San Sebastián

  San Sebastián, Spain and Canary Islands
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Rough seas in San Sebastian

We arrived in San Sebastian in dreadful weather which was really the first time since Munich that we had any bad weather. We have been extremely lucky thus far with weather in Europe where we've had very little rain and only a few scorchers. Luckily the bad weather in San Seb cleared by morning and remained that way till the day we left.
 

Due to limited and expensive accommodation available in San Seb during the busy season the only affordable accommodation we could find was in a four bedroom dorm recommended by Busabout. Maybe if we hadn't spent three nights in a comfy hotel in Valencia sharing a dorm room might not have been so bad. The hostel we were staying in (Lolo Urban House run by a snotty little English girl called Ally) was split into three separate sections, two of which were in different buildings a little walk from the main hostel.
 
Sadly we were put in what seemed to be the filthiest of the three, the place was an absolute pig sty. We had what can only be described as a garbage pile under our bed and when we pointed this out to Ally she seemed annoyed, apologised then sighed and said she would fetch a broom to clean it up. By the time we had felt three days later it had not been cleaned and neither had any of the bathrooms. For €30 per bed per night this was an absolute rip off and strong worded letter will be sent to Busabout regarding their 'recommended' accommodation.
 
What we have learnt from this little episode is that at the end of the day you have worked hard to afford your holiday and you should not simply accept poor service. Often you would rather keep quite to avoid any awkward or confrontational situations and just accept the filth or bad service but when you are spending your hard earned money don't stand for it!
 

Surfers beach

The good thing about the poor accommodation was that it forced us to spend as little time in the 'slums' as possible. We took full advantage of the great weather and spent an entire day on the beach. It was great to simply relax and not have to worry about anything except getting too much sun. All the beaches in San Seb are sandy and very popular, besides the soft sand there were also loads of surfers about as this part of the coast is famous for its surfing. As much fun as the surfing looked I was content to do a little body surfing which had me exhausted after only 30 minutes.Two days at the beach were just what we needed and it felt like a good old weekend where you do nothing but chill.
 

Tapas bar

San Seb has hundreds of little bars, restaurants and tapas bars in its narrow cobble stoned old town, so evenings were very festive with people socialising around the entrances of bars and tapas restaurants. On one of the evenings we found a lovely little tapas bar that was packed with people and looked very popular. The way to tell if the food in the tapas bar was any good was to look down at the floor. The more napkins and rubble on the floor the better the restaurant, apparently if you like the tapas you simply have to dump you napkin on the floor till they pile up around you.
 

Typical evening crowd

This tapas bar specialised in three items, potatoes, calamari and mussels and had various way of preparing the three. We pushed our way to the bar counter and ordered and big plate on their crumbed calamari and the patatas bravas which was a plate full of boiled potatoes smothered in a delicious creamy white sauce with swirls of spicy red sauce. This was absolutely delicious and very popular and just about everyone in the bar had a plate or two. We learnt quickly that if you want to eat at the best tapas bars you have to push your way to the front even though it seems a little rude.
 

1-Sunset San Sebastian

We were a little sad when we left Spain as we really loved the country and its colourful people and culture. Like many other countries in Europe, Spain deserves at least a few months to take in all it was to offer and we will definitely be back some day to explore a little more of its wine country, beautiful beaches and great food.