The city is on the Northern coast of Spain, so next to the Atlantic and about a 45 minute drive from the French border. It's part of the Basque Country, a region of Spain where people of that ethnic group (with their own language) originated from. Franco (the MIT student doing his internship there and showing us around) said the people were very intent on making it known that their culture was distinct from the Spanish, so much so that they had a banner hung up with the Spanish jersey crossed out during the Eurocup. Right off from the bus station, it was pretty scenic.
This is an uneventful picture but I was trying to get a shot of how clear the water was. You can see the fish in it (which is very different from the Charles River in Boston).
The architecture was also very nice. It felt more like a resort than a city, which was a welcome change from the crowds in Pamplona.
We at lunch and some gelato then dropped our stuff off at Franco's apartment. Afterwards we went and swam at one of the beaches with better waves for surfing (first picture here) then went and walked along the other, more scenic beach.
We took a funicular up to the top of hill in the picture above where there was a nice view of the whole beach and the coast on the other side. You can probably spot the huge statue of Jesus on the peak of the opposite hill (left side of the picture below), which reminded me of all the pictures I've seen of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
We went down to the base of the hill to see a sculpture but the sun wasn't in the right place to take a picture of it. The geology was pretty interesting though, I'm not quite sure what needs to happen to craft rock like this.
Finally, that evening we went out for Pintxos, which is a part of Basque cuisine. They were explained to me as being similar in size to Tapas (a Spanish type of food). If I got it correctly, Tapas means "caps" which refers to the size of the dish. You usually order a drink and a tapas, which is about just the size to cap the top of your drink (I think they may bring it to you on top of your drink). Pintxos are about the same size, and cost about 1.50 - 4 euro.
For lunch we went to a Pinxtos place, where there are a bunch of plates with a type of appetizer (though you just eat a bunch of them for your meal) splayed out on each along the bar. You go in, take whichever one you want to eat with a napkin, then crumple up the napkin, throw in on the floor, and repeat. Each one cost 1.50 so you just told the bartender how many you had and pay that much at the end.
It's also a social way to eat. You would typically get together with your friends on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday night, each throw in 10 euro at the beginning of the night and go hopping around these bars. Someone would be the point-person for one bar and order drinks/pintxos for everyone from the pool of money, then you would switch off the point-person at the next bar.
Franco said that San Sebastian was supposed to the a gastronomical capital of Europe and I would believe it. These were some of the riches tastes that I have experienced, so I really enjoyed it. The night we split off into groups of four-ish and Franco was in charge of ordering for ours. We each took a bit of the different plates. Below is foie gras, a pork dish, and cow cheek. I had cow ear earlier in the day, which was also delicious in the sauce that they put it in.
Here are the best, hurried pictures I could get in the crowded bar we were in. There wasn't much counter-top to eat on and everyone was standing.
This was another and was more of the style that had everything laid out on the table for you to pick up.
Finally, towards the end , I had to catch my bus at midnight so we ordered a bunch of plates at one more place. I tried frog legs, which tasted like chicken but with less meat for the work you had to put in to bite it off. It was alright, but not my favorite.
Here's a partial group picture that we took before splitting ways.
I then went to the bus station and fell asleep on my ride to Madrid.
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