Back from the Basque Region

Please excuse my severe lack of blogs of late… You see, two days before our trip to San Sebastian, Spain – the story of which I will recount in the following – I lost my job.

Yep, that darn credit crunch came up and bit the College Hill Company on the bum and forced my services straight past “at risk” and into “redundant”. There were tears (mine) and many an apology on their behalf. They told me I was “fabulous” – I knew that already – and that they were “ever so sorry” to have to let me go, but that my £25K price tag proved too much for their withering budget. So at 17:55 hours last Wednesday, 17 September 2008, I forwarded a few contacts from my work Inbox, recycled a bunch of notes and personal files and powered down my College Hill computer for the last time. That night I emailed two of my old recruiters and by Friday I was interviewing… On Saturday we boarded a plan for Biarritz.

Boyfriend and I have wanted to travel in Spain for a while. On this trip I had wanted to head to Malaga in the South, desperate for some sunshine despite the high ratio of Chavs that frequent Spain’s Mediterranean coastline. Given London’s non-existent summer my ex pat skin was craving warmth and Vitamin D. Boyfriend on the other hand wanted us to make our way northwards to San Sebastian in the Basque region, a city highly acclaimed for its amazing cuisine, notably a huge range of bars serving pinchos and even a healthy array of Michelin starred restaurants.

After asking advice of travellers who had been-there-done-that we decided San Seb was the way to go. So we booked a super cheap flight with Ryan Air into Biarritz (in the south of France) and planned to bus or train our way into Spain.

Our arrival in France was reasonably uneventful, except that the little French I thought I retained in my frontal lobe had seemingly escaped me and I was left to battle on with a few pleasantries and numbers when buying our forwarding tickets.

Apparently it's quite common for travellers to head in to San Seb via Biarritz… although you wouldn’t know it from the information available both online and at either location. Airy-fairy details about interlinking trains and a bus service that runs twice a day was all that was on offer, but we finally arrived at our destination that evening, a mere 11 hours after we’d left our home in London!

We’d booked a self-contained apartment only 200 metres from the Old Town and the city’s surf beach, La Zurriola. It was gorgeous and spacious, the perfect location and Boyfriend set about making us a ¡bienvenido a casa! snack of manchego cheese and chorizo on baguette with sangria – our ingredients purchased from the supermercado downstairs.

San Sebastian was definitely the place to be last weekend, with the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival being held literally up the road from our unit. The weather was warm – 22 degrees at sunset – and thousands of people were walking the streets lapping up gelato and drinking outside bars and cafes. And we thought we’d missed the busy season!

Come Sunday though the crowds had dies down and while the sun was out it wasn’t scorching. We spent the day strolling the Old Town, had lunch at a gorgeous little seaside café where Boyfriend and I feasted on paella and yet more baguette (note: EVERYTHING is served on bread, with bread or in bread in San Seb!). The water’s edge of the Old Town reminded me of scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean and our Islander-looking waitress had me creating stories of her great, great grandmother’s capture by some Captain Jack-or-Other… the food was fabulous – if not a little salty – and her service fantastic. We moved on to spend an hour or so lazing on La Concha beach and then went home for a bit of a siesta.

Each night we made our way back into the Old Town for pinchos and sangria, and while tasty I have to say I was disappointed in their limited offerings. Every bar – and there were hundreds of them – seemed to be serving the same mix of shredded seafood mixed with mayonnaise on baguette, sausage wrapped in ham on baguette or goats cheese with quince jelly on baguette. I’d envisaged heated terracotta bowls full of salt and pepper calamari and servings of grilled haloumi, fried chorizo and seared artichokes but the reality was more like the cheap canapés you get at large number functions. And lots of bread, to fill you up!

On day two we walked to the other side of the harbour to ride the funicular to the top of Monte Igueldo. At the top is a demi-theme park with a haunted house, dodgem cars and water ride with amazing views of the city, but given our autumn arrival Said-theme Park was closed. So we headed back down that mountain and made our way to San Seb’s other high point Monte Urgull where a statue of Jesus takes pride of place.

Climbing to Jesus really took it out of us, so of course another siesta was required before our evening trip into the Old Town for yet more food and festivities. Our funniest moment occurred in one of the buzzing pinchos bars where when Boyfriend asked the customer in front of him the name of the dish he’d just purchased, the man turned to us and demanded we both take a bite out of his as yet untouched sandwich – and he wouldn’t take no for an answer!

Nothing really caught my eye on the shopping front. Even a last ditch attempt at Zara couldn’t satisfy my retail senses so we ventured back to London with suitcases full of only what we’d set out with – Boyfriend was thrilled.

All in all the holiday was a success. Boyfriend and I got the chance to revitalise our relationship – he taught me to play Gin Rummy and I even beat him a few times – and we came back rested. But both of us agree that San Seb, while lovely, isn’t a place we’ll be rushing back to. Had the weather been warmer and we’d been able to spend more time on the beach or kayaking around the coastline maybe we’d have had more fun, but as it was, the best part was just being away together… Ahhhh, yes, I’m such a romantic!