Sara Saez: A weekend in Cantabria

June 15th

The day started at dawn for me. In spite of the long 360-km journey, I was delighted. It was going to be only a weekend but I’d been counting the days for a fortnight. When I arrived at the station in Santander, my sister Macu was anxiously waiting for me. She had been doing a one-week English course and was totally exhausted. The only thing she wanted was to have a rest, so I left her at the hostel and I went for a walk along the promenade.

I arrived at the beach, and as soon as I lay on the sand, my phone rang. Macu had just woken up and she wanted me to pick her up. If only she could move around the city as I can do! After going back to the same beach, called Los Peligros, we ate a sandwich and took some pictures. I was quite excited. The landscape was amazing! The Magdalena Palace was just in front of us, on the top of the hill, surrounded by a dense forest which gives it an air of mystery. 

Later at the hostel, we came up with the idea of visiting Castro Urdiales the following day. It was my sixth time in Santander and the sixth day for my sister. We needed a change, and we’d never been to Castro before. Furthermore, I’d mentioned it hundreds of times, so I hurried to the station in order to buy two tickets for the following early morning. It was 8 p.m and we were exhausted, so we only sat on the balcony and chatted, when suddenly we saw the huge ferry that sails to the south of England.

June 16th

Early in the morning we packed our luggage. We lodged at a B&B hostel, so a plentiful breakfast was served – typical cakes included! The only drawback was the treatment received from the staff, which surprised us because, as a general rule, people there are warm and hospitable. Moreover, the room wasn’t comfortable enough, so the best choice was to leave the place. My sister suggested writing a letter of complaint but it wasn’t worth it even so. We just forgot about it. When we arrived at the station we only had 15 minutes left until the bus to Castro would leave. Before that, we had to keep our luggage into the lockers, but it was Sunday and the staff there were off. Fortunately, the man in charge of the security helped us kindly, and eventually we got on the bus in the nick of time. 

In Castro we felt a bit lost and the station was quite a long way from the town centre. Fortunately, a guy from Bilbao led us to the beach. He wasn’t very fond of the place, but we didn’t let him discourage us. It was hot and sunny, and the beach is great, beautiful as well as crowded. Most of the people there were from Bilbao, and they were so chatty that we talked to them without a feeling of shyness. Their Basque accent sounded quite strong and striking but it was OK.

The journey back to Santander was pretty eventful: people saying funny things and our noisy laughter, a plane taking off quite close to us, and a group of English people in front of us talking to each other in a distinctive accent. 

Finally, we ended our trip with a long walk along the promenade in Santander and said goodbye to this amazing city “until the next time”. Undoubtedly, I always feel at home in Cantabria!