day 6 :

thursday, 31 may

After yummy pastries at Okindegia for breakfast again, we did some shopping today. Dawn liked the shirts at the Kukuxumusu store in the old district (Kukuxumusu means "the kiss of the flea" in Euskara). Eric spent his time looking for a sheep sticker. We noticed a significant number of cars in the Basque region with a sheep sticker on the back, rather than the usual bull sticker (the national symbol of Spain) or donkey sticker (the symbol for Catalan independence). The sheep will make a nice memento, and who knows, maybe we'll even put it on our car.

Lunch today was at Akelare, our last very fancy restaurant of the trip (it gained its third Michelin star this year). It's a short drive from San Sebastián, and sits on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Biscay. The restaurant décor was very modern, with a spacious multi-level layout. The view of the bay from our table was excellent (diminished a bit by the giant construction crane that had been erected in the plot of land next to the restaurant). We chose two different tasting menus, and were treated to a meal of strikingly beautiful-looking food, with vivid colors and interesting textures. What was lacking, unfortunately, was compelling flavor. Nearly every dish felt like the chef had poured his energy into making a showpiece, but the style lacked the substance of taste. We enjoyed the desserts a little more than the main dishes, but overall it didn't meet our high expectations.

This evening, we took a stroll along the beach promenade as a light rain fell and the ocean surf rolled in. After some tapas bar hopping, we relaxed in our room and watched TV for a few minutes. We don't normally spend much time watching TV on vacation (or ever, for that matter), but caught a show on ETB-1, a Basque television channel. We watched a game show where the contestants had to come up with a Basque phrase after seeing just the consonants for that phrase – a little like Wheel of Fortune without a wheel, but they don't get to choose letters. For example, suppose the clue was: txbrrk rkzttk msk sn bdklpk dr ksg. The answer, obviously, is: Etxeberriak aurkeztutako musika saioan bideoklipak dira ikusgai. Watching a game show in a language you don't understand really highlights how silly the overall concept of a game show is.