San Sebastián has been on the TOP of my Spain travel list since I studied abroad! Originally, we planned to go in August, but since I took a job at a medical clinic, we pushed it back to September. Luckily, pushing it back meant that we would be in town for Euskal Jaiak, a Basque festival celebrating Basque culture, and we had the best long weekend there.
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| View of San Sebastián from Monte Igueldo |
Saturday, September 5
The cheapest flight to EAS unfortunately left at 7:00, so we got ourselves up at 4:30 to catch the Aerobus and make our flight. The flight was super short, and even arrived early, just before 8:00. The airport was tiny (Kevin even saw one of his work colleagues) and it didn't take long for us to get out and get onto the bus to the city center.
The ride into the city was sooooo green. The both of us quickly commented on the number of trees and how green the grass was... It's crazy that Spain is a little smaller than Texas, and that this kind of landscape is just a 5-6 hour drive away from Barcelona. If only there was a place this beautiful 5-6 hours away in Texas...
Anyway, the bus stopped at the bus/train station and we walked towards Gros, the neighborhood we were staying in for the night. Our first order of business was food and coffee. I picked out a coffee shop and along the way, we stopped at Marquet Okindegia (a very traditional looking bakery) for a Basque custard pastry. We ate the pastry in a nice square in the perfect low 20° weather before snagging a seat outside of the very petite coffee shop where we split a flat white while waiting to drop our bags.
From our table at La Petite Café, we could see the sea and we also saw many people walk by without shoes on carrying surf boards. The vibe here seemed a lot more casual than either of us were expecting. I also started to see volleyball being set in the distance... trying to play was high on our priority list, but we hadn't really figured out where it worked best on our schedule, so this excited us enough to go scope it out.
First though, we went to Pension Aia to drop off our bags. We were met by one of the owners and not only was our room ready hours early, but she gave us the warmest welcome with recommendations for everything in the city. We probably spent 15-20 minutes chatting with her AND she let us borrow beach towels and a volleyball for the beach :) Oh and she informed us that the tap water here is great and that we should never buy water at a restaurant (!!!). Already 5 stars in my book.
Once we got our things situated, we headed out to start our day. Today, there were events on the Euskal Jaiak festival schedule I wanted to attend, so those events were the only things driving our schedule. Before grabbing a bit more food, we passed by Playa de Zurriola to scope out our volleyball prospects. We were pleased to find at least 8 courts set up with some good quality looking players, and the backdrop of the courts was incredible. Since we were staying so close to this beach tonight, we considered that today would probably be the best day to play, and kept that in our back pocket as we continued on.
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| I mean... how could you not get excited about playing here? |
Next, I mapped us to Luque, a French patisserie, where we grabbed a pain au chocolat and a croissant-- both beautiful and delicious. We ate the pastries right outside the to-go window and then headed towards Boulevard for the first event: The Tomato Exhibition.
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| Pain au chocolat from Luque; I would have come back for more |
The Euskal Jaiak program was written in both Euskera and Castellano, but neither provided a thorough description of the events, so I had no idea what the tomato exhibition would be. We walked onto Boulevard and passed a few farmers's market stands (where we saw some interesting squashes we'd never seen before) before reaching a gazebo at the end. In front of the gazebo (Kioskoa) was a large tent with a table displaying lines of tomatoes underneath! Each tomato was labeled, and there was someone moderating the event in Euskera, so we were unfortunately unable to learn how tomatoes were being judged, if at all. It all felt very "Wisconsin" and it felt like we were back in the Midwest for a minute.
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| The tomato expo |
The next event I didn't want to miss was Sagardo Eguna, a traditional cider tasting event where you could sample ciders from 35 cideries! It took place in Plaza de la Constitución, which was only a few minutes away. We walked into a packed plaza with the sound of a live music performance in the background (two women playing a tambourine and accordion) and stands for each of the cideries surrounding the perimeter. The event ran from 11:00-13:45, so it had just started, but it was clear that everyone has having a good time.
We tried to figure out where to get a glass to get started and instead ended up in a line to get pintxos, so instead we started with a chorizo sandwich pintxo! It had a great spicy flavor and was really good. We got in line to get some glasses, and when we found out each glass came with 10 tastings, we decided to just buy one (12€ for 10 tastings and an engraved wine glass! What a steal). Neither of us had any idea how to start, so Kevin suggested sampling ones from different regions to narrow it down. So, we slowly walked around the perimeter, depositing our tickets in exchange for fairly tall tastings of cider. The cidery workers poured the cider from high above to aerate the cider and sharpen flavor and aromas-- it was also fun to watch! We sipped on multiple ciders, enjoyed the music and singing, and even watched some fresh apples get pressed.
We were about 5 ciders in when Kevin wanted a bit of a break, so we took a little walk around the old town. We passed some of the bars whose names we recognized from doing some pre-trip research, and then started to hear some music. We followed it and saw a band start to march down the streets. The traditional outfits were a lot more dressy than ones we have seen in Barcelona, and the music was a lot less drum heavy. We weren't sure where they were going, but it was cool to see the city's traditions come alive during this festival weekend!
We came back to the square to finish off our cider tasting and we proudly tasted all 10! Well, we also did try some apple juice... For people who don't drink too much, though, 6% alcohol + lack of sleep was a tough combo lol. Before a siesta, we needed to eat, so we consulted our short list of places we wanted to try, and ended up a La Cuchara de San Telmo.
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| 10 sidras later |
La Cuchara was very close to the square, and when we arrived, the queue didn't seem ~too~ long, so we decided to stick it out. This place was recommended by my friend, Ana Carolina, and her local friend, as well as the Pension owner, who told us that despite its tourist popularity, the food is actually quite good. We waited in single file line (at least 20 minutes), ordered the suckling pig, razor clams, and octopus, and found space on the narrow bar. It was crowded, but for good reason. It was so packed in here that customers were helping deliver our food to us!
The highlight of the meal for me was definitely the suckling pig. It had an incredible crispy skin, but the meat was tender and so flavorful. I wish we had ordered more! We finished up eating around 15:00 and slowly walked back to Aia to take a siesta.
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| El cochinillo, or suckling pig from La Cuchara |
The soundproofing in the room combined with the persianas and our exhaustion made for a perfect nap. We both slept for almost 2 hours :O. It was so dark in there that both of us woke up almost a bit disoriented and we didn't really want to get up. Our only motivation, however, was the possibility of playing volleyball on that beach! Since we were staying so close and had a volleyball, we figured this would be our best chance, so we changed, gathered our things, picked up a bottle of water from Dia, and headed to Playa de Zurriola.
When we arrived, all of the nets were taken, and we noticed that some of the nets were not permanent. There was a tournament going on, so we watched for a bit, but then pulled out our ball to start peppering, in hopes someone would ask us to join. Both of us were concerned that the cheap ball we borrowed would be a dead giveaway that we weren't serious players, but it turned out that it didn't matter!
Once a court opened up, we took over the court and starting running some drills. A few minutes later, a large group came over, wanting to play, and not wanting to give up on the chance to play, we offered to play twos with some of them and switch off. We ended up playing a game with an American from Maryland and his friend before they found another court to play on. After we wrapped up that game, a couple of locals asked if we wanted to play, and we got cycled into their games.
The weather and playing conditions were perfect (including the soft sand), and as the sun was setting, I could not stop remarking on how beautiful it was here (and of course snapped a few photos). Before we knew it, the sun was set, and we had spent 3 hours at the beach playing with strangers. It's super cool that this sport brings people together and was a way for us to meet some locals (Montse, Chema, the woman from Ecuador who taught us a cool way to wrap the lines). This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me!
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| I mean... one of the best beach court set-ups I've ever played on |
By the time we got showered and ready for dinner, it was already 22:00... we decided to stay in the area and walked to the closest place we had saved, Bergara Taberna. It was a place for pintxos, and table space had just cleared up inside, so we decided to stay. I actually couldn't tell you exactly what we ate and honestly, nothing here really stood out, despite its Michelin guide recognition. Most everything we ordered ended up being a type of fish on a cracker or some sort of bread... and it was kind of overpriced. To me, this ended up being the 2nd most disappointing meal of the trip, but it wasn't too bad. Kevin was still hungry though, so he ended up grabbing a couple of empanadas across the street from our pension before we turned in for the night.
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| Pintxos at Bergara Taberna |
Sunday, September 6
Kevin and I both got a really good night's sleep and even slept-in in the morning! Not sure if it was the sleep deprivation, the volleyball, or the persianas, but I definitely wasn't complaining. When we went downstairs though, I did notice some pain in my right knee, so I started to be cautious about that. Our first stop was Driper coffee for a flat white and an eggs benedict with pastrami and kim-chi hollandaise sauce (really delicious!) and then went to Pariès, a French/Basque bakery, that our pension owner recommended for more food. Here, I had a croissant and Kevin and I split a Pastel Vasco, which was a traditional almond creme pastry. The Pastel Vasco was crumbly, not too sweet, and very good! Both of us liked it and we decided we would buy more to bring home. They also had the cutest chocolate pastries shaped like the traditional Basque hat, a txapel, or a beret.
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| Pasteles Vascos at Pariès |
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| The cutest little berets |
Once we finished up, we went back to Aia to gather our things and walk to our next hotel, Pensión Régil. Unfortunately, booking last minute during a festival weekend didn't lend us too many great or cheap hotel options, so we had to switch. The location of this one was a little bit more central, and closer to Old Town and Playa de la Concha. Once we made the 20 minute walk, we dropped our bags, I quickly changed because it was more humid than expected (our hottest day of 28° high), and we went to Playa de la Concha to watch the next Euskal Jaiak event on the agenda: The Regatta!
The pension owner had mentioned that this was one of the biggest events of the entire festival. She said that the tradition started when local fishermen used to race using long rowboats called traineras to be the first group to harpoon a whale out at sea. Nowadays, the tradition has continued, without killing whales and local towns and village teams compete against each other in the regatta. This year, the men's Orio team (yellow) won the the race!
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| Our view of the regatta |
We watched from the Playa de la Concha promenade against the railing, so we did not have the best view of them going out to sea. The entire race took about 25 minutes as the 5 teams rowed out of our view and back into view rather quickly- I was impressed by the speed! After the race, we stopped at Rompe Huevos, a coffee shop next to our new hotel, to sip on another drink until our hotel room was ready.
Once our room was ready (a 13 m² tiny room that I cannot believe we had to pay 150€ a night for), we hung out our wet clothes on the patio, freshened up, and headed to the neighborhood of Antiguo for our lunch reservation. This took about 30 minutes and was right along Playa de La Concha. Along the way, we also passed through castle gardens with tons of trees and beautiful flowers. This city just continued to surprise me!
The lunch spot, TrikuHarri Taberna Jatetxea, was on the main street of the more residential area of Antiguo. This restaurant was a Claude recommendation for a good quality for good value, so the both of us were quite excited. We got immediately seated thanks to my reservation, and it was a good thing I made one because the place was packed! There were people dressed in their team's colors from the regatta, and Kevin and I were the only people speaking English in the restaurant.
It was kind of difficult to narrow down what we wanted on the menu, but we ended up getting a sardina ahumada en tosta con tartar de tomate y lechuga de mar pintxo, Txipirones Trikuharri (small calamari) con setas y pimiento verde, sobre una base de jamón ibérico), ensalada de tomates y Merluza fresca (de Anzuelo) al horno con su refrito (local fish with potatoes), and a glass of sidra. Basically... we got everything that the table next to us got... and all of it was soooo good! I honestly wasn't disappointed with anything!! Well, I wasn't that impressed with the smoked sardine, but it was still good to try. The ingredients were fresh, the fish was so light and flaky, and the mixture of flavors was just good. Despite being happily stuffed, when the waitress asked if we wanted dessert, we had to get what the table next to us got, which was Torrija caramelizada con helado de canela (basically caramelized french toast with cinnamon ice cream). We almost changed our minds about this, but this was also among the best things we ordered. To put the cherry on top, the bill was only 54,30€... we couldn't believe it! And this became Kevin's favorite meal of the trip.
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| Txipirones, tomato salad, smoked sardine |
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| Palacio de Miramar grounds |
Since today was the warmest day, I figured it would be the best day to take a swim at the beach. There was a bit of cloud coverage, so I convinced Kevin to come along as well. We changed, grabbed some towels and our deck of cards, and set up shop on a pretty crowded Playa de La Concha in the early evening. The water was super clean and felt cool, but not too cold. We played a game of Schnapsen (I won), watched little kids destroy a beautiful sand castle, saw friends running into each other along the beach, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset in the bay. It was probably one of my favorite beach sunsets, ever!
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| A sunset and Schnapsen on Playa de la Concha |
Once it got dark, we left the beach and set off to look for some dinner. We hadn't checked out some of the pintxos places in Old Town at night yet, so we decided to scope it out to see how busy they were. The short answer is that these places always look busy! We passed a few of the places we wanted to try, and because the lines were long and it was already quite late, we ended up getting a burger (don't judge us!). We ate at GILOS for their smashburger, which was surprisingly good! They only had 1 bun remaining for the day, so we had to get a pulled pork brioche, which wasn't quite as good, but hey, they did give us some free fries! We ate up, enjoyed the cool walk back to our hotel, and turned in for the evening.
Monday, September 7
This morning, we decided to try Old Town Coffee, since it was a local roastery. We arrived and were surprised to find a very crowded coffee/brunch place, but got seated right away. Kevin and I shared a flat white and a toast (that took forever to come out!). The coffee was very good, but it felt like we were paying US prices...
Feeling like we needed some fruit and veggies, we made our next destination OBAIA for an açai bowl. Along the way, we walked by Catedral Buen Pastor de San Sebastiàn, and stopped at a few clothing shops! When we got to OBAIA, we settled into a table, enjoyed adding toppings on our bowl, observed a business meeting, and started a new game of Schnapsen.
Before moving on, we decided another coffee was necessary (it takes so long to feel caught up on sleep deprivation these days!), so we walked a bit more towards old town and stopped at Iturralde Kafetegia. This was more of a local establishment and not so much a specialty coffee shop, and it was run by an older couple, including a man in a white short-sleeve button-up and a bow-tie. The place was hopping and we luckily snagged a seat outside. We each got a cortado (very strong), and planned out our course of action for lunch.
Seeing how busy the pintxos places were at night, we thought lunch could be a slightly better option for a pintxo bar hopping experience. We started at Bar Sport, which was highly recommended on the internet for its sea-urchin cream and the txangurro crêpe. There were plenty of people gathered around the bar, but the lines moved much faster than expected. Kevin and I even both locked eyes with a server who waved us forward and we cut some in line (maybe we looked decisive?!).
There was no seating available inside, so we ended up eating on the ledge of a closed restaurant across the street. We ordered the sea-urchin cream, txangurro crêpe, a jamón croqueta, more txipirones, and some cod, and I thought all of it was good quality! My favorite was definitely the sea-urchin cream, which I did not expect, and Kevin's was the croqueta, and he even claimed it might be the best he's ever tried. Something else that really stood out about this place is how friendly the workers were! Despite the insane crowds and having to deal with tourists all day, everyone working here was so kind and friendly.
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| Crazy lines at Bar Sport |
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| Bar Sport line-up |
Next, we walked right down the street to Casa Urola. This was another recommendation from the pension owner and was also on the Michelin guide, so we definitely wanted to stop in. Casa Urola has a restaurant on top, but a pintxos bar on the ground level, so we got in line and were the second to the last to get seated before closing. Unfortunately, since we arrived a bit late, several pintxos had sold out, but we were able to get their famous scallop dish, a mushroom tartlet, and some green beans (finally, veggies!), with a cup of cider. We ate atop their very narrow bar with a perfect view of the kitchen. There were tons of people back there and it looked like a well-oiled machine.
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| The scallop in almond garlic cream soup at Casa Urola didn't disappoint |
We took a much needed post-lunch stroll back to the hotel after lunch to change and prepare for a little hike! Since there isn't too much green in Barcelona, we both wanted to get out a little into nature. Unfortunately, my right knee was still giving me some problems, so we planned accordingly and took it easy.
The hike I chose was the Pasaia Bay Hike, which started in a small town Pasai Donibane, in between San Sebastián and the airport. We took about a 30 minute city bus to the Pasai Donibane and walked through town as part of the hike. The town was surrounded by beautiful, tall trees, and had quite high elevation at parts. The hike took us across beautiful viewpoints of the city, and we passed by a house that Kevin said looked straight out of a fairytale. It had beautiful flowers growing in window boxes and intricate wood railings on every floor with an exterior wooden staircase. I haven't even commented on the architecture in this region, but wood is a very prominent element in the design: railings, half timbered facades, carvings! Definitely an element I haven't seen often.
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| Pasaia Bay |
We took a few wrong turns and got back onto the path, which led us straight down and into the city center. It was pretty quiet there, but quaint. We walked towards the end of the ría and out to the sea to start the hike, passing and using a self-cleaning toilet and the San Juan beach where people were swimming along the way. The weather was about 25° with cloud cover and it just felt really nice to be amongst trees and get some fresh air!
The trail itself was pretty well paved until we reached an old tower where we caught our first glimpses of the beautiful, rocky shorelines. You could see endless amounts of water. It was quiet, and we were the only people on the trail! We kept going, hoping to find chairs with a view (as it was labeled on the map), but ended up sitting to rest on some rocks. The trail started to get more difficult. We were on our hands trying to climb through crevices of rock. At this point, Kevin convinced me to stop so that I wouldn't further injure my knee, and he went ahead solo to see if continuing would be worth it.
With a dying phone battery, I sat, and just and took in the views of the water and shoreline and listened to the birds. It was kinda meditative to watch the waves. Kevin returned about 20-30 minutes later and reported back that continuing would be pretty difficult for views that were pretty similar. We had lolligagged quite a bit before starting the hike, so completing the entire hike before sundown wasn't going to be possible, so we decided this would be a good cut-off point.
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| Kevin's shoreline view from higher up |
We descended from the hike and walked back towards the bus-stop, peeking in to bars and restaurants along the way to decide if we should stop for a cider. Eventually, we got close to the bus stop and needed to wait for the next bus, so we stopped at Matxet Txiringitoa, a little chiringuito next to the ferry stop and port. They had tables along the railing next to the water, so we ordered a few ciders and a bag of potato chips (because everyone else was), and played a few rounds of Schnapsen. It was a really relaxed setting, and we were surrounded by locals (and could only hear Euskera around us).
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| What a great place to rest in Pasaia |
The bus came about every 20 minutes, so once we wrapped up (I think I won again?!), we caught the next bus back to San Sebastián. It was already 20:30 or so, so after we got back to the hotel, we tried to quickly decide where to eat. Eventually, we were deciding between tapas or Japanese. We ended up going to Lobo, due to its proximity to our hotel, and were utterly disappointed. Not even worth commenting on the basket of fried things we ate lol. We went to bed a little bloated, but otherwise had such a nice day.
Tuesday, September 8
Today was our last day in San Sebastián. Our first order of business was going back to Pariès to get more pasteles vascos to take home, so in the morning, we went there for breakfast. Shockingly, it was only a 12 minute walk or so, so it wasn't too far and I was glad we did it. We took a little longer than anticipated, so before grabbing a coffee, we packed up our things at the hotel, had a little back and forth about leaving our bags, and then got some much needed coffee at Rompe Huevos downstairs.
Once we were caffeinated, we jumped on the first bus to the Monte Igueldo Funicular! We debated whether or not it would be worth it with our limited time, but eventually just decided to do it. The bus was full of tourists, for sure, but it saved us a 30 minute uphill walk. There was a queue for the funicular, but it went relatively fast, and we paid 5.50€ each for a roundtrip ticket. This funicular was quite a bit older than the last time we rode one at Tibidabo (it celebrated 100 years in 2012!), so it went slow... but we made it!
On top of Monte Igueldo, there is a small amusement park and incredible views of the bay. We got out of the funicular and were immediately met with sunshine and those spectacular views. We walked a little further from the crowds and took in the beautiful turquoise water and peaks of mountains behind the city. The views from here already made the trip up worth it!
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| This view was amazing! |
We explored about every end of the amusement park, and unfortunately the famous log flume ride wasn't in service, but the roller coaster was! Neither of us are really roller coaster people, but when we saw the height of the track and realized that there was no seatbelt required (???!?!?), I thought "how bad could it be?". So, we boarded "La Montaña Suiza," were shortly followed by a woman and her baby who was maybe a year old lol, and took a ride on this manually operated wooden roller coaster! It was surprisingly faster than I expected, and it did give us some really amazing views.
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| On Montaña Suiza, a manually operated wooden roller coaster with no seatbelts |
We continued to explore the park, seeing the old tower, some bumper cars, a fun house, and several cafes, Kevin broke the zipper to my Uniqlo bag, I got a postcard, and we took more pictures with the beautiful vista. Eventually, our time was running short, so we had to head back to town, but I couldn't stayed up there longer!
The funicular seemed faster on the way down, and when we arrived at the bottom, we walked a bit in order to avoid waiting for the next bus. While we waited for a bus in Antiguo, Kevin chose a spot for lunch and we devised a plan to split up once we got to Old Town. Kevin walked to Daniel's Focaccerria to pick up a sandwich and a slice of pizza, and I went to scope out La Viña for cheesecake. The line at La Viña seemed to move fast, so instead of standing in line, I found a nice square for us to sit and enjoy our lunch.
The focaccias were some of the best I've had in a long time! We had a spicy salami sandwich and a pizza with artichoke, spicy salami, arugula, and burrata. The ingredients were so fresh and really hit the spot! I finished first and went over to La Viña to grab some Basque Cheesecake (6.50€) to-go. Our pension owner said this was the one place she'd wait in line for, and her recommendation did not disappoint! The cheesecake was nicely caramelized on top and had a gooey interior. The cheesecake wasn't too sweet and was easy to eat. Kevin said he'd even eat it with breakfast! Overall, it was the perfect cap to our San Sebastián food tour.
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| Delicious focaccias |
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| La Viña cheesecake |
After lunch, we took one last stroll through Old Town, checked out a vintage store, and grabbed our backpacks and headed to the airport bus. We made it to the tiny airport with ample time, and made it back to Barcelona safely and with happy bellies!
Annnnnd before I end this post, I'm adding a few more photos from around the city. I loved the intricate iron work on doors and balconies, the decorative detailing on the facades, the mix of tans and light blues, the use of wood, and all of the beautiful stained glass!
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