Sunshine in the Basque (San Sebastian)

We arrived in San Sebastian just when it was starting to get dark. It's about 5 hours by train and we even pased through Pamplona (although we didn't get off - the Running of the Bulls was back in July so there wasn't much point). San Sebastian is located in the Basque region of Spain. Some people say that they have the best food in the world, and that their most famous food are their tapas (known as pintxos in their dialect). Tapas are good because its normal to have a drink with your tapas. I guess this means that you don't get drunk so quickly as you won't be drinking on an empty stomach. But as our old housemates used to say "eating is cheating". I disagree as I believe that they should serve you food with your beer (which is the case in Granada where you can eat for free!).

We made our way through town over to our hostel (which was packed full of Aussies) dropped off our bags and then headed out via the beautiful beach to the old town section to sample some tapas. This was the first place we went to. Most places here have all their tapas out on the bar for you to choose from. It's sort of like yum cha or sushi train.


This is the same place. As you can see in this photo its quite packed. Not so many people in the first photo but people hop from bar to bar to try tapas from all the many different places. Its quite popular to go on a tapas crawl.


Off to another place.


The tapas we had was all so very nice and tasty.


Check out the cool beer taps! Those mushroom tapas there were the bomb!


Beautiful and very yummy!


Then off again to another place. This one had lots of cooked tapas. You'd select a plate of raw octopus or beef or chicken or whatever and they'd cook it for you. Nice.


Here's a view of the old town from the beach (Playa de la Concha).


They've got a mountain next to the old town which has got a huge Jesus statue on it (like in Sao Paulo). They have that kind of thing everywhere.


Hotels and the promenade beside the beach.


Some sculptures by the sea. These are Eduardo Chillida's El Peine del Viento (the Wind's Comb). He was a famous local sculptor.




We rode up the funicular for these fantastic views of the beach and the north coast of Spain.




They've even got an amusement park up there!


On our way back along the beach we saw this guy sculpting a dragon and a crucified Jesus in the sand. Pretty cool stuff.


Here's their famous Basílica de Santa María del Coro.


San Sebastian is also known as a playground for the rich and famous and they do have some nice and expensive shops around.


We had a great time, albeit a little brief, in San Sebastian. One of the key factors in this was that it didn't rain at all and we got a brilliant sunny day for the first time on our trip. The food was indeed quite good, but not enough for us to say they have the best in the world, but probably cos we didn't (or couldn't afford to) eat anywhere with some Michelin stars. Next stop, Bilbao.