AZPEITIA

Since Azpeitia is where I have been living for the past months, I thought I should at least dedicate the first page to it.

Azpeitia is situated in a valley at the foot of Mont Izarraitz along the river Urola, about 15-20kms inland from Zumaia (the closest coast). It has a population of about 14,000. It is a very modern and fashionable town (it is sometimes referred as a smaller San Sebatian). A quarter of the people dress like they are going to a punk rock concert, another quarter look like they are just about to do some sport or go mountaineering, another quarter appear as if they have just come from a Queer Eye for the Straight Guy episode and the final quarter are just your every day country person. Over all Azpeitia is a very friendly, open and accepting place to live.

To walk from one end of Azpeitia to another will take you around 15 minutes, keeping this in mind there seems to be a forever constant flow of traffic and I often joke that there are 14,000 people and 20,000 cars (most of which are new).

When walking the streets of Azpeitia don´t expect to hear Spanish (although most people can speak Spanish), Basque (Euskera) is spoken by the majority of people living in Azpeitia. About 95% of all schooling in done in Euskera, and almost all children prefer to speak euskera between themselves. Euskera is widely spoken in reginal areas of the Basque country.

Transport in Azpeitia is via foot, but if you want to get out for the day, there are reasonable public and private services to San Sebastian or Bilbao. La Guipuzcoana (private) bus runs and hourly morning and afternoon express link to and from San Sebastian. The trip takes around 45-50 minutes and cost 3.35 euros one way. The other option is EuskoTren (bus/train). The same trip to San Sebastian will take about 1h15min and cost 5.30 euros return, however, it does offer more stops, and from Zumaia you can go either to San Sebastian or Bilbao.