Pintxos me, I must be dreaming.

San Sebastian is a large town on the northern coast of Spain. Not far from the mountains that border France, this is part of the Basque region.




Basque cuisine has a very long and proud history and here in San Sebastian, there a huge variety of food on offer, including plenty of seafood. Wandering around the old town of San Sebastian, you might stumble across one of the private cooking clubs, called txokos. These are traditionally men-only clubs, where men gather and shop and cook together, often followed by some singing.


The bars, which are everywhere are always groaning with platters of small foods - usually on bread - called pintxos. These are usually one or two bites and often have a decent amount of mayonnaise in them.


The way to eat and drink here is usually standing at the bar. I ordered a beer and asked for a plate. As I enjoy my beer, I reach out and choose whatever looks good from the platters spread from one end of the bar to the other.

The presentation is exceptional and everything looks appetising and exciting.



Some are based on seafood, others on jamon or vegetables. Some bars are better at certain things, so experimentation and window shopping are part of the meal. Ingredients that are very common are octopus, baccalao (salt cod), anchovies and jamon.


At lunch and dinner, the popular places get so crowded that people will squeeze in to order a drink, grab a few pintxos and spill out onto the street to drink, eat and chat. All of the bars have cold beer on tap, one of the most common being San Miguel, a light refreshing beer, great for drinking on a hot summer day. Another favourite is the local cider, usually poured from very high up to incorporate air into it, can be a taste to get used to as it can be a bit sour.


Probably the most surprising thing about most of these places is that they work on the honor system - that is you drink and eat and then tell the bartender what you had and he will charge you accordingly. Most pintxos are served with skewers and the bartender can sometimes just count these and charge you for that number.

San Sebastian is a very popular tourist destination and I heard more English spoken than Spanish as I was walking around the town. There is always something happening and people wander around all day and all night, eating, drinking and dancing.

It's great to hear aussie accents and chat with people about good places around town, but it's important to get past the obvious tourist places and find the exciting places that are doing something a little different and I'll be talking about a couple of these in the next update.

Montenegro Part 1

Train journeys conjure up romantic images of steam engines puffing through verdant green hillsides and mountains, crossing bridges hundreds of meters high over mighty flowing rivers. This is why we decided to load our car onto a train and experience the 10 hour train journey from Belgrade in Serbia to Bar in Montenegro. This was an overnight journey, so we went for the sleeping carriage so that we could be refreshed and rested when we arrived early the next morning and enjoy the day. I was also imagining those old movies where the people in the sleeping cars come together in the restaurant car to have some nice food and chat the trip away while enjoying the view.

The first part of this process was loading the car onto the train. Before we got on the train, the car was checked for height to make sure it would fit. After the lady checking the car made a face and came up to us saying, "that's a large car, but we'll see how it goes". This didn't fill me with confidence. Nevertheless, when I got to the ramp, the guy that was there said the car should be fine, but to stay in the very center of the path down the carriage or it would damage the roof of the car. I had to drive the car onto the top level of the train and drive down 3 carriages along a very dark track which was about 2 feet wider than the car and about 15 cm taller than the car. All went smoothly and I stopped the car and got out and realised I had to walk back the way I had come, while other cars were coming forward. At one point I had to hang out of the side of the carriage to let a Mercedez get past, but managed to get out safely.

Our carriage was almost at the front of the train, so we headed all the way forward and climbed onto the train. To say that our cabin was cramped would be an understatement. The room was the size of a small bathroom with 2 sets of bunk beds, each barely the width of a towel and a gap between them only large enough for one person to stand between them. Basically if you wanted to be in the cabin, you had to be lying on the bed. I thought this would be ok as I would find the restaurant or bar area and spend most of the trip there when I wasn't sleeping. You can probably guess what happened....there was no restaurant or bar. Not even a kiosk from which to buy water or junk food. The toilets were not pleasant and the first one I went into - not long after the train left - had no paper.

I resigned myself to sleeping through the whole trip, but this proved very difficult. Firstly the beds are so tiny you can't get comfortable and then part of the way into the trip we realised the heating was on. This on a hot summer day and on a train where people sleep in their clothes. We had the door and the window both open and the cabin was still as hot as a sauna. Eventually I got out of bed as I couldn't stand the heat anymore and went and stood in the corridor with my head out the open window and noticed several other people doing the same thing. It turns out that the whole carriage was being heated, not just our room, so I decided to find the conductor and get him to turn it off. After looking everywhere, we couldn't find him and after about 20 minutes a conductor from one of the other cars was walking past and told us that our conductor was asleep in the last cabin and went to wake him up. After complaining to him, he told me the whole train was heated (which I knew wasn't true as I had walked through several cars trying to find him), but eventually went and turned it off. I asked him for some bottled water (which the other conductor had told me he could provide) and he told me he had none, then about 5 minutes later came and brought some to us. The mind boggles. I did manage to grab a few minutes sleep here and there, totaling maybe a few hours. When the sun finally came up, the views were spectacular, steep hills and deep gorges, long tunnels and glistening lakes. If I wasn't so sore and tired I would have enjoyed it more, but it is amazing country.

When we arrived, it was a simple matter of driving the car down the ramp, loading up and onto the road. As we drove along the coast, I began to realise why so many people from all over Europe come here to spend their holidays. The water looks amazing and the mountains seem to rise straight out of the water, with ancient ruins and monastaries and small villages perched in seemingly impossible locations. Walking into our apartment and looking out the windows was a revelation. Our front door is literally 5 meters from the water. Here are the photos.

The view from our kitchen windows:


The view from the balcony:



And finally, the view from my shower....yes, my shower has it's own window.