Up until the Pyrrhic War, which lead to their absorption into the Roman Republic, Magna Grecia (lit. "Greater Greece") was a series of powerful Greek settlements and cities in southern Italy and Paestum (Poseidonia during this ancient Greek times) was one of them.

Located 3 hours south of Naples via a regional train that continues down the Costa Cilentana, it was a satisfying daytrip that I took one ordinary week-end last June. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed - the sight was amazing and, for a while, I thought I was in Greece.

Going to Paestum is like going to Greece... without leaving Italy! 

Emerging as one of the stronger ASEAN capitals, Kuala Lumpur, along with its neighbor Singapore, has been praised for being one of those functional and "the system is working" type of cities which balance steady economic growth with infrastructure development for the people. KL offers a balanced and attractive working environment, positive enough to draw foreigners not just to invest in KL but to actually work and base themselves in KL. The comparison to KL (and Singapore) by my own city, Manila, often ends in shaking heads and puzzlement - how could such growth have been possible and how Manila could "catch up".

For me, this is all "meaningless" in the travel-culture sense and I knew nothing and expected nothing from KL, except that I saw it as a place that's probably similar to Singapore but with "more culture per capita". A long-layover last December allowed me to see if this is so...

Considered the gastronomic capital of Spain and located at the Atlantic coast of the proud Basque country (Euskal Herria), San Sebastian is a city that is proud of its cuisine. Taking inspiration from both French and Spanish sides of the Basque, the local environs and, most importantly, the season, Basque food is famous for highlighting the best ingredients from the area and of the season and manipulating it into real masterpieces, often impressive to look at and even better to taste.

Being that it was my second time to visit the city (having been there for a few days a couple of years ago), I had an idea about what I was plunging into - an amazing pintxos culture in La Parte Vieja (Old Town), a wide selection of seafood (some of which are not found easily in the Mediterranean) and the Spanish penchant for wine and enjoyment but little did I know that I would be in for much more. Having refined my choices on where to go (both from experience and from the internet), I was in for a weeks' worth of treats!

In this post, I'll chronicle mostly my adventures with Basque cuisine, in the more general sense, and particularly with my encounters of Basque dishes in restaurants - I'll reserve my review and selection of pintxos (an even more elaborate aspect of Basque cuisine) on another post. 

This filler is gonna be really short. :)

Last night, I went out with some colleagues from this workshop I'm attending in San Sebastian to sample the nightlife of the city (which like most university cities also boasts of Erasmus parties). In one of the places we went to, I came across this nice drink - Satanas (Satan, in Spanish) which was really devilishly good. We took the shot without asking what it was first and found it surprisingly nice and I got a second shot because one of the guys didn't want his. 

Having been in Europe for more than 2 years now, my perspectives on which places to visit have evolved over time. I started with the disposition that I should travel mostly to places within Italy; there's more time to explore everything else, I'd say. And so I went on exploring cities within my reach (Rome and Naples at first, and small towns in their vicinity). Then, I progressed to nailing various regions within Italy (Tuscany, Lombardy and, eventually, Veneto... Sicily has perpetually eluded me) until seeing every flavor of Baroque, Gothic and Romanesque church had me saying that I probably had enough of Italy (I learned loads though - the North-South divide, facts on the Unification, regional differences and flavors). Time to move on to other places... France, Spain, Belgium (by chance)... easy since I could speak passable Italian (some French from back in my undergrad days, some Spanish from being Filipino)... But then they all started feeling and melding together and sort of being the same.

Anyway, bottom line is that after 2 years of being here, I found it strange that the eastern most city I've been to is... Naples, not only my home base but a city that is as inherently "western European" as any other city I've been to. I decided that this fact had to change.