San Sebastian, Spain

     On Saturday morning, we had some breakfast at the hostel and took the car to another part of the city to park it for free. San Sebastian isn't the most car friendly city and the parking situation is even more dire. We inquired at the hostel as to where we could park for minimal cost and they told us that if we took it over to the student part of town, we could park there for free. We drove around that part of town for a bit until we figured out the various parking colors and what each of them meant. We found a great place near the beach and paid 1 Euro to park the car until Monday morning.

     Since we had been out enjoying the nightlife the night before, we were a bit tired. We hung out on the beach for a while and I helped the two Brits throw an American football better. The water and the views were amazing and we just enjoyed the simple pleasure of being at a beach. We were near Monte Igeldo Eventually, we decided to move on and headed towards the Miramar Palace. There's a great walkway and bike path that runs along the beach.

     We decided that Saturday would be our big spending day for food. The first place we tried didn't have exactly what we were looking for but no worries, we turned around and walked across the small plaza to La Cueva. We had some nice starters and each and entree that came out to 25 a person. The food, for what it should have been, wasn't as good as expected. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the area of town known as Gros. There's another beach there and, as we discovered quickly, it is a nude beach. Not everyone was naked. Truth be told, there were only three naked people on the beach and they were all men. On the edge of the Gros area is the famous restaurant Arzak. 

     After walking through Gros, we headed towards the river. There is a nice, long sidewalk covered by the budding trees. They acted as our umbrellas during the light drizzle that fell as we walked. The next bridge we came to connects the train station with the town. It's the famous María Christina Bridge built just over 100 years ago in 1905. María Christina was the queen at the time of the construction and hailed from Austria. They had an inauguration celebration that lasted most of the day and included lots of bands playing live music. The four pillars are meant to imitate the Alexander III bridge in Paris. We crossed the bridge and entered the city from the northeast and walked to the Cathedral of San Sebastian, also known as the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. It was built at the end of the 19th century and the king and queen were present for the laying of the foundation stone in 1887. Ten years later the church was consecrated for worship and Pope John Paul I created a new diocese in San Sebastian. While we were checking out the cathedral, it started to rain so we headed back to our hostel to take a nap and prepare ourselves for a great dining out experience.

     Our hostel recommended a couple of places and this restaurant, Bernardo Extea, so we went. Babak and Sriroop split the all inclusive seafood platter, Iz had the fish, and I ordered some turf, a nice medium rare fillet mignon, to go with all the surf. Everything was great and the seafood platter was gigantic. We all tried the vieras, a clam shell with a scallop bake, and the large prawn shrimp. The most interesting thing for everyone was trying the barnacles. The color was an off purple and the texture was mushy and the flavor is like pure ocean saltiness. As Babak put it, they ate an entire aquarium off the plate. We wandered around a bit that night and had some drinks to celebrate our last night and help ease the fullness. 

     On Sunday, Iz and I walked around a bit on the Paseo Nuevo which surrounds the large statue of Saint Sebastian atop the tree covered mountain next to the ocean. The boys wanted to watch some football games so we just lazily walked around and watched waves crash into the side of the sea wall. 

Some even came over the side and drenched innocent bystanders. Overall, it was a great trip and we can't wait to return in a couple of months to do it again.

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San Sebastian, Spain

     After a long week off and visiting lots of family and friends in the US, we returned to Spain and spent our first weekend in San Sebastian. We planned the trip a month ago with our roommates because it was the only weekend we could all do it together. Friday morning, we picked up the rental car and headed north. Our roommates decided that they wanted to do the driving so Iz and I napped and enjoyed not having to worry with driving and directions. The drive from Madrid to San Sebastian is full of incredible views. The Basque province of Spain is green and lush with valley after valley of trees and great scenery. At times, it felt like we were riding through the Swiss countryside.

     When we arrived around mid afternoon, we spent a good half hour trying to track down our hostel. Our roommate Babak had booked it through a web site but had read that it had locations spread around the city. They confirmed this by calling us during our drive to tell us they would meet us in a central location to take us to the hostel. Unfortunately, San Sebastian is not driver friendly and there are lots of one-way streets that took us on several unintentional detours. We parked near the river and met up with our hostel guide near the town hall. He led us to an old house that had been redesigned and turned into a hippy hostel. The lady who runs it is in her 50’s and she has made every room as tacky as possible. Our room was divided into two halves. The front half had tall mirrors, lots of closet space, and a wooden rocking horse. The other half was painted a bright salmon color and the beds were decorated with bright sheets and comforters. It was an interesting place to stay.

     When we felt settled, we left the hostel and made our first stop at the Whiskey Museum. Our other roommate, Sriroop, is an aficionado of whiskey so we promised him we'd stop and have a drink there. The inside was decorated in a traditional style with dark wood tables, wooden cabinets and wall panels, and wooden stools. It was dark and only lacked the smokiness a place like it seems to require. There were lots of old whiskey bottles hanging from ceiling racks and in showcases throughout the bar. It felt like we'd stepped back into the 1920's. After our quick drink, we made our way into the Old Town to acquaint ourselves with the pintxo culture of San Sebastian. The city is famous for its high concentration of Michelin Star restaurants per square mile but it also has a wonderful pintxo(pronounced pincho) culture. It's a play on the Spanish tapas culture. The basic idea is that you go to a bar where they have all their pintxos laid out and you put on your plate what you want and pay for each one, usually at a cost of 2 - 3 Euros each. After indulging ourselves a bit in two or three various pintxos bars, we went for a walk to alleviate the fullness in our bellies.

     We stayed in the Old Town of San Sebastian for most of our walk. It is the core of the city and was once fortified by a large stone wall until 1863. Most of the buildings there were quite old and built of stone. We saw some popular places to eat like La Cueva, which is in a partial basement level of an old building. The town hall is a beautiful building made of yellow stone and it sits right on the edge of the harbor. In front of it is an amazingly beautiful garden. I imagine its quite a relaxed job to be the mayor of this town. We walked down to the port and sat around with the locals and tourists watching the sunset. It was a great way to end the day.

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