May 13-June 1
I had spent more hours than I care to admit researching, and
organizing for my friend’s and sister-in-law’s May/June visit. The plan was to host my friend here for
a week in San Sebastian for a bit of cultural immersion, then take the train
together to Madrid, where we would meet my sister in law, travel together for
our 8-9 days, and then my sister in law would stay with us here in San
Sebastian for her week of cultural immersion. We had what I thought was a full but easily doable
itinerary. After a few days in
Madrid we would go to Cordoba, Granada and Sevilla. (in the final trip post I talk about what I learned on this little journey)
Yes, I know, each place deserves a lot more time…but public transportation
between these places (with exception of San Sebastian to Madrid) range from 1.5- 3 hours, and I felt it would be a good
overview of Andalucia, the heart of Moorish Spain, for the uninitiated.
I often see people planning trips like this asking for advice on travel
websites. I notice that they
usually get verbally “raked over the coals” by a certain kind of traveler, and
locals who know that their city deserves a lot more in depth exploration. But, as a person who has lived
overseas, traveled in a slow, “soaking-it-in” style, as well as zipped around
just getting a superficial view of a city’s most popular sites, I would say
that there is no one way to “travel right.” You do what you can in the time that you have, you make it
your own, you prioritize, you know your physical limits…and you learn where you
want to go back to, to “soak.” I
never go anywhere with the thought that this will be my only opportunity to visit
a particular place, unless I want it to be. That helps me reconcile the fact that I’m probably not going
to see everything I want to see this time around.
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| Nice day cruising the boardwalk in San Sebastian |
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