Day 5: San Sebastian
We spend most of Friday traveling. Brussels has an airport about 34 miles south where most of the small airlines fly from and into. There is a bus you can take from the city center but we read mediocre reviews. We went with a car shuttle, the most expensive but easiest option and on average you arrive in about 50 minutes. The security check point was very brief in Charleroi airport and the actual flight to Biarritz, France was about 1.5 hours. From there you can take a bus to San Sebastian in just over an hour for about 7 euros. Then it was a 10 minute walk to the rental office to retrieve our airbnb keys and another 20 minutes to our space. We nearly crashed in bed because of all the traveling and how warm it was in Spain compared to Brussels.
After a must needed siesta, we were ready to see what's all the fuss about with the food here in San Sebastian. Our first stop was Casa Valles, just around the corner from our apartment, literally in the same building. Here we tasted our first pincho called the gilda. Apparently this little bite of sweet peppers, olive and anchovy pays tribute to the namesake movie starring Rita Hayworth. The little appetizer was so popular, it sparked the style of pinchos or tapas that we know today. They also have chiprons or baby squid that is just to die for.
Next on the pinchos crawl was Bar Iturrioz, where we had our first glass of txakoli. Many describe this local favorite as a mixture between cider and sparkling wine. This particular brand we had was very crisp and smooth. We also tried their smoked eel with salmon roe and salt cod. Both are very unconventional but mighty tasty.
The next couple of bars had some decent and fair dishes. Both patatas bravas and tortilla de patatas were disappointing versions of the classic tapas in Madrid and Barcelona. But we do have to point out that bar Ganbara had some of the best pinchos of the night. You must order the crab tartlette and porcini mushrooms with egg yolk. The latter is not displayed and it does take some time to make. The bar was getting very packed even for just a Thursday night, so we slipped out and called it a night.
It was a first fun night in San Sebastian. You can say this airbnb is our favorite thus far because of three things: a good functioning ac, a beautiful rooftop terrace and the presence of a top bed sheet oppose to a unnecessary comforter. We have lunch scheduled on Friday at the legendary Arzak. And there's still a ton of pincho bars that we need to venture to. More to come!