Pintxos and Waves

Imagine a city that is blessed by nature, adorned by beautiful Spanish architecture and full of friendly people who are wizards in the kitchen...  and you’re probably thinking about San Sebastian.

San Sebastian from Monte Igeldo

The city is well protected from the worst that the Atlantic can offer by its small island on the seaside and by three high hills on the land side. As a result, human habitation has started as early as 24000 BC. It had its share of wars; it was occupied by almost every conquering army -Romans, French, Portuguese, English etc - at one point in time.  

When you see San Sebastian, you understand why every civilisation passing through wanted to settle there.  It simply is beautiful. The city was built around the scallop shaped La Concha bay and today its three beaches are at the heart of the city.  The rumour is that there’s a forth – the phantom beach - between the island and the mainland which can only be seen if the tide is right and light is bright and the stars align correctly when the black crow is flying. Not surprisingly we couldn’t see it, but the ones we did see were beautiful enough.

Parte Vieja Harbour

We had a lovely time in San Sebastian doing what the Spaniards do: Walk and eat pintxos (Basque name for tapas).  We took long strolls on the promenade on Bahia de La Concha, got wet watching the waves hit the  tall walls at Passe Nuevo, climbed both Monte Urgull  & Monte Igeldo and watched the surfers at Playa de Zurriola . Mostly, we did the favourite pastime of any seaside town:  sat at cafes and watched the life go by. And of course, we’ve sampled the Txikiteo bars to eat pintxos.

It’s impossible to describe San Sebastian without mentioning its restaurants and Txikiteo bars. Hosting three of Spain’s six Michelin 3-star restaurants, the small city has a well earned reputation for being the gourmet capital of Spain. And nobody is even counting the lesser Michelin-star restaurants.  But the main surprise came from the variety and taste of the pinxtos.  Before visiting San Sebastian, tapas for me were some sort of meat or cheese put on small pieces of bread. That is still true enough, but now they also come as foie gras cooked in sherry or tuna tartar with lime mousse or artichoke hearts served with lemon mayonnaise. All yummy!

While planning this trip I had managed to find a booking in one of the Michelin 3-stars but had to cancel it due to our changing schedule. I shouldn’t have worried; we had an incredible feast in a local restaurant named La Vida tasting the above and much more. More incredibly, we paid less than 40 EUR for two people including wine!

The city is packed with pinxtos bars and it’s a challenge to find the good ones. The trick that worked for us was to go where locals go. If a place is packed with Spaniards young and old, eating drinking and talking loud, ignore the horrible fluorescent lights and lack of any charm or even chair. Just go in, select one or two types of pinxtos (never more!), pick your drink and find yourself somewhere to sit on the street. Savour the tastes and repeat the same exercise at another similar place.

Another challenge that we still didn’t quite overcome is the language. Spaniards speak Spanish really fast and some of them don’t speak anything else. Even if there’s an English or French menu, the chances are your waiter doesn’t speak either; or the English words might have a different meaning : In one of our favorite cafes' the vegetarian sandwich was coming with three types of bacon. When we utter some words in our best attempts in Spanish, say in a restaurant or in a shop, the reply comes at warp speed and detailed. Up until now we managed to survive but every day brings a new challenge or two...