no point stories about me: Spanish Sojourn Day 1

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Spanish Sojourn Day 1

As said in my last post, I spent the week on holiday. CuzJen and Fremma were travelling through Euroland and stopped by Munich for a week to check out the sights. As part of the plan, I said I would accompany them onto their next location - in my future retirement location - Spain!

An ad in the in-flight magazine on our way over. Highly relevant.

We flew to San Sebastian via an overnight stay in Barcelona, arriving at our pensione at the ungodly time of 9-something. And I really do mean ungodly because nothing was open and even the pensione staff said we were really early and everyone inside was still sleeping lol. Since we were so early, we couldn't go to our room, and we instead decided to go shopping. Shops were also largely still closed, so we went somewhere definitely not closed - the beach!

Except you know, La Concha also looked like it was closed

But a few brave early souls were out and about.

Hey there, Jesus on top of Urgull.

The guy operating the carousel allowed me and Fremma aboard! I don't have a photo of the dolphin I was riding.

CuzJen chose not to enjoy a ride, preferring instead to enjoy the view

And it sure is a pretty view!

People who know the geography of San Seb should now realise that we were near the Parte Vieja. Shops were slowly opening up (it was about 11am by now), so we entered to look around before the tourist hoards hit. As we wandered around, we realised that we were getting hungry, and after strolling for a bit longer until it was closer to midday, we decided it was time to start our gastronomic adventures!

You should have seen the happy eyes and open mouths of CuzJen and Fremma when they saw the pintxos displays. I ordered kalimotxos to go with my plate and the waiter commented that I must be on holiday to order it for breakfast! This is where CuzJen discovered her love of white anchovies and I remembered the joy of that fish...cake. I have to ask Patri for a recipe :/

At the next bar I advised that we try the local cider so that we could drink it by the bottle. Unfortunately, they didn't like it :(

We were getting pretty full by now and only got one plate to share for the three of us at the next bar

But not so hungry that we could bypass a cake shop without getting some cake! Great photobomb, Fremma!

All the shops and restaurants were closing up so we decided to do as Donostiarra do, and take a siesta on the beach.

But seriously, it seemed everyone in town had the same idea.

Nevertheless, we were lucky enough to get a spot. My smile is huge from enjoying the rest and my dip into the Atlantic! CuzJen was so comfortable she fell asleep.

Following siesta, I literally rushed CuzJen and Fremma from our place back into the Parte Vieja to get to La Cuchara de San Telmo. They had also read the recommendations saying how wonderful this place was, although they were a bit hesitant when they saw how packed the place was. Nevertheless, I worked my way through the crowd to the bench, snagged a menu, and managed to place our order.

Along with the obligatory kalimotxos, here's some veal cheek. So soft we cut it with a spoon.

Confit bacalao (codfish!)

Suckling pig. We all agreed that it was good but nothing beats Chinese suckling pig (sorry).

FOIE A LA PLANCHA!!! There are times when I think I could eat this every day. And then I think about what I just said and say...no

Pulpo!

And finally, pigs ears. All up, we paid only €30 much to CuzJen and Fremma's shock.

Our next stop. We had bypassed this place in the morning for being 'too clean looking' but decided to give it a shot at night because it was packed.

We were wrong - it was pretty good! Also, those mussels in the can were amazing!

Physiology eventually stopped us from eating even moar but that was okay - it gave us time to take a nice digestion-aiding stroll and enjoy the beauty of the city.