postcards from san sebastian

1. looking over the Bay of La Concha with a hint of hydrangea

2. pasteleria goodness

3. my first self timer attempt

4. churros and chocolate - so so good!

5. little sail boats preparing for a day on the water

6. Borda Berri - so much deliciousness, thanks Ben

7. Jorge Oteiza sculpture on the waterfront

8. the view walking up Monte Urgull

9. the view from my room & a grand statue of Jesus

10. a prayer room underneath the statue of Jesus

san sebastian - i love you.

the longest stop of my trip was in San Sebastian.
I was here for five nights and it was kind of my holiday from my holiday, I needed some downtime!
My time in San Seb consisted of...beach, eat, a spot of shopping, climbing a mountain and more beach...it was perfect and hot.
I would probably say that this has been my favourite stop so far, and I'm keen to head back at some stage to get some more beach time.
Also, I haven't been to Santorini yet but the sunsets in San Seb are the best I have ever seen, i'll post on that later.
I'm coming to the end of my trip and it's time to get serious about life again come Tuesday. I'm off tomorrow to my last stop, a weekend in Paris!
AND thanks to all my people for reading this blog, I have just hit 1000 views, it means the world to me to know that you're all following what i'm up to, I am really loving creating this for you.

heres a few snaps from my first day in San Sebastian...

so many tapas restaurants with amazing arrays of food in the old town

my plate of tapas or "pinchos" as they're known in the Basque region

from one end to the other

the beach!

funicular up to Monte Igeldo

the view from Monte Igeldo....wow

getting good at this

the view to the countryside

postcards from madrid

And this street performer who freaked me out...yes that's a grown man dressed as a baby and talking like a baby....and then i caught him later out of his suit...

1. the colours of Madrid

2. Puerta del Sol (there are many many statues like this throughout Madrid)

3. Palacio Real

4. invisible men street performers near the Palacio Real

5. Catedral de la Almudena in the heat of the day

6. checking out the palace

7. a roaring lion in the Plaza de Oriente

8. Plaza Mayor after sunset

9. Jardines de Sabatini (the palace gardens)

10. more colourful Madrid

markets & a picnic in madrid.

Exploring cities in one or two days really takes it toll on you after a while, trying to get around and see everything without feeling disappointed that you missed something can be somewhat stressful...by the time I got to Madrid I was exhausted! The heat doesn't help much either...

On the first evening we discovered some MORE amazing markets, Mercado de San Miquel.

These aren't your traditional markets, they're slightly more upmarket and while they have your cheese, meat and fresh produce stalls, what they're really good for is tapas.

We had lunch there one day and I got a skewer of assorted olives, a small roll filled with steak cooked in front of me, the most amazing ham croquet i have ever tasted and another skewer with cheese, cherry tomatoes and homemade pesto...yum.

Madrid being in the absolute centre of Spain has no ocean nearby...instead the city has a lot of beautiful parks. On day two, we decided to go and spend some time lazing and enjoying the nearby park called Parque de Retiro - this is also home of the Crystal Palace you'll see down below.

We cheated a bit with lunch and went to the supermarket...ordering from the deli was a little test on my basic Spanish skills but I got way too much food and all for only 5 euros - bargain!

P.S. loving that little drink KAS, so refreshing on a hot day

la playa & the markets

something i'm loving about Europe is the fresh food markets that are open everyday.

while in Valencia i hunted down the local markets (which are located inside a really cool building) and bought my new favourite baguette ingredients - salami, cheese & cherry tomatoes and an AMAZING yellow plum

and after this we made our way down to the beach (la playa) for a day in the sun and my first ever swim in the Mediterranean Ocean (it was lovely!)

we were total suckers for the men selling things on the beach..

i got completely roasted in the sun, it was horrible - who said the sun in Europe wasn't as bad as NZ? could have fooled me! my skin ached for days..

postcards from valencia

getting to Valencia wasn't as straight forward as I had hoped. i was super organised and packed, showered and got ready the night before. after a terrible sleep thanks to some boozy roomies, i finally fell into a deep sleep around 4.30am...with my bus leaving at 8am and me waking up at 8.10am to someone elses alarm, i was a little bit peeved.

this cut short my time in Valencia by about half a day (when you only have 2 half days and 1 full day in a place it's kind of annoying) but it turns out I could still do everything! Valencia isn't a huge city and there isn't a whole lot going on but I loved it for being so chilled out after the fast paced hustle and bustle of Barcelona.

1. colourful Valencia and a sweet old man

2. the foods of Spain

3. one of many gorgeous colourful domes, this one blue

4. my best Frida Kahlo impression outside the markets

5. little works of art and more colourful domes

6. street art

7. sunset & storm from my balcony (love the shadows)