After La Perla and our brief hike up Mount Urgull, we were ready for a night out, celebrating our trip and one of our party’s birthday. And what better place to celebrate than the Parte Vieja of Donostia? When I lived in Donostia, my friends and I spent quite a few nights wandering the bars, […]
Alan King continues to share some great stories. He has two new Basque stories on his website. Kidnapped by the Basajaun tells the story of a shepherd frees a young woman who had been kidnapped by a basajaun and forced to live with him. The Dog with Charcoal Eyes is about a man, about to be […]
I ran across a few articles dealing with food and wine in the Basque Country that I thought were particularly interesting. First, in this article at Financial Times, Paul Richardson describes his adventures in San Sebastián’s Old Town, the Parte Vieja. The interesting spin here is a so-called pintxos passport. A company, San Sebastián Food, […]
People fall in love with a place for various reasons. For Jeremy, it started with his love for a Basque woman, who later became his wife. Visiting the Basque Country with her lead to a fascination with her homeland and, ultimately, a new website aimed at introducing the Basque Country to those who have not […]
At a recent conference, I met a student, Ane Lasa, from the Basque Country, who mentioned she had taken her Finnish colleagues on a pintxos tour through Donosti. The tour consisted of the best pintxos at the best bars, as determined by Ane’s ama. Ane graciously shared the list with me, and I’m sharing it […]
If you’ve never been to the Basque Country and are considering your first visit, you might have no idea of where to start your tour. Or if you’ve been several times to see family, you might want to break out of the routine of visiting the family baserria and find something new. Rick Steves, “America’s […]
Food is such an important aspect of Basque life and nothing defines the role of food better than the pintxo, that small morsel that you find on every counter in every bar throughout the Basque Country. As I mentioned earlier, in my most recent trip to the Basque Country, my friend Gonzalo Aranguren took me […]
Anyone who has visited the Basque Country, or even attended a Basque celebration in the US, knows the central role that food occupies in the culture. Today, the Basque Country is famous for its “new Basque cuisine,” which I did have an opportunity to try at a restaurant in Donosti (and, it was very good). […]