The Wind Comb on a stormy day
WE ARE WATCHING THE WAVES
In 2006 a remake of the movie 'The Prophecy' was released. In one of the promotional trailers you could see a potpourri of archive images that evoked something very similar to the end of the world: fire, explosions, Arab terrorists, the collapsing twin towers, death, missiles, destruction and… a sea storm on the Paseo Nuevo in San Sebastián . How those frames got there was never known, but it was great that a city as sappy as this got to be featured in such a sleazy trailer.
From December until late spring, the Bay of Biscay usually mounts free 'chows' that guarantee certain doses of lack of control. The sea here is capable of destroying everything when it gets down to it and watching these outbursts of anger has become a San Sebastian pastime of the first order . The best places to 'see the waves' are the Peine del Viento, the Kursaal esplanade (and the bridge itself) and, above all, the Paseo Nuevo, next to the car park. In recent years, everything has happened here: floods, destroyed cars, potholes the size of a truck in the ground, suicides that no one talks about, pieces of the mountain that break off... In the event that it is closed, the best viewpoint is the low battery of Santa Clara, on Mount Urgull.
Watch the waves, a local pastime
THE ENEMY SELLS LETTUCES.
One of the great achievements of Odón Elorza (mayor of San Sebastián for nearly two centuries, more or less) was to blow up the two large traditional markets of San Sebastián and turn them into ordinary shopping centres. While in Barcelona they bet on the Boquería, in Madrid the one in San Miguel was revived, or in neighboring Bilbao they washed their faces at the one in La Ribera, the very Basque capital of gastronomy sent its own to the garete or, what is the same, he hid the stalls of fish, meat and garden products in the basement of the city.
Obviously, a Zara smells better than a fish market. That's why, because nowadays the traditional commerce of San Sebastian has a certain 'outsider' character You have to support it by buying perishable souvenirs. Ethnographically, the almost octogenarian landladies (the generational change also went to waste with the municipal mistreatment) of Bretxa are the most at a tourist level, despite the fact that they swing a bit with prices. They have the best tomatoes in the city (in season, of course), but also the most expensive. And so with almost everything. To buy quality vegetables at friendly prices, it is best to do it in the San Martin market , at the stalls of Julián or Juani, for example (ask for them, there are no posters or nonsense 2.0 here): they both sell you lettuce muddy by the Urumea floods and explain why some swallows die in spring or give you advice on how to dull pickles. The future should be this.
Panoramic view of the old part
KANGAROO WITH MUSTACHE AND GLITTER
The minimum that must be demanded of a cocktail bar is that the barman has a mustache. And shiny vest. In the Garbola (Paseo de Colón, 11) both requirements are met and some more eccentric ones, such as serving **some of the most bizarre pintxos of the Basque girls (shark, kangaroo...) ** or lining the shop window with all the cut-outs that the press has dedicated in recent years to this temple of the naive gastrococktail bar . In addition, you drink well, at reasonable prices (reasonable for the average San Sebastian) and you have an almost cirrhotic agustico. It is foolish to recommend anything because Gregory (Goio, when you have three or more drinks) is like a doctor who prescribes based on what he sees and feels like. He has been behind a bar almost as long as the sea in front of San Sebastián.
ARZAK VS THE MUSSEL FARMER
Some time ago the prices of pintxos in San Sebastián began to border on the esoteric. Today potear (alternating wines and beers, while snacking) for 'Lo Viejo' is equivalent to seeing a twenty-euro bill disappear in just three and a half bars. Everything has already been written about the basic pintxos of San Sebastián because this is not New York and here, at most, there is a novelty every seven years. The filthiest and most delicious anti-novelty of all are the bravas potatoes from La Mejillonera (Puerto street, 15) , mythical, necessary, drowned in a light and homemade mayonnaise , with some spicy drops. They have nothing to do with the traditional paprika-based recipe or with those musty bars where they serve potatoes with mayonnaise and ketchup. This is unique and transgressive. In addition, the waiters are almost always sweaty, shout a lot and serve kalimotxo with great skill, what waters the environment with virility and purity.
LOW COST FOOD AS IN 1992
The other pintxera revolution in San Sebastian is not to be found in the Old Town but rather in places that are not very touristy, such as Amara Viejo and Gros. It's called pintxopote and it has turned San Sebastian's hospitality industry upside down with an insultingly simple formula : giving away food every time you ask for a drink, something that works relatively well from the Ebro down. In San Sebastian, where many waiters (not all, God forbid) don't give away smiles, it's crazy that they give away food. The pintxopote is celebrated every Thursday until 11 p.m. and not all bars are attached to the matter. Those that do, are recognized because they are full of people. Amara Viejo's pintxopote is more cutrón but also cheaper: a eurillo that entitles you to a drink (caña or wine a little 'fighter') and a poor pintxo. In Gros, there is level because for two euros they give you a Crianza, a Rueda or a third of Heineken and some more consistent pintxos (the txipis from Gora Bera on Calle Berminghan, 3; the potato omelette from Mendi -San Francisco, 13- or the brochettes from Dardara, in Gran Vía, 12), which is like a trip back in time, twenty years ago.
CHARIOTS OF FIRE BY ULÍA
Mud is gold. Yes, getting dirty, running around in the mountains, tasting Basque mud and avoiding the smell of shit in the gyms will soon be something 'cool'. **Both Mount Igeldo and Ulía are perfect for doing the goat ('trail running' in English) ** and here we go. Well, actually, we are going to the second mount, to make a route of about ten kilometers, very obvious, very frequented, but basic to illustrate the wild grandeur of a big town like San Sebastián . Its about section of the Camino de Santiago between Pasajes San Pedro and the capital, along the marine slope of Mount Ulía. You don't need to take a car, it's very simple: take the bus that goes to Pasajes San Pedro (the E-08, more information here) at the Oquendo street stop, get off 14 at the last stop, stretch a bit and you start running in the direction of the fjord, the arm of the sea that accesses the port bay.
On the other shore lies Tickets San Juan (Pasai Donibane), which is one of the most unique and cool little towns in Euskadi , very abertzale and borroquilla him, very authentic if you want to know a little more (at a very, very superficial level) of the eternal division of Basque society. But you better forget about Pasai Donibane because you have to follow the little road parallel to the estuary, to the end, to the mouth of the port and, once there, go up the flight of stairs that leads to the La Plata lighthouse. In front of it, the signposted dirt road begins (you have to follow the red and white markings of the GR, not those of the Camino de Santiago) which flows into the western slope of Ulia, with the best views of Zurriola and Gros . It is better not to describe the route: better if you see it yourself.
CONEY ISLAND POPS HARD
In September 2012 San Sebastian flipped. L to the top of Mount Igeldo (home to a pocho retro amusement park, our provincial Coney Island, sadder and more adorable than the Brooklyn park) hosted the Kutxa Kultur Festibala and everything changed . From the outset, it served to demonstrate to the people of San Sebastian the infinite possibilities of the city's geography and that with a little creativity and a couple of flats great things can be done. That in a place that musically is a bit comatose is appreciated. There are still nine months left for the next edition (confirmed for September 6 and 7) but you have to write it down in your pocket calendar (in those that have a side ruler) so you don't forget. Music? oh! The KKF is poppy , extremely, but so better. If they rockerized it, people so beautiful and healthy wouldn't go.
Igeldo lighthouse, next to the amusement park
ABRACADABRANT FASHION AND 'ANDERGRAUN'
Before we talked about how the lack of imagination (I was going to write 'greed', but better not) took away the traditional markets of San Sebastián. One of the shopping centers built on the ashes of these, the Bretxa, went a little frog and the model is being rethought. While this is happening, on the ground floor of the building of the old butcher shop (McDonald's, go) an experiment has been carried out and half a dozen clothing designers, textile creatives and people who want to do something useful and beautiful with their lives have settled there . The name couldn't be cooler: ** Bretxa Design District .** There is something modern, why deny it, and the odd hairstyle, but also beautiful and different things . San Sebastián is a city that is not given to experiments and changes, a prisoner of immobility, due in large part to the astronomical figures for rentals (and taxis and…) so heterodoxy must be embraced.
If you want to know more:
Read all installments of Celtiberia cool
My five favorite pinchos in San Sebastián (by Jesús Terrés)
San Sebastián: cult of pintxo
Basque Country Guide
All information about San Sebastian
La Concha beach, of course