”. “It does sound almost right but I’m not sure. Should I walk for 2 more minutes and then come back?” I’m thinking, but then I see Tripadvisor sticker and in I go. Girl inside speaks English, first win. But prices are decided on how many people is in the group and there are 2 girls heaving course tomorrow and bla bla bla. I’m asking for 3 days – 100€ deal and she don’t know. “Are you sure you’re in right school?” she asks. “I think so.“ I’m not happy but taking her price. I’m giving her my phone number so she can call me later if those girls want me in group. I’m leaving shop and continue walking along the beach. Literally 2 buildings later, behind the corner, I see “North Shore Surfschool”. *facepalm* All right that’s it. I go in and of course that they have 3 days – 100€ deal which sounds super good to me. I booked my appointment and went with lots of apologies to the other surfschool cancel my booking over there. At least I got it done, my first surfing lesson is happening tomorrow morning and I can fill up my day with some more hiking along the coast, reading, chilling on the beach, watching skaters riding bowl and surfers smashing it. In the end I took a swim just to find out that water here is really shallow so those huge waves are not that big when you stand in the water and that gave me so much confidence for the next day.
DAY 45 – I’M IN THE GAME
First surfing lesson. Thanks to all my board and balance activities I’m coming confident but what I’m afraid of and hope that my instructor not gonna let me die at is sea. I’m coming from the centre of the Europe and really as far from see you can be. Most of my travels were into cold countries so getting used to sea until now was almost impossible for me. I have no idea how that big blue thingi works and I have that big old respect from unknown. (+ when I sleep around sea it sounds to me like avalanche so my sleep is not that calm. On the other hand I’m also quite deaf so it’s not that bad.)
Here we go. Getting into wetsuit without no one telling/showing me is a rocket science. (Yup, putting it down is ten times worse…) Then we continued with little bit of theory and many of my questions until instructor said “let’s go into the water” and we did. I actually managed to stand up on my first wave ever. “wtf I didn’t expect that.” Then I took few falls and wipeouts untill I kinda made my surfing more confident in the white watter. After a lesson I could stay bit longer by myself so I did until ocean magic stopped sending waves good for me. I’m super happy and from now on I’m watching sea/waves much differently than before same like with rocks after first outdoor rock climbing. To all who it may concern “I’M IN THE GAME!”
When I went to give back all the gear I schedueled next lesson for tomorrow morning. The biggest wow moment of the day was actually having first real and WARM shover since this trip started. Actually it was too hot for me so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected. LeL
Then I was free again so I went to eat and watched more surfers so I can learn from them. Since Lena was still working I made little hike to next city Getaria. There i met Polish wanderer who is traveling for 10 years straight and it was really nice to talk with someone like that. What a day.
DAY 46, 47 – EVEN MORE SURFING
On next surfing lession we went “behind the waves” to catch the real ones. Sea wasn’t that good to us today so there was actually more waiting than surfing. That waiting contains sitting in wavy water on your surf and watching for the good one. (I’m totally blind for this. Usually I’m the only one paddeling just to catch nothing.) Well, did I tell you that I’m not used to the sea? I got seasick from all the wavy waiting… Because of that I had to leave lesson bit earlier and go buy pills to be ready for next day. Next day I didn’t get seasick but there were even less waves so I didn’t feel like I did much.
DAY 48 – EVEN MORE SURFING WITH LENA
Lena doesn’t need to work anymore. YeeY! First thing we do is to rent surfing gear and go surfing for the first time together. Waves are pretty challenging today. It means that after little white watter session we get washed out and totally destroyed few times. After 2hours we’re done and even Lena can enjoy her first warm shover since we started travelling. Later, we’re moving to another surfspot “Playa de Laga“. There is also huge, 120m high climbing spot “Ogoñoko begiratokia“. We went climbing there to try last pitches. It was one of the biggest climbing adventure I had so far.
THE END
Those last sunny days spent outdoor (especially the last one) killed me. I spent next 3 days just in the bed how sick I felt. Lena was working in the meantime. Our time was over. We had to make 18+ hr drive to Lena’s hometown at Germany where started another adventure which I won’t share in here. THE END
Thank you for joining me for one of the most memorable trips of my life. I hope that you had also awesome times in the meantime so we can share it all once we see each other. Have a great one. #STAY AWESOME