~ a new favourite ~

When we're travelling we usually have a few "rules" about choosing places to eat. 

We avoid the obvious tourist restaurants in favour of the ones frequented by locals, we won't go into empty restaurants and we rarely go back somewhere twice. 

(Usually we're anti fast food too but sometimes when travelling with kids you just need hot food now {not at 9pm when everything opens}, reliable {ie they have something I know they'll eat}, with a playground and clean toilets and the bonus of wifi and {you know where I'm heading with this} McDonalds is the only option!!)

The exception makes the rule though...and sometime a cafe or restaurant is so immediately appealing or there are so many delicious options that we just have to return.  

(It helps if it looks like they're filming an episode of a Spanish version if Offspring there too).

Gogoko Goxuak in San Sebastián was one of those places. It was a haven from the rain on the first day we found it...bustling with people and smelling delicious. I went back for a quiet coffee alone later in the week and we all voted it our top choice for our last breakfast. 

It would make a great local. 

If you're ever in the area. 

~ lately ~

It wasn't an auspicious start to our week in San Sebastián - the GPS took us the wrong way down a one way street and then had us parking in a pedestrian mall outside our apartment!

Fortunately it's improved since then. 

We've lapsed into Spanish time (thanks to shutters that block out ALL the morning light...and the fact that nothing opens for dinner until after 8.30pm and so even the kids are up until after 10 every night. And they're not alone...the streets are full of people promenading, wandering, gelati searching...) and have settled nicely into San Sebastián where there really isn't much to do beyond enjoying the beach, the walking, the good and the icecream. 

We're still finding our rhythm to this holiday/adventure. I am fighting the tendency to mild anxiety if we're not doing SOMETHING cultural or specifically Spanish (...or French/Finnish .. depending), the children are slowly adapting to a life without routines and we're working on their ability to wander without purpose (In other words the endless refrains of Where are we going? When will we get there? What are we going next? are s.l.o.w.ly diminishing). The Doc is just revelling...in being with us, being in the moment, not being at work...really just what this was all about. 

We wander, we wonder, we observe the new, the different, the down right odd and we learn. 

About other countries. Other lives.  Ourselves. 

(Photos La Concha beach and the carousel on the waterfront, playing with shapes, Hondarribia, Getaria, our local grocer, wall wanderings, laneways in the old town, tulips at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, wandering feet)

  

~ our joyful moments - week 20 ~

The old carousel down on the water front at San Sebastián is so very beautiful...my children loved having a ride last night. 

Karin is revelling in pretty spring flowers..I can almost smell that lily-of-the-valley from here 

This is our year long photography project finding the little joys in our weekly lives.