Upon the Sand, Upon the Bay

August 24, 2010

I regret to say that I began my second day in San Sebastian at 3:00 p.m.

I decided after waking up that I needed to stay in SS for 3 nights, rather than the 2 I had originally planned. I thought I mentioned this to the guy working the front desk.

San Sebastian sits between two small, easy to climb mountains. Igeldo I walked up on Monday, and on Tuesday I used the energy I had remaining climb up the Urgull Mountain. At the top is a huge statue of Jesus Christ and a castle. A Mitch Hedberg routine, popped up on my Ipod while I during my walk. The view from the top was not quite as impressive as the Igeldo view, but the castle on Urgull was much cooler than the lame amusement park.

Then I walked to the San Sebastian beach often referred to as the "Surfer's Beach", and I don't quite understand why it is called that, as I didn't see much there in terms of waves, but so be it, they can call it whatever they want, and what do I know about surfing anyway? Nothing. After walking the length of the beach, I called my friend N, in London, and confirmed that we would be traveling to Tel-Aviv together between September 20 and 28th. At some point I need to consider what we'll be doing there. Maybe I can recruit her to do the planning.

I spent the next 1-2 hours booking the flight. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to book over the phone. But I learned on this walk that San Sebastian, Spain, or at least the Old City, is probably the most easy to navigate town I've been to, Grongingen, Netherlands a close second. Even though on the phone, preoccupied, and not really paying attention, I managed to walk directly back to my hostel without even trying.

This night the hostel hosted a trip to a restaurant called the Cider House, which the employees kept saying was amazing, and a must do activity. I used my self control and decided I needed to take it easy, so I declined the event. I also thought that two nights in a row with the same group of Australians might be overkill.

Instead, I walked to Bar Astalena, recommended by the Lonely Planet, for pintxos, and where I ran into the Australian tour guide from the previous night, reading a book. Because the old town is so small, it is very easy to run into the folks with whom one is already slightly acquainted. I like this about San Sebastian. I ate some grilled squid on a stick, frog legs, and shrimp on a stick. I'm not describing these in enough detail to give a sense of how good they tasted (very?), and I haven't had the patience to photograph all of the food I eat (and then email those pictures to myself, and then upload those pictures to the blog), but these were very flavorful, perfectly cooked, foods. Very, very impressed.

I went back to the hostel for an hour or so, watched almost everybody but me go to the Cider House tour, and reminded myself that I needed to take it easy.

But I had been recommended one other bar in San Sebastian that sounded like my cup of tea, located just down the street from the hostel, so I figured I'd drop by. The Museo De Whisky was quiet when I arrived at around 10:30, I sat down on a stool, and was slightly intimidated by the thick menu and wall of whiskies, many dating to the 1960s, that lined the walls. Fortunately, the bartendress was both very knowledgeable and friendly. She made some great suggestions, everything delicious, ended up talking to some 70 something retired San Sebastian guys. I had also been informed that later on in the evenings the downstairs portion of the bar becomes a karaoke bar. This may be true, but at the time i went (around midnight?) there was a piano player playing instrumentals, while a room of San Sebastioners lounged around, possibly waiting for an even later hour to show off their stuff.

I walked back to the hostel, briefly checked my email, and thought to myself...what the heck, I really don't feel like staying in. So walked back to the Be Bop bar from the previous night, ran into the same group of Irish people, hung out and danced with them for a bit (and discovered that one had been staying in my hostel -- see, it's a small town for tourists, also one is a lawyer, whoo hoo!), ran into the German guys staying in my room (that I had not yet met somehow), and an Australian they had befriended. Briefly spoke to a guy from Plymouth, England, who started telling me how much he likes Sleater-Kinney, just as I was walking away. It's a fun city.

The Smiths -- "Pretty Girls Make Graves"