Personal Reflections: day one in San Sebastián, the Basque Country

Videos of San Sebastián’s beach, my old dog Gus, thoughts about my family, where I want to have my ashes spread, my fall goals at Baylor, and probably some other things.

I just went on a long walk around La Concha beach in San Sebastián in the Basque Country. There is a long promenade and it was breathtaking. The weather was cool when I started around 9:30am. I had a cappuccino on the beach as a coffee shop just opened up and people watched and sea gull watched.

Most of the pictures I took were videos I sent to my daughter who arrives next week. Here for instance is a man playing the guitar. I was mesmerized. As I walked on, me and this lady got to walking beside me. And she started talking to me in Spanish or the Basque language. I didn’t tell her I only immediately because it was so lovely to listen to her but finally I told her I only spoke English and she laughed and switched to English. I asked her if that had been Basque or Spanish and she told me Spanish. She was a little older or maybe my age (I don’t know anymore who is what age given I’m almost 50 and feel like I’m 20 still) and she said she was from here, and she spoke English, French and Spanish, but not Basque. It was too difficult she said. Her daughter learned it from the second grade but Franco had banned it so she hadn’t learned it.