Yummy San Seb

​July 9

The start to our time in San Sebastian was slowed down by the weight of our bags. We sat for breakfast in a café and had toast and coffee. We walked to the beach to see the ocean for the first time. San Sebastian is so beautiful and it took our breath away.

We decided that we didn’t want to swim at the beach with all of our luggage so instead, Alastair took us for a food tour. We visited Bar Antonio which was incredibly packed. We left our luggage in an alley to sit at the bar and eat dumplings, anchovy pinxos, and beef cheek wontons. We also tried txakoli, a local sparkling white wine. San Sebastian is one of the food capitals of the world so Alastair is beyond excited for the eating that we will do in the next few days.

After our snack, we walked through the cathedral and then found a Starbucks where we could sit and play cards until check-in at the hostel that we missed last night. The reviews for this hostel said that we should only book it if we had no other options, and because we booked it so late, we really didn’t have any other options. However, once we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. Our room is tiny, but we have our own bathroom and we are right in the heart of the old town.

Once we were free of our bags, we headed out for another round of pinxos. Most of the famous pinxos bars are actually on our street, and we started at Bar Sport. We had the best calamari we’ve ever tasted, a crabcake crêpe, sea urchin soup, foie gras and Alastair had a squid stuffed with crab.

The next stop was Casa Urola for beef cheek, a mushroom tartlet, and the best scallop that we’ve ever had in a white soup called ajoblanco.

Next was Beti-Ai for tortilla with cod, the local cider which tastes kind of like apple cider vinegar, croquettes, and pork cheek. Our last stop of the evening was at La Vina for traditional basque cheesecake, at the very restaurant where it was invented. This cheesecake is crustless, less sweet and more soft than we are used to in the United States. We paired it with dessert wine, which was essentially syrup. Insanely delicious.

Once we were all full and happy, we walked back to the beach to watch the sunset. It was very cloudy so there was no real sunset. We moved to the roof of our hostel to play cards. A very successful day for all of us.

Adelaide