Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014
Let me start by saying I’m happy we came to San Sebastian if for nothing else to eat the pintrxos, the Basque word for tapas.
We drove our car to the train stopped and without much problem bought round trip tickets into town! When we got off the train in downtown San Sebastian it was pouring rain, it reminded us of Juneau on in October day. It was just before noon and downtown was absolutely dead, the only people we saw where those headed into the church for noon mass. We continue to old town where at least there was a little more activity, however nothing really came alive until about 1 PM. Suddenly all the bars were opened up and there were tons of people crowding them trying to get some food and beer and wine.
We decided to do as the locals do and as we’d read about; we hopped from bar to bar to “txiquiteo” as the locals call it. We just walked up and down the street entering different bars and filling our plates with 2 to 4 pintrxos! Some were cheese and vegetables, some seafood others were ham with toppings but my favorite or any of them that had anchovies. Paired with a glass of beer or a glass of sangria we enjoyed each stop.
Once the rain stopped and actually cleared up a bit almost becoming sunny though it was cold and windy most of the day. We were still marveling at the fact that most of the stores were closed and that it seemed to be quite quiet town considering it’s such a tourist destination. I’m sure in the summer it’s just the opposite and again, in some ways it reminds us of home, everything closed down until all the tourists come back. We are sure it had also had a lot to do with it being Sunday though it was disappointing to be such a ghost town.
San Sebastian is a community of almost 200,000 people and in the summer tourism about doubles! But on this cold rainy winter Sunday it was more or less a deserted town. The community sits on the Bay of Biscay, and the winds hollow through town, and today was no exception. I’m sure in the summer the be winds off the water are refreshing but today they made it chilly.
The main language here is not Spanish it is actually Euskara, the Basque language, which made it even more challenging for us to interact with people. All the signage and menus were also Euskara so we resorted to pointing to much of the food!
We’re glad we visited but don’t think we got a true idea of the community.
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timistravels 
The food looks delicious even though there was a ghost town travels situation. Happy travels!
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Food looks scrupulous. architecture was a surprise when you described it as a small town. Interesting
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The tapas and beer look enticing, at the least.
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The food did look good but sorry it was a cold and rainy day. But at least you’re used to it. Imagine if you lived in San Diego and visited…
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