San Sebastian - Pintxos with a View

It was a bi put of an effort for us to get to San Sebastian but as it turns out I am really glad we did because it has been my favourite destination so far! After being told by a man in the French ticket office that San Sebastian didn't have a train station I was a little miffed because I was certain it did, a quick search online confirmed that. Having said that we had to catch two trains and a bus from Bordeaux to get there which was a little painful but only took about 3.5hrs - we are getting pretty good at navigating foreign public transport systems!

The first thing we did when we got there (aside from eat) was take a walk to Monte Urgull, this is a mountain that kind of sits between the town of San Sebastian and the sea - it was once designed to be a military base of some type to protect the city but was never fully finished. Below are photos of Michael and I around the base and some of the walking tracks we took to get to the top.

After walking along many different paths for about an hour or so we were at the top, it was actually a really nice walk (I loved it so much I came back and went for a run here a few days later), the photos below are mostly overlooking the bay of San Sebastian, which would be amazing in the summer! I wish it had of been warm enough to go for a swim!

Below are photos of both sides of Monte Urgull, the top two are of both of us in front of the bay side (which is a beautiful view!) and the bottom picture is of the other side of the mountain, this is the surf beach in San Sebastian.

The next photo is just of the walls and partially built military base near the top of Monte Urgull, there is also a giant statue of Jesus, which actually looked pretty cool. You can see this statue from virtually anywhere in San Sebastian.

As you can see by the above photo we decided to venture down to the surf beach and chill for a little while, it was still pretty cold here but the sun is starting to come out so there were heaps of locals sitting around by the beach too (although you can't really tell by this picture).

Sorry for the abundance of Monte Urgull photos, it was one of our favourite parts of San Sebastian!

We scored with our hostel accommodation, we were located in the centre of the old town (the middle picture below is taken from our window!) which was absolutely packed full of restaurants, bars and cafes! Turns out Spanish people love nothing more than to eat, drink and then sleep for a long time. 

The old town is full of tiny, narrow cobblestone streets with high apartments and hostels/hotels built all around it. It was a really cool place to see and very different from anything we have back home!

The thing we find the strangest thing about Spain is the opening times of everything - things don't seem to open until around 10am (give or take) and then everyone goes on Siesta in the afternoon so shops start to close around 2pm and don't open again until 4pm so everyone can go home and have a nap or lunch with their family. It's really weird for us as we are used to things pretty much being open all the time (most of the shops close on Sunday in Spain too!).

The next best thing, aside from the views, in San Sebastian was the food! The first night we were there we discovered Pintxos and couldn't get enough! Pintxos are like tiny portions of food (kind of like tapas but more like finger foods or snacks in small portions). At most Pintxos bars or restaurants there is a huge selection of different plates of food all along the bar and you just ask the bartender for a plate (platos) and pick the things you want to try. Usually you are supposed to only try a few Pintxos (accompanied by a drink) at any one bar before moving onto the next one. Some Pintxos bars have all their Pintxos spread out on the bar and at others you order from a chalk board.

The photos in the above left picture are actually at a restuarant we went to, believe it or not this was my entree (only 3 euros!), while the photos on the right are mostly of the Pintxos at one of the bars we ate at - YUM!

More Pintxos, from a bar called La Vina, which is actually famous for its cheesecake! We got some Pintxos and wine and headed back later for cheesecake, which was nothing like ours but it was delicious - it actually kinda tasted like cheese. The Pintxos in this photo were cooked to order and probably my favoutite!

Another really strange custom when eating Pintxos is that after you eat you are supposed to throw your napkin on the ground, the more napkins on the ground at a Pintxos bar the more customers have been eating their food and therefore the better the Pintxos bar is!

Bar Martinez was another Pintxos bar we loved. All the Pintxos men (they were nearly always men) were so friendly here and always insisted we 'feast before pay' - we have definetly found that the people in Spain are much more friendly than the people in France! The barmen were so happy for us to sample their food and wine and were always giving us recommendations!

We walked along the boardwalk of the beautiful San Sebastian bay - you can't really tell by these photos but it was actually pretty cold!

The below photos are just of us in front of the bay and of the Palace of San Sebastian, where the royals used to live but no longer do (boring!)

We checked out what was supposed to be some famous art work/sculptures called The Wind Comb, pictured below - we actually enjoyed watching the waves more than we did the artwork because the water looked pretty cool. 

Later we headed up another mountain on the opposite side of the San Sebastian bay - this was was called Monte Igueldo and we headed up in the strangest looking little cable car that I was afraid might break at any second. The whole place was kind of hidden and there was hardly anyone there, we weren't really sure if we were even going to the right place but we made it!

As you can see by the photos the views were amazing!! 

On the far left you can see Monte Urgull which we had walked up the previous day and the statue of Jesus at the top, at the very foot of this mountain is the old town area of San Sebastian that we were staying in.

The combination of amazing food (Pintxos!!) and views has definetly made San Sebastian our favourite stop so far and I would definetly recommend it to anyone who wants to visit Spain! It actually reminded us quite a bit of a beach town back in Australia, it had a very relaxed and peaceful feel about it - although I imagine it would be packed with people over the summer!

Just a few other random photos I took of Pintxos (the two on the bottom left were really random) and the prices of alcohol here, it is ridiculously cheap to buy bottles of alcohol at the supermarket as they don't have the taxes we do - crazy! We were also drinking glasses of wine at most Pintxos bars for around 1.6-2 euros and the best part of that is that Spanish wine is good!