Rain, rain, go away...

...come again some other in three days...

San Sebastian is b-e-a-utiful! This is one of the most by far the best beach city we have ever been to! For those of you that don't know, San Sebastian is located in Northern Spain, just about 30 minutes south of the France border along the Bay of Biscay. Its population just under 200,000. It has two large  harbors- Bahia de la Concha and Mompas Punta.

We are staying in a cute little apartment just at the edge of the city center. In the last couple of days the weather has been beautiful, sunny, warm and perfect for laying on the beach two days in a row. On the first night here we went into the Old Town to get some pinxtos {pronounced peenchos, which are like small tapas or appetizers}. The way it works is that every bar {of about 250 in the old town} puts out a large spread of pinxtos on the bar top. There is also a menu on a chalkboard of pinxtos calliente you can choose from. At some places they give you a plate and you just grab the ones that you want; others you tell the bartender which ones you want and they plate it for you. All of the bartenders are so nice and helpful. With our rough spanish and their rough english we've been very successful. At each place you order a drink and then usually only eat one or two pintxos and then move on to the next place. We found that although we thought the best time to get these was around 10:00 at night, we were wrong. There was plenty out but most were picked over and not as fresh. We will be attempting pintxos again another night at an earlier time.

Yesterday, we spent several hours lounging around both of the beaches. This was so nice and relaxing because it's the first day of our trip where we just relaxed. We also went to a small grocery store to get a few items for fresh salad! We made salads at the apartment for dinner. Then we hit the town again, getting a glass of wine in this old plaza. The plaza is in the heart of the Old Town and has many apartment balconies around three of the sides. Each balcony is numbered because when bull fighting was legal this is where it was held. The government held rights to the balconies and would sell tickets for them, even if someone lived in the apartment they didn't have the rights to them! Crazy huh? After getting our glass of wine we went to a small music and culture festival at the beach. We met some really nice Aussies with whom we talked to for a while, danced a lot and just had a really fun time.

We can't get over how much bang for your buck you get with drinks here!

Large pours and cheap checks!

Today has been rainy! Around 2:00 we thought we'd try to head out in it for a bit, just so we could see the big waves crashing on the beach, but man did we get soaked! I'm telling you, puddles in my shoes! We also found out that everything, with the exception of restaurants, is closed on Sundays. So today has been much like a regular lazy Sunday, with coffee, tea, and movies. We watched one of my new favorites Saving Mr. Banks! 

Tomorrow, hopefully we will be able to get out of the apartment and see some sights 

{and eat more pintxos}

Lots of love,

Robin {& James}