The Basque Country – Txakolí

Apart from the food the Basque Country has something unique in the drink section, too. Txakolí is a white wine that is primarily made in this region of Spain. It’s very dry, slightly fizzy, low in alcohol and high in acidity. Usually drank as an aperitif as it cannot be stored for long, it has to be consumed in the first year of bottling. I don’t think that would be too much of a problem to anybody.

According to the history they have been making wine in the Iberian peninsula since the Roman times. This light, fresh white wine goes very well with fish and just as well as the Basque people have been fishermen for thousands of years. Still, until the 1980’s the wine was only drank in the homes of this region and almost disappeared completely in the middle of the 19^th century. Later however due to a Denominación de Origen award the fame of the wine has spread and nowadays it is one of the pillarstones of the Basque cuisine.

Even though I personally don’t drink wine I forced Paul’s mum and sister to ‘sacrifice’ themselves for the sake of my blog and have a glass of this unique drink. They kindly offered to help although we noticed that even though they ordered the wine from the same place at the same time the drink in the two glasses looked and tasted different! What a curious phenomenon! Well, here is the unpronounceable txakolí in all its glory.

The Basque Country – Pintxos

We have heard a lot about pintxos and I had seen them before in a few places but I wanted to try them first where they are the best in Spain: in the Basque Country and within the Basque Country, in San Sebastian.

Pintxos is snack type food, similar to tapas, that is typical of the Northern area (see my blog about tapas here). This is proper ‘finger food’, more so than tapas. They are kind of similar to canapés, as they are in general served cold in a slice of bread but you can get hot pintxos, too.

The name means ‘thorn’ or ‘spike’ and it relates to the stick that holds all the ingredients together. They have another purpose, too, they serve as a reminder of how many pintxos you have eaten. At the end of your meal at the till they count the number of sticks and that will make up your bill. Sometimes different priced pintxos have different kinds of sticks in them to indicate the difference in price.

They are usually eaten in bars while meeting with friends. Similarly to tapas, you don’t have a whole meal in one place but go from bar to bar and try their speciality, accompanied with a glass (or two) of beer or wine. It has a strong social connection to it and it is thought of as the main pillar of the local culture and society. This is how pintxos bars look like.

Ordering a plate of pintxos is a whole new adventure for the foreigner. The thing is, you don’t order them, you take the ones you like. It is a custom here to order your drinks and while you are waiting, you start eating what you see in front of you. At the end you tell the barman how many you have eaten and they will charge you accordingly. We generally asked for a plate then piled up on it what we wanted but there were places where they don’t give you the plate but look at you expectantly. Then you know that it’s time to start pointing.

Some pintxos are very elaborate and it’s as much pleasure to look at it as to eat it. You can find some bars in San Sebastian that pride themselves in the art of making pintxos. Well, we were hungry and we just wanted to try as many as we could so we didn’t make it to these sophisticated places but I have seen photos and it’s really worth a try.

The Basque Country – San Sebastian

San Sebastian. The place where kings and queens enjoy their summer holidays. The town that has three mountains, three beaches, an island and even a river! The name that is equal with sun, sand, sea and good food. We were finally able to taste it, experience it, fully immerse in it thanks to Paul’s parents, who made it all possible for us.

We were taken with the city from the first moment. Its 5 km coastline that goes on and on in front of you covered with gorgeous white sand is just something that cannot be ignored. It was so true for us that for the first time since I moved to Spain I didn’t have the urge to go and visit every nook and cranny of the unfamiliar place. I just stopped at the beach and (hard to admit but) didn’t quite make it any further. Just look at it!

For some reason even though the water comes from the Atlantic it was still a bliss to swim in it. We spent the better half of the day here, including the whole family. We decided that one of the reasons for the beachfront’s charm must be the fact that all the houses around are from the same time, the 19^th century, all of them are in good condition and the view is not ruined by big modern hotels. To be able to truly appreciate this you have to be in the water looking back at the city.

There was a very curios phenomenon going on on the beach. From the early hours people were continuously walking up and down at the edge of the sea. I mean LOADS of people and we didn’t know why! We came up with many possible (and even more impossible) reasons but none of them seemed right. At the end I felt socially pressured to stand up and join them! I walked with the crowd to the end of the beach and back but I didn’t get any better ideas. Please, if you know the reason, explain it to me in the comment section!

The festivities were still going on although this was the first place we didn’t see people wearing the now familiar blue-white scarves. Amongst the programs was an international firework competition that was going on for a few days and this night was the last and the biggest. We were all very excited to see them. I can’t remember of the participating countries but they all lasted a few minutes with a great finale at the end. It was truly spectacular.

The next day we had a little look around the Old Town. We visited the St. Mary’s Basilica and the St Vincent church, which are at the two ends of a street facing each other.

Some other photos of this lovely city.

I hope one day I can go back and explore more of this amazing city.

The Basque Country – Cabo Ogoño

We saw that on the map Cabo Ogoño was indicated as a great viewpoint so we thought it would be worth checking out. So far we were always able to drive up to the viewpoints and we thought this will be the case here, too. How wrong we were!

First we had to drive to the other side of the Oko delta, through villages with strange and weird Basque names full of x´s and t´s and k´s that you wouldn´t be able to pronounce even if your life depended on it. The two closest villages to Cabe Ogoño were called Elantxobe and Ibarrangelua.

We managed to find Elantxobe that is the closest to the cape and left the car in a car park in front of the cemetery. A sign said it´s still a 2km walk. We thought it´s ok, we´ll be there and back in 40min so we continued walking through the narrow road along the cliff. All the houses here were well maintained and had the most amazing view over the coast you can imagine.

After leaving the last house we came across a sign that said ‘Cabo Ogoño 1km’. We looked at each other and thought if we had got this far we might as well continue, 1km is not that far. The path soon continued in the forest, then it started going up while getting more and more stony. Wearing flip-flops and skirt is not advisable… We almost turned back as I couldn’t really hike in my chosen footwear and Paul’s ankle wasn’t healed properly for this but at the end we managed to climb to the top.

It was worth it. Really worth it. 

Look at the water of this beach, Playa de Laga! It’s impossibly beautiful, its colours were changing constantly with every wave.

Later I learnt that Cabo Ogoño actually is a famous hiking trail, this explains the difficulty of the terrain for us. I don´t mind that we did it but next time I´ll wear proper hiking shoes.