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Tucked into the little corner of Basque country, the classy summer
resort town of San Sebastian retains a sense of its royal past.
Queens and kings escaping the inland heat once lazed about along the
breezy bay, hugged by the curvaceous foothills of the Pyrenees
Mountains. Called Donostia in Basque, San Sebastian is situated in
the province of Guipuzcoa, known for its preservation of Basque
culture. Around half of the residents here speak the Basque language
of Euskera as their mother tongue, and Basque nationalism thrives here
despite the tourism.
The old quarter, with the very literal name of La Parte Vieja,
includes shadow-cooled narrow streets, medieval houses, and tiny
plazas. One will also find modern shops offering upscale luxuries and
restaurants emanating the perfume of fresh paella (Spanish seafood
stew with rice) along tree-line boulevards. Despite the traces of
bourgeois airs, real life shines through with unpretentious and open
locals, cheap and tasty bakeries, and a boisterous farmers market.
Rumor has it that La Parte Vieja boasts the greatest concentration of
bars in Spain. Bar hopping and grabbing tapas (pintxos in the local
language) is a favorite pastime. Tiny marinated octopus, paper think
slices of ham, and oil-drenched olives are just a few of the
possibilities. Unlike non-Basque areas of Spain, the custom here is
to present entire platters of tapas on the bar. Customers help
themselves, and after the indulgences, servers count customers' barren
toothpicks to find out how much they owe. In addition to tapas, San
Sebastian reigns as a culinary center of Spain. Multiple meals a day
is the norm for donostiarras, and many of the chic restaurants lay
claim to award-winning chefs.
The Centro district, the city's shopping and business center, also
creates an elegant environment, full of tall and graceful structures.
It is most lauded for its Modernista architecture, the Spanish take on
Art Nouveau, with delicate flourishes framing facades and serene lions
flanking doorways.
Beaches surround San Sebastian. La Concha shell-like crescent of sand
attracts the crowds—especially in the summer when it pulses with that
extreme party vibe the Spanish are so famous for. Both Concha and
nearby Ondarreta look out upon the vertical rock outcropping Santa
Clara Island, the bay's dogged barrier to the ocean. Looking out
across the bay's azure waters, it is clear that a visit to the town of
San Sebastian is truly fit for a king.
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