Croissants for Dinner

The bakery of the trip, we've found it already. It's one of those bakeries that makes you want to eat bread and pastries, only, for ever and ever. Initially we bought a loaf of bread there in our experimentation of bakeries in our neighborhood. It was heavenly. Just enough crust, crisp and brittle to give it a bite. And chewy and moist on the inside, the perfect consistency. We've not gone to another bakery since. In the meantime, we've noticed that this bakery delivers to most of the local restaurants. And yesterday, there was a line around the block waiting for it to open. It's obviously a local highlight, and we felt lucky to have happened upon it.

Galparsoro Okindegia, San Sebastian

Today, our last day in San Sebastian, we decided to try their sweets. The chocolate croissant was like nothing we've ever had. We had to stop roaming, and just lean against the tall buildings in Parte Vieja to consume the rest of our treats in silence. It was as if walking would distract us from our amazement and appreciation of how delicious these were! It was partially warm, but cool enough to be eaten easily. The chocolate oozed out either end, with flakes of chocolate adorning the top. A crisp pastry exterior engulfed a soft, gooey, chocolaty center. We had no choice, but to go back and purchase two more for dinner.

A very satisfied Sweetie n' Pooks.

Bilbao: Chapter 2

Leaving the market and its sensory over-load behind, we headed for the Guggenheim Museum ('El Gugg'). The building itself was astounding. The permanent installations filled the interior with perfection, as if the space was built for them. Most notable among these is Richard Serra's "The Matter of Time", a series of huge iron sculptures, in a massive gallery some 150 meters long. Walking through these sculptures is an intense experience, as the curving surfaces distort space and sound, constantly throwing you off balance. We probably spent an hour just in that one gallery. The current temporary exhibits, one on 300 Years of American Art (we flew to Europe to see this?) and another on Surrealism, were generally uninspiring aside from a few particular highlights.

We spent much of the rest of the day just ambling around the city, strolling along the riverfront, hanging out in the park (Amber snoozing, Matt roaming), and enjoying the vibe and the general lack of tourists compared to the mayhem of San Sebastian on the weekends. The city felt vibrant, young, full of visual and intellectual stimulation. The river corridor is particularly nice - in addition to the Museo Guggenheim, there are a number of bridges, some of them quite striking, a vast pedestrian path, and sculptures scattered among the mix of beautiful old and new buildings.

We found ourselves wishing we'd had more time to spend there, and considering heading that way for the next leg of our journey. But with the recent weather here - frequent rain and wind, and temperatures in the high 50's many days - the sun is also calling us. So we booked a flight to the Canary Islands! Two weeks there... Matt, of course, is hoping for birds and adventures, and is already planning outings in search of seabirds and endemic landbirds. Amber is looking forward to some sun and the local menu del dia, both of which the islands seem perfectly suited to.

Bilbao: Chapter 1

Friday we took a day trip to Bilbao. Thinking this would be a nice jaunt, we planned to take the morning train, spend the day there, and come back in the evening. The ride there was slow, on a plastic-seated commuter train, stopping every 5-10 minutes. Homeward (sounds a little odd to say that, but that's how it felt) was much better, on a well-upholstered express train that skipped most of the small stations.


After leaving the Bilbao train station, we noticed an unfamiliar odor coming from a large building. Wandering in, we were assaulted with the sight of numerous pigs' heads sitting atop glass cases of meat, sausages, whole difficult-to-identify skinned animals (though one, sadly obvious, was a very young piglet), random body parts (like the skin of cow noses), and dozens of legs of ham suspended from the ceiling with cups to catch the drippings. This scene spread on for what seemed like miles, an entire city block of carnicerias and fruterias, with occasional vegetable stands in the open spaces, and a few specialty nooks - one devoted to mushrooms, another entirely to eggs, and a few bakeries. The place was packed, with lines of 10 or more people at many of the vendors' counters; there were literally hundreds of merchants to choose from.


Half-way through the market, the odor that had initially drawn us in intensified. Spotting a staircase, we descended into the fish and seafood market. It was just as large as the upstairs market, occupying the entire lower floor, and it was incredible. Every type of seafood to be found in northern Spain was there - huge tuna, scallops, gooseneck barnacles, dozens of different fish, clams, crabs, crayfish, lobsters, snails, squid, cuttlefish, shrimps... We had no idea what many of them were, but some we recognized were bacalao (cod), flounder, several different kinds of eels, mackerel, anchovies, salmon. For most of the fish, there were also different sortings for various sizes of individual fish. There were even bins just of bacalao cheeks! The locals obviously had their favorite stands, as some of them were surrounded by shouting mobs, while others were deserted.

It was incredible and overwhelming, and we wish there were markets like this back home.

And let’s not forget….BIRDS!

We decided to go on a jaunt to a nature preserve about 30 minutes East of San Sebastian, to a small town called Irún. We could see France across the river, but resisted the temptation to hop across for a quick visit. The reserve is called Plaiaundi Parke Ekologikoa. It’s a neat combination of freshwater ponds, estuary and shrubby areas. We were a little skeptical because it’s nestled between the big train station and the airport. Turns out the birds don’t care. Matt was very happy because, well, he was hoping to see 10 new species but he saw about 15, with a total of 33 species for the day. Wow!! He was the classic Matt Dufort happy where you can almost see him bouncing with excitement. The sun was out, and it was a break from the city that we didn’t know we needed.


Ecology Park....home away from home.


Buttercups, early morning dew.

Things you never knew you needed for lunch!

So we had just finished lunch, and were browsing around Irún enjoying our afternoon when what do we happen upon but an automat. An automat? Well, folks, we’d never seen one before, except in old movies. It’s a small room or walk-in lobby that connects to the main street, and it’s filled with vending machines with just about everything you might need. Sandwiches, drinks, snacks, dildos. Upon closer inspection, we had no idea how thorough these Europeans were in terms of meeting the public’s needs. The pictures speak for themselves.


Upon initial inspection.

Oh.....

Don't worry, they're unisex!


OH!

“I would rather get funny looks than have a mullet…”

Upon our arrival, we felt a great desire to weave our way into the fabric of the city and culture of San Sebastian. Idealistic? Perhaps. We had researched the Basque region, culture and were feeling excited about practicing our Spanish and living here for 6 weeks. We promptly realized, however, that we were funny looking. People definitely noticed us. Not in a good or bad way, but just noticed.

And then we started to notice them too. To start, tight pants – really tight pants. Next, jewelry, the bigger the better. Color is good, in clothing and hair. And if you want to really be hip, your hair should short and jagged somewhere. Bangs are the minimum, but if you can do the whole head of hair that’s better. Or just go for a mullet, that’s really popular with the guys. If you’re sporty, you have a short mullet but pull it back in a small ponytail. And you wear spandex, that’s a must.

We realized that traveling is like re-living a bit of your adolescence. You want, in every way possible, to just fit in. And even though we hadn’t anticipated fitting in entirely, we thought we might fall between the classic American tourist and a die hard local. Turns out, we’re just different. Or Spaniards are different. But truth be told, we’re all different. And that’s why we’re here. We still feel a little cool when they don’t know if we need a French or English menu, but when push comes to shove we realize it’s just best to be us.

Eat, Drink, and be Wary

San Sebastian is considered the culinary capital of Spain (big surprise we came here first), rich with newness as well as classical cuisine. It has more Michelin stars than any other city in Spain, despite its modest population of 170,000. The highlight, and much anticipated portion of this foodie haven, was the tapas or pintxos (pronounced peen-chos, the Basque word for tapas). As a side note, San Sebastian is in the Basque region of Spain which means signs, menus and most text you find in any city is in Spanish and Basque. Today we even found Harry Potter translated in Basque! Anyway, back to deliciousness.

The Spanish philosophy to eating is delightful: ‘it should taste of what it is.’ There is a savory combination of simplicity, straight-forwardness and romance to the food here. Pintxos are prepared with exceptional delicacy, yet are devoured upon arrival of a hungry belly. Spirits are an inseparable component, wine and cider in particular. It’s a little confusing for the bashful tourists, as drink menus don’t seem to exist. But we’ve come to notice that sangria isn’t a local preference, and have only seen it once, served to obvious tourists.

Notice Matt in background enjoying the fare!

Our first encounter with pintxos was memorable. We had not eaten in over 12 hours, and were famished. As we stood in front of our restaurant of choice, we realized immediately we were in for a surprise. Piles of pintxos lined the bar-like table to the far right, and tables with stools surrounded this central bar as if to keep the eaters as close to the food as possible. Some people were standing, some sitting, some walking up to the bar and rapidly receiving drinks, others grabbing pintxos without any discussion with the restaurant staff. Questions raced through our minds. Do we sit? Do we stand? Do we wait for a table? Do we sit? Do we order at the bar? Or do we wait for a waiter to come to us?

First, we stood there for longer than preferred by both us and the restaurant folk. Then we realized that there was only one solution to our myriad of questions: ask. So ask we did. And then we sat at a table, ordered our food at the bar, had really no idea what we were getting, but enjoyed every bite.

The last couple nights, we’ve been able to take in more of the restaurant scene. Every day around (late) lunch and (even later) dinner time, the dozens of bar-restaurants lay out their spreads of pintxos on the counter. Over a few hours, people filter in and out, places get packed and empty out, and the counters slowly get cleared of the delicious snacks. You typically don’t have more than one or two, plus a splash of wine, cider, or beer with each, then move on to the next spot. The best sign of a popular place is the steady accumulation of used napkins on the floor. Really, when you’re finished, you throw your napkin on the floor. Just the way it’s done.

And for the coffee lovers reading this, it’s quite simple here. There is no coffee, it’s all espresso – brilliant! We haven’t had a bad cup yet, you can get it almost anywhere, anytime, and it’s about $1.50 per café con leche.

¡Buen provecho!

As predicted...

The picture below shows what we've been doing a lot of for the last few days. It's been rainy and windy, generally crummy weather for exploring, so we've been snoozing a lot and making our way through the last Harry Potter book (finally!). Initially we tried desperately to combat what we presumed was jet lag by denying ourselves naps, but after four days we gave in. Much to our surprise, these 3-4 hour mid-day naps seem to be just what we needed.

Amber dozing in Pension Amaiur in San Sebastian.

Our packing nightmare

We left our packing until the last couple days we were in Seattle, then had to cram everything we owned (and didn´t want to carry around for 4 months or beg our friends to take care of for us) into two little Door to Door pods. Here´s a picture of the result:

It´s a miracle, it all fits (mostly thanks to the stubborn it-will-totally-fit-even-if-it-takes-me-all-night special someone)! Let´s hope it makes it happily to Minnesota!

We've arrived!!! (and so have our bags)

Just a quick message to say that we've arrived in Madrid. The airport is insanely beautiful (pics to come later) - we wanted to spend longer but didn't want to act questionable. The Heathrow airport was significantly different - one sign in particular indicated that passengers for gates 7, 24, 82, 109 and 48 should all head one way. Spent last night at Hostal Maria Cristina, in the Chueca neighborhood. Nice narrow streets, tons of shops. After days of packing and traveling, we crashed out at about 9:00 and slept til morning. Our bags (which had gone missing somewhere between Seattle and London), finally arrived at 10:00 this morning. So we're clean, and off to catch a train to San Sebastian!

The bits we've noticed - people talk fast, the coffee is delicious, it's quiet, the day starts (9:00) and ends late (dinner 9:00 at the earliest - Matt is in heaven), and all cars are about half the size they are in the U.S.

This post is dedicated to our faithful reader.


Here´s a pic of the incredible Madrid airport - doesn´t really do it justice.