san sebastián

Ahhh, San Sebastián.  Foodies and surfers Mecca.  My first trip to the northeast coastal city in Spain was a girls trip a few years ago - here.  It is one of our very favorite cities.

My sister Juliana and her boyfriend José were visiting us from the states.  It was nice to have two fluent Spanish speakers with us so Marco and I didn't have to get by with our so-so skills.

It wasn't warm enough to spend the days lounging on the beach - but that just meant more time in the pintxos bars.

We checked into our Airbnb, hung out over a bottle of wine, and then headed to one of my very favorite restaurants, La Cuchara de San Telmo.  Affordable, upscale small plates in a causal atmosphere.  A teeny tiny place where you're elbowing the stranger next to you while cutting into your grilled foie gras, saying "Oh my god." after each bite.  One of those eating experiences we'll never forget.  We ordered plated after plate and we sipped Txakoli - a slightly bubbly very dry white wine produced in the Basque Country province.

We spent the trip wandering the city, ducking into the posh children's clothing shops (well, I did), and took breaks at bars for tapas, pintxos, and a quick drink.

We spent the afternoons strolling the beach watching the surfers, then lounging back at the apartment researching our pintxos bars plan of attack for that night.

On our last full day of the trip, we had a break in the weather - a warmer day with sun on our faces. We hiked up to Monte Urgull to the 12m high statue of Jesus Christ to see the vista views of the city and beaches below.

Juliana and José continued on to Madrid and Marco, Simone, and I headed home to England.  Jewels and José - guys, thank you so much for coming for a visit and tolerating a 4 month old baby slowing our roll ... but we still ate and drank like Kings for a small price.

five ladies in san sebastián

In the beginning of June I met some of my main ladies in San Sebastián, Spain for five days.  Lauren and Adrienne started their Euro adventure visiting me in England for several days, then went on to Berlin, then met up with our friends Rosalin and Sarah in Barcelona, and then all four of them trained it to San Sebastián where I met up.

We rented a top floor apartment with a wrap around terrace almost as large as the apartment itself - great choice Lauren!  With five overflowing ladies' suitcases packed into an apartment, we spent mornings and pre dinner cocktails/tapas, out on that terrace taking in the city views.

We spent each morning at a café around the corner slowly coming off the wine and sun from the day before.  Spanish coffee, free Wi-Fi, and fresh tortilla Española bocadillos - we were in heaven.  Then we would stroll back to the apartment (passing Massimo Dutti where Lauren would fawn over a leather jacket in the window), put on our bathing suits, round up the glass empties to dispose of in the APPROPRIATE glass container on the street (Don't put them in the paper container - accidentally - an old lady with a cane will let you hear it!), and then head to the beach. 

We were lucky to have perfect weather most of the trip which made for long and lazy days lounging on our new cheap beach towels.  With both Rosalin and I living overseas so far from family and friends and surviving on imessage, it was so great for us to hear our friends laughs, see their judgey facial expressions, and chat / gossip face to face.

On our walks home from the beach we would discuss our night's looks, what restaurants we wanted to check out that night, pass and comment about the Massimo Dutti jacket, and pop into the market to pick up pre-dinner snacks and wine.

Each night we would head to the old quarter, Parte Vieja, where there are hundreds of Pintxos bars and restaurants.  We ate and drank like kings, trying a little bit of everything.  After dinner we would wander the cobblestone pedestrian streets and find the next bar.  We may or may not have returned to one certain bar two nights in a row because the Spanish Jason Schwartzman owner found our rowdy American girl swagger to be hilarious (shots on the house) and maybe endearing?

It was rainy on our last day so we did some shopping (Massimo Dutti leather jacket!) and returned to a pastry shop we found the night before. 

Well traveled Marco has always talked about how fond he is of San Sebastian, but this trip far exceeded my expectations.  It was one of the best gastronomic cities I have ever been to, if not the best.  Add to that a beautiful city, great beaches, and time with some of my main ladies.......it was perfect.