We arrive late and leave very early...the worst of the worst people to share a dorm room with. Lucky they don't see our faces. It's a brief walk to the train station and we're off to San Sebastian. It's a 5.5 hr. train ride.
It's a short walk to our hostel, though a little confusing as our map is in Spanish and some of the street signs are in the Basque language, Euskara. We meet Shauna, a world-wide traveller who's looking after the hostel for a while. We drop our bags and go out to find some food and explore. There are 2 beaches in the city, one on each side of the river. Since Rome, we encounter more international tourists than anywhere else so far. Lots of Australians and surfers.
Pintxos are small snacks, similar to Spanish tapas, but usually on top of a piece of bread held on with a toothpick. There is bread topped with pieces of iberian ham (jamón ibérico), spanish potato tortilla, crab salad, morsels of delicious seafood, skewers of pork and mushrooms, baby squid....the list goes on and on. The bars are lined with dishes of pintxos on the counter and you just go and pick what you want with a drink in hand. Each bar might be slightly different with their own specialties. It's a bit intimidating at first. During the busy hours, the bars are just packed and you have to wiggle your way to the counter. Locals can call out the name of what they want, but we rely on finger pointing and gestures. Sometimes we're given a plate to load up ourselves and the bartender will assess the plate and tell us how much. With Soph's fish allergy we also have to be extra careful and do some extra eye-balling, looking for pintxos sin pescado.
We find a recommended pintxos bar and elbow our way in, only to be turned away at the counter saying they're closing for the afternoon (hmph.. spanish siestas!) But no matter, the old town is filled with pintxos bars, so we settle into Bar Martinez across the street. I have a scallop on a clump of tuna salad, some shrimp on something like egg salad, and jamon on a stick of bread. We also share a plate of calamari and wash it down with our spanish staple, cerveza con limon (beer with lemon).
Fuelled up, we continue towards Playa de la Concha, the beach on the west side of the city. Of course we must stop for pastries. I have a coco, a giant macaroon.
Sophia is itching cook, so we head to the supermarket to pick up some groceries for dinner. We pick up some mushrooms, pasta, tomato sauce and octopus. More cheap wine! A jug for under 6 euros!
We figure out the stove top touch screen system and have a nice pasta dinner. There's a jazz festival this week and various stages are set up around Playa de Zurriola so we go check it out.
