This past weekend, some of the other students and I made the hour long bus trip to San Sebastian (or “Donostia” if you prefer its Basque name) for the 62nd International Film Festival. After everyone arrived around 9 AM, we decided to explore the city a bit before we caught a movie that afternoon.

One of the first things to catch our eyes was the San Sebastian Cathedral near the city’s downtown area. Unfortunately for us, a daily mass was getting started just as we were walking in. We respectfully exited the cathedral as quickly and as quietly as possible. After walking a few blocks to the east, we found ourselves at the beautiful Bahía de la Concha (Shell Bay). Some of us decided to lounge along its beach for a while while others wanted to continue exploring the city a bit more.

Everyone agreed to meet up for lunch at an Italian restaurant called La Mina (The Mine). Our group managed to be seated right before the lunch rush began. I highly recommend going if you’re ever in the area.

After lunch, it was finally time to check out the film festival. We hurried to the the venue and managed to purchase tickets right before the the ticket booth closed.

I wish I could say that everyone enjoyed the movie, I really do. But as we walked out of the theater, all we could do was scratch our heads and wonder what the point of the movie was. At least we could check “international film festival” off our bucket lists. Once we decompressed after the movie, we finally called it a day and made it back to the bus terminal. Everyone enjoyed our day in San Sebastian overall, but we were ready to make it back home to Bilbao.