Sunny San Sebastian

Before arriving here to San Sebastian, I was told over and over from both residents and visitors to the city how beautiful it would be, but even with those expectations in mind I had no idea how pretty it would turn out to be. This is a city that Kings and Queens from all over Europe would visit for holidays because of the mild weather and beautiful beaches and landscape. Here in the province of Gipuzkoa , people speak Spanish and Basque, an ancient language that predates latin.

Daniel´s house sits on the side of a mountain that faces the beach and overlooks the city. The first thing we did when we arrived was head to his grandparents´ place about 10 metres away from the beach that has an amazing view of the water and beaches. There I met his parents Beatrice and Daniel, sister Patricia, grandparents, aunt, uncle and 7-year old cousin Chloe. What turned out to be an amazing feast was the usual for this close-knit family every Saturday. We had lots of great appetizers like lomo (pork), jamôn serrano (smoked meat), guacamole, fois gras paté and baguette (which I´ve noticed quite a lot of people carry here in their arms in the streets after shopping at the market). The main course consisted of amazing chipirones relleros en su tinta, a small calamari-like seafood, and made in a sauce of the calamari's legs' ink so it looks black. It tastes sweet and very rich. Then came the steak (chuleta) which was very tender and flavourful. Then came dessert and Patxaran, a traditional liquor only made in the province of Navarra. It amused everyone that as an Asian I have a low tolerance for alcohol and his grandfather heartily encouraged me to drink more. During the meal, the family broke out into Basque-language traditional songs and freely made fun of each other.

La Real Sociedad and food fit for kings

Daniel´s family is amazing. They are so close-knit and affectionate with each other that it is easy to see why Daniel is the sweetheart that he is. His family is so kind and friendly, though only his mother and sister speak English. The great thing about the culture is that people have excellent relationships with their family, have meals together regularly and are very casual so you don´t feel like you´re ever a nuisance.

After digesting on the couch (a long-enjoyed and increasingly popular pastime of mine), Daniel and I took a few hours to walk the city, visit shops, view the seashore, and see Kursaal; a square, glass landmark building where the annual film festival takes place. I can´t believe that people actually live here right by the water and enjoy these views and such fantastic food. One morning we went jogging along the beach and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

On Saturday night we hit up a local pub, Etxebe, for drinks (at 5 Euros, they are unsuspectingly potent) and then to a plaza of discoteques located below the bullfighting stadium to meet with Daniel's friends in Zibbibo, attending a private event for the young Socialist political party. Usually, political parties were unable to meet publicly because of the threat of violence from terrorist group ETA, but due to a recent treaty from the party to cease violent acts in the meantime there has been much less fear in the community.

On Sunday we went to Txomin-Enea restaurant for delicious seafood paella on Mother's Day in Spain. After phoning many friends, Daniel secured a ticket for me to attend a football match at Anoeta stadium to see La Real Sociedad (the hometown favourite) vs. Celta Vigo. This was an intense match, as it was the last one of the season and would determine whether Real would stay in first division next season, so there were lots of "puta maidre" and "ostio"s to be overheard.

On my last day in San Sebastian, I had the unique pleasure of touring the mountains on motorcycle, where you could look to the right and see ocean and to your left, lush green mountains and farms. It is difficult to describe the exhiliration of flying down a curve in the road on a mountain at a downward slope with no guardrails and seeing the tree-covered slopes and oceans of San Sebastian.

More pictures coming soon!