For our San Sebastian getaway last week, we flew into Bilbao from Dublin. And if there’s one thing Bilbao is known for [of many things], it’s the Guggenheim Museum.

When I was in my second or third year of college, our entire year went on a trip to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum. I didn’t go because at the time I couldn’t afford it. Big welp. So when we booked our recent flights through Bilbao airport, there was no way I was missing out on some Gugg for a secondtime.

It was a bit of a close call. The only time we could visit was before our return flight home. Our flight was at 16:35 and we arrived at Bilbao airport [via direct bus from San Sebastian] at 14:00, so we jumped on the next bus into Bilbao, suitcases in hand, and ran to the Guggenheim.

No, we didn’t go in. I know, sacrilegious. We had just enough time to admire the building itself and its Frank Gehry-ness in all of its splendour. And admire we did. As quickly as we could, in the near 30°C midday heat. I ran, snapped pictures like a starved paparazzi tailing a Kardashian, and in 20 minutes we were on our way back to the airport.

So tell me, have you ever done a drive-by on a tourist attraction? I would have loved to take a proper chilled walk around it [and in it], but I figured €600 on amending return flight tickets would have been a bit of a splash. 

Last week we jetted off to San Sebastian, Basque Country in northern Spain for a relaxing few days full of nothing but sun, sea, sand, seafood and sangria. All our holidays to date have been full of things to do and places to see. This was our first attempt at a relaxing sun holiday. And what did we do? Walked about 20km every day and didn’t put our swimsuits on once or read a book. Ha! We just got so excited and want to see all of the things.

This trip had a Will Ferrell theme to it; we sang this every time we walked down the boulevard, sang this whenever I ordered a sangria [which was A LOT], quoted Anchorman a lot, and talked about the inclement weather to no end.

On our first day we walked from our hotel, along the beach [and crept on all the houses along the way], up Monte Urgull, back down to the city centre for eats and drinks, wandered aimlessly for hours, eating and drinking [SANGRIA. ZOMG], then lounged on the lawn under hydrangeas at Miramar Palace …

Sangria and pintxos. Pinxos are the Basque version of tapas, and every single bar you walk into, pintxos are resting on every inch of available counter space. We went burserker. There was so much seriously yummy and tiny food. None of the photos I took of them did any justice to their yumminess [FYI, the crab ones were my fav].

But sangria. Did I mention the sangria? I really like sangria. It’s nice and it matched my nails. So, win win.

I really have to stop myself from uploading every single image I took, but I’ll be good and finish it here. Before we headed home, we made a quick trip to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao before getting our return flight, but that place deserves a post of its own [UPDATE – here it is!].

In short, if you can go to there, go to there. San Sebastian and the surrounding Basque Country are incredibly beautiful. A perfect holiday destination for wandering aimlessly with no agenda.

And there’s sangria.