Guest blog time! Hello everyone! For those of you who may not know me, I am Natalie, Keith and Shawn’s eldest daughter. I’m in the middle of a ten-month stint teaching English at a university in Santiago, Chile. It’s currently winter here and because I am a teacher, I get to enjoy two weeks of “winter vacation”. So, after wrapping up grading finals and taking a few snowboarding day trips to the nearby mountains, I hopped on a thirteen hour flight headed for San Sebastian, Spain to meet up with the fam.
I’d been to San Sebastian once before with a group of friends a few years ago. We came in November (we actually flew out of LAX on Election Day – not a bad day to flee the country I’d say), so it was cold, rainy and essentially free of tourists. Pretty much the opposite of this trip. It felt as if all of Europe decided to vacation in San Sebastian in July. Although the summer crowds meant you had to vy for attention in the city’s popular pintxo (Basque tapas) bars, the tradeoff was the beach. Last time, it was much too cold to enjoy the beaches, but this time, we spent the majority of our days basking in the sun and swimming. The two main beaches in San Sebastian, La Concha and Zurriola, are pretty, clean, and big enough to absorb the tens of thousands of tourists that descend on the city in summer.
While San Sebastian is obviously very European, it has a bit of that familiar California surf town vibe. Surf stores line the main “malecon”, people on skateboards and cruisers weave their way through the throngs of tourists, and half of the beach is a ‘surf-only’ zone. One day, I rented a board from a shop just below our Airbnb – which BTW, was very cool – [https://www.rentalscollection.com/en/apartment-rent-details/zurriola-beach/donostia-san-sebastian/204/the-scala-apartment-in-san-sebastian.php] and enjoyed a few hours out in the waves at Zurriola. Dad tried to get some photos of me surfing, (aka: He was THAT guy with the buzzy drone over the lineup) but either due to his drone skill or my surfing skills, he ended up with just some photos of me paddling. Cool photos nonetheless.
San Sebastian is an undisputed gastronomic capital of the world and one evening, we went on a self-led pintxo tour throughout Parte Vieja (“The Old Part”) of the city. At the classic pintxo bar, Bar Sport [https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187457-d1153179-Reviews-Bar_Sport-San_Sebastian_Donostia_Province_of_Guipuzcoa_Basque_Country.html], we ate txuleta sliders and foie gras, which I’d been dreaming about since the last time I was there. Next door, at Borda Berri [https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187457-d1519796-Reviews-Borda_Berri-San_Sebastian_Donostia_Province_of_Guipuzcoa_Basque_Country.html], we sampled some excellent sea bream and pork belly. Nikki ordered some form of croquette everywhere we went.
If you’d prefer a sit-down meal instead of taking the pintxo route, I recommend Bodega Alejandro [http://www.bodegonalejandro.com/en/home/]. We had dinner there during our trip and it proved to be a great choice! Classy and tasty, but not over the top expensive.
And speaking of over the top expensive….. One night to celebrate my birthday, we dined at Arzak, a renowned three-star Michelin restaurant [https://www.arzak.es]. We opted for the tasting menu which included creations like “Symbolic Pigeon”, a dish served on a tablet (that’s an IPad for you Apple users) displaying fireplace graphics. One of the chocolate desserts was served on half of a skateboard deck with chocolates shaped like wheels and trucks. The dessert of my dreams when I was eleven years old. A tad over the top? Yes. But that’s what you get at a three star Michelin establishment, I guess. And the taste lived up to the presentation. The attention to details was above and beyond. The head chef even came out to introduce herself, wish me a happy birthday, and inform us of the Jazz Festival that was happening in San Sebastian that weekend.
Now, we already knew about the ‘Jazzaldia’ Jazz Festival because it was impossible to miss the massive stage that was set up on Zurriola Beach. There were various other venues across the city with performances that required buying tickets in advance, but the beach shows were free and open to the public. One night after dinner, the four of us went and enjoyed dancing on the beach to a Latin, poppy jazz band that I can’t remember the name of — (maybe Ruben Blades?). The crowd was big but there was ample space for everyone, especially since the tide was incredibly low that night, making the massive beach appear to double in size. The next night, it rained a bit, causing the crowd to thin out. Dad and I took advantage of this and got front row to watch Gary Clark, Jr. Nice to groove to some American rock-a-billy with a bunch of Europeans.
After five or so great days there, we took the train to Madrid. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time eating, beaching, and chilling in San Sebastian. It was a magical city that combines a special food culture, pretty European architecture, and a hip, lively beach town vibe. If you get the chance to visit, do it! Like me, you may leave with a slightly sunburned face and a few extra pounds around the edges thanks to the pintxos, but I can assure you, it will be worth it.