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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