San Sebastián is a beautiful port town which sits along the shores of the Cantabrian Sea in the Basque region of northern Spain.  

This beautiful harbor sits outside of the old city walls.

In 1846, Spain's Queen Isabel II made San Sebastián her summer home. Forty-eight years ago, it became the sight for a popular International Film Festival.  Today, it is a prime spot for surfer-dudes from all over the world.  

We came to see all three, but the highlight was by far the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

The festival highlights movies from all over the world and brings in movie buffs and movie stars from all over the globe.

We saw five fine films while we were at the festival.  Our favorite movie was this one, "Before Night Falls".  

There was a crowd standing outside of the Monte Christy hotel, and we could tell that they were waiting for something.  All of a sudden, the crowd began to cheer, "JAVIER"!

Javier Bardem is a Spanish actor who is adored by teenage girls and adults alike.  He took time to come out and meet some of his fans and sign their autograph books.  

Javier is the star of what would become our favorite movie of the festival. 

"Before Night Falls" is an autobiography of the Cuban writer, Reinaldo Arenas, a homosexual writer/poet who was persecuted by Castro's regime.  We loved the colorful and realistic portrait of Cuba pre and post-revolution.  The story of this talented artist is a compelling one, and Javier's performance was brilliant.  

Before the premier public screening, the film's director, Julian Schnabel, and three of the stars, including Javier, came out to present the film.  Johnny Depp and Sean Penn also made appearances in the film.  We give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

We also enjoyed the humorous British film, "Purely Belter" about two boys from dysfunctional families in New Castle who will do anything to secure season tickets to see their favorite futbol team.

Another wonderful film that we highly recommend is "Nurse Betty", starring Renee Zellweger, Greg Kinnear, Chris Rock and Morgan Freeman.  Morgan was actually in San Sebastián promoting his film, "Under Suspicion".

Guess who else came to town.

One of our favorites, ROBERT DE'NIRO.  

Rich and I became photo groupies for the day.  We sat outside of the Monte Christy waiting for him to arrive, we waited at the seaside spot for his press conference, and we waited for him to enter and exit the theater...twice.  While you will have to trust us, this is him, with his leather clad back to us, posing for the press.

Bobby, as we and other close friends like to call him, was not in town to present one of his films.  Instead, he was there to accept a Festival award.  

Bobby was polite as he smiled for the cameras and made his very short appearances.

Another shot of Bobby.  We need to talk to him about security; particularly in Basque country which has been plagued by terrorist killings by the Basque separatist group, ETA, for roughly the past year (15 "assasinations" in the last year).  Can you believe we got that close???

Another breach in security.  Look how close we were able to get to Bobby's car (who sits comfortably in the back seat).  We actually walked along side of it for several minutes.  Yes, we are deranged.  Let's hope that there is not an FBI file for us now.

When we were not watching films and chasing Bobby, we were exploring the beautiful San Sebastián.  As we said earlier, this sea side town is also well known for its great surfable waves.  You could surf on the sidewalks if you wanted to.  This boardwalk sits on outcrops which are more than twenty-feet high above the water, and the strong waves on this windy day still manage to crash high above the tiled walkways.  Notice the surprise man racing for cover.

These three guys want a piece of the action.  They courageously stand on the fence waiting for a big wave.  They get it.

We will be meeting Rich's family in Madrid in a week, but we take a side trip to Portugal first.  Follow us to Portugal.

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