Donostia

So I finally made it to Donostia (the basque name for San Sebastian) a couple of weekends ago. Most of the weekend was spent eating and drinking, the rest digesting. January to April is a good time of year to go, because the ciderhouses are all open for business. There is a standard meal: cod omelette, some fish dish, half a cow, then cheese, nuts and biscuits... and all the cider you can consume. When you feel like another drink you go into a room with twenty or so massive barrels. Someone opens a tap in the barrel, and a thin jet of cider cascades out of it, which you must catch in your glass, moving upstream so the next person can take over with minimum wastage. The cider is very different to the english or french, being quite bitter and without bubbles.
It was a bit exhausting for me; between the pinxos (basque tapas) bars and the ciderhouse, every dinner was spent mostly on my feet. But these kinds of traditions seem to be good for the health... I have never seen so many active old people: in the pinxos bars until the early hours, and walking up and down the beachfront at high speed, fueled I guess on chocolate con churros amongst other things.