San Sebastian.

The closer we got to San Sebastian, the more the landscape became more French again. The weather became warmer, and the houses changed. It was almost like a lap over landscape where you got the best of both countries for a while. 

5 minutes away from arriving, someone jumped in front of our train and we pulled up inside a tunnel. Nat and I passed the time with a deck of cards, and finally 3 hours later, at midnight, we made it to San Sebastian. 

The next morning, Nat went to the beach, while I decided to climb to Mount Igueldo, a lookout over San Seb. There's a funicular that goes up, but I chose the steep walk. And it was worth it. The walk kind of swept over the mountain, which took you round to the other side, so you could see a while down the Spanish coast. The view from the top was amazing as well. It's a bit like a carnival up there, with a few rides and a hotel. On my way back to the hostel, I laid in a park in the shade and read for a while, then headed back to the hostel for a siesta. That night, Nat and I went to watch the sunset, over San Seb, and then met up with some English guys who we met at our hostel and went and had drinks with them. 

The next afternoon (31st July), we packed up and headed home!

Hostel

The beach

From the shady park

On my way up

The other side of the mountain

View from the top

Sunset.

Madrid.

Madrid was different from what I had expected. There were less tourists there, and a lot of the people I came into contact with didn't speak great English. Which was surprising as it's the capital city.
It was a quiet capital city, which was nice.
Coming into the city, it looked like it was going to storm, which was lovely. The clouds were so dark and grey and loomy, and the landscape was all rolling hills and greenery. It was almost like North American Indian territory, if you can picture that... There definitely is a difference in landscape between Spain and Portugal.
When we arrived, as it's a bigger city, we caught the metro to our hostel. That afternoon, we just walked around the town and visited some sites. We found an awesome tea shop, and I could actually drink it without having the awful tea taste left in my mouth afterwards. That first afternoon, we visited Plaza de la Villa de Paris (a square full of 15th century buildings), Plaza de la Independencia, Peurta de Sol and Plaza Santa Ana. Then headed home for some Chinese food! I haven't been able to find a peanut sauce dish anywhere, but I settled for chicken and almonds.
That night, I had my first 4am clubbing experience. A club had been recommended to us by some of the others staying at the hostel, so we checked it out. It was amazing! But as soon as we left the club, we were exhausted haha. On our walk home, some young guy started walking beside us and speaking spanish. We ignored him and kept walking, and he grabbed my arm. As I don't drink, I wasn't intoxicated in anyway, so can fully remember the empowering feeling of yanking my arm back and forcefully saying "Do not touch me". He stopped following us and went away. Yes! I am woman, hear me roar! haha
The next morning, we jumped up and skipped the walking tour. The woman was late by 15 minutes and acted as if nothing was wrong, so that was an indicator of how the rest of the tour would go. And as we had visited several historic sites the day before, we didn't want to double up.
We headed straight to Plaza Real de Madrid. The interior was absolutely beautiful. King Carlos III designed it and lived there, he really knows where it's at. Though I don't think I would like to try and raise kids there... We did mostly shopping on the main shopping street that afternoon. I even made a special stopover in the Real Madrid FC store. The weather was nice too, the sun was out, but there was breeze.
The next morning, we did some local market type shopping before heading to San Seb!

DAY ONE

Coming into Madrid

Plaza de la Villa de Paris

Plaza de la Independencia

Massive Garden - Glorieta de los Titeres

Plaza de la Independencia from the other side

Alcaldia del Ayuntamienta - city council - with Fuente de la

Cibeles - water fountain - in the foreground

Plaza Santa Ana

DAY TWO

Plaza de Oriente - between the palace and national theatre

The palace

Inside the palace - actually not allowed to take 

photos inside

Gardens next to the palace

Templo de Debod - 2nd century Egyptian temple

Salamanca.

Salamanca was only a stopover place for the night as we didn't want to sit on a bus for 11 hours to get from Oporto to Madrid.
On our way across the border, we were stopped and our passports check. My passport always seems to get a good going over! The guards always just glance at Nat's, with mine, they have a good flick through it, look where I've been, and nearly always make a comment about my French visa in there. I mean, do I have a drug dealer appearance? Could I be mistaken for one?
On our way into the city, we passed by so many small towns up on hills surrounded by their original fortifications. It was awesome to see! One was almost exactly what it would have been like - a wall surrounding the entire city, with city gates, and from inside you could see stone houses poking up. And the coolest thing was, it wasn't even a tourist city! People were just living their lives there. Awesome!
Anyway, I'm glad we stopped at Salamanca. It was beautiful. I think smaller Spanish towns have been the coolest to see. So much preserved history. The afternoon was just a lax one. We walked around for a bit and did some shopping, and hung out at the main square for after dinner drinks.

Around town

Cathedral - constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries

Inside one of the most amazing cathedrals 

I've ever seen!

At the river

On the bridge, looking back

Main town square

And at night