Have a look in the Basque Country

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Me in a pintxobar in San Sebastian

You will have to travel to the north of Spain but once you are there it feels like you are in a whole different country than Spain.
The friendly people, the delicious food, the beautiful country and its views are very typical and because of that the Basque Country is incomparable to any other country.

When you decide to visit the country then you should make sure that you have at least a month of free time that you can spend on travelling around. The total surface of the country is 20.700 km² and every corner of it has its own good ambiance.

The Basque Country is lain all across the mountains. Some towns lay in a valley and others are high up in the mountains and only reachable when you know how to find the small roads that lead to it. In every town this creates amazing views.

Until October, the sun shines a lot so just looking up a the mountains or down from them will amaze you. The beaches will have the same effect on you. The Basque Country contains a lot of beaches, some well known as the beaches of San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque) and for some you just have to be lucky and come across when you travel around.

For example, there is the beach of Mundaka. The town isn't familiar with many tourists and because of that it still has its natural beauty. The feeling of being on a private beach could hit you there for sure.

In some towns, especially in the small ones, people only speak Basque and in other towns Spanish is also spoken. The number of foreigners in the country is very limited. So, when you visit a town you will feel that you aren't in a world that is familiar to you anymore.

The Basque inhabitants are well known for being shy, so just take the first step and start talking to people on the streets or in the stores. You'll notice how warm and friendly the people are right after you've laid the first contact. It's well known that in every country locals know how to find the best spots, and in the Basque Country people don't hesitate to show theirs to you. In fact, quite rightly they are very proud of their country.

Then one great thing about the country isn't even mentioned jet: people know how to live life when it comes to enjoying food! The lunches and dinners are very important happenings of the day. That's why you'll never see a Basque just eating a quick sandwich. Families come home from school or work to have a big lunch of two or three courses together. Or people just meet in the streets to eat because the Baque Country contains many “pintxos” bars. A “pintxo” could be half a sandwich with tortilla or ham for example but it could also be a crocket with a filling or a piece of fish mixed with a vegetable or bread. To try every kind of “pintxo” is almost impossible because there simply are just to many kinds.

The dinner is around ten pm and people really take there time for it. When they leave the dinnertable the food and wine are long gone. Good food isn't just a big happening in any regular day, during the many festivals, "jaiak" in Basque, that the country knows eating also plays a big role.