My New Home in Spain
Well, the lovely Miss Diana has secured a place for us to live in San Sebastián-Donostia, Spain, and thanks to the myriad wonders of satellite technology, I was able to take a bird's-eye gander at the place before I sail off into the wild blue yonder. The apartment is pinpointed by the balloon icon, which is visible in all three shots. As you can see in the first image there are three beaches with a rocky promontory in the middle. The body of water is the Bay of Biscay. The winding river dividing the city in half is called the Urumea, and the riverside neighborhoods are supposedly some of the nicest in all of Spain.As we zoom in we see the vicinity around the apartment a bit better. This is the old quarter, and it's easy to see the extent of the neighborhood just by noting the terra cotta coloring. Most of the streets here are pedestrianized, and most of the local businesses are bars. In fact National Geographic says this area has the highest concentration of bars in the world. Impressive for such a small city. In terms of how it impacts my living situation, let's just say it'll be loud, and certainly the potential for drunken obnoxiousness and raging testosterone is high in such a setting. But foreigners are usually afraid of me, and I get along okay with drunks, so we'll see if I have any trouble.
In the final shot you see the neighborhood in detail. Note the large church to the west, and the sprawling plaza to the east. The white objects in the plaza look like umbrellas, but given the scale of the photo may be something larger. I guess I'll find out when I get there. I'll be desperately poor after this move, but on the flipside I'll be in a place where I can feel good about paying taxes, where the money goes to society rather than the rich, and where quality of life and preservation of culture, architecture and nature are primary goals. In Europe I feel confident that I can finally put down roots—if not in Spain then in Portugal. This is assuming I can even survive. Stay tuned on that. In the meantime, friends, now that you know where I'll be, you can start making plans plans to visit. Hope to see you there.
Labels: San Sebastian-Donostia
posted by Egan Ehlers @ 4:34 PM
2 Comments:
I can't wait for you to come and explore the neighborhood. It is truly a happy place, where you can hear the sound of church bells and weekend revelry. Just don't try to go to bed before 4am on the weekends!
I drove mr. blacknotblack to the airport today. It was an eventless moment on La Tijera taking that left onto Airport Way or whatever its called. Twelve minutes later when returning to that intersection I could see a broken cord of bad smoke rising from that same place. When I arrived to take my right back the way I came I saw a van unconscious in the off-center of the intersection and a convertible with a sign post splitting the hood all the way to the windshield. The whole front of the car was blooming with dark orange fire and I made my right as fast as I could, certain the gas tank was going to explode. The whole scene felt apocolyptic and I lit out of there saying to myself, "He got out of here just in time."
We hope to see you two there soon!
t
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