San Sebastian: some parting thoughts

Today is my last day in San Sebastian, and to be truthful, I'm not that sad. It's sort of a dirty little town, and everything is written in Basque (more on this below). Plus my hotel room is tiny tiny (my dorm room was larger in college). This doesn't bode well for me, my 4 bags and my fan.

Plus, the streets are all exactly the same--every block, there are about 4 tapas restaurant/bars (all seem precisely the same) + 1 pharmacy + 1 hair salon. Throw in a bread shop here and there, and a few clothes stores, and a hotel, and a travel shop, and then you'll have it. That's San Sebastian.

Top 10 observations:

10. Everyone loves their jamon Iberico (a very flavorful, thinly sliced ham). It is served several ways, but the most popular is as a sandwich on baguette....with or without cheese, with or without peppers, etc. It is the featured tapa at every place. And it is very expensive, relatively. You can get most tapas for about 2-4 euros. A couple of these will fill you up. But the ham sandwich is usually around 12-15 euros ($17-$21). And it's small.

9. More on tapas....nothing is made special for you. All of the sandwiches (all combinations) are pre-made, and proudly presented on top of the bar (so there are like 30 plates of food on the bar). Once you order, they get the food and heat it up (if appropriate). My point is this....nothing can be "on the side", or "hold the cheese", etc. It's already made, just waiting for you.

8. When walking on the sidewalks (in San Sebastian only, so far), pedestrians gravitate toward the buildings and away from the street. I can't figure out why, other than to get farther away from traffic. It's very disconcerting, though. You're walking on the right, with the shops on your right, like any good pedestrian. Then all of the oncoming pedestrians just walk right at you. Crazy San Se-bastards!

7. Most taxi drivers drive big white Mercedes. This goes against every other vibe I'm getting from this place. If I were running things, the Mercedes belong in Barcelona, and the Barcelona taxis (Renaults, Hyundais, etc.) belong here!

6. This isn't really a very friendly city. There are lots of old, grumpy folks around. I can't tell if they are locals, or perhaps people visiting from a short distance away.

5. Everything written here is in Basque (sometimes there are two wordings--Basque and Castilian). I had incorrectly thought Basque was more French-like before my trip. But it's not. It's more like Latin, and a bit of Russian. At least that's the way it looks....lots of usage of Ks, Qs and Zs. Very weird, and totally unlike Spanish. Luckily, everyone speaks Spanish. I don't quite get all this. Is the spoken language of Basque dead? Or are they secretly speaking it when I'm not around? This is actually the best place so far where my Spanish studying has paid off.

4. The beach scene is almost the same as in Barcelona, and one thing continues to stand out. There are many, many girls lying out by themselves. You would rarely, if ever, see this on US beaches, and I can't figure it out. Are they just locals on their day off or are housewives? Or maybe they don't want their friends to see their boobs? Beyond the boobs themselves, I will remember this uniqueness for my whole life. There are literally dozens of girls lying secluded on the beach. Very odd.

3. I got a Thai massage on Tuesday. By two masseuses! I thought it was worth the
extra euros, just for the experience. The main question on my mind as I left was, can I get 3? 4? What's the max?!? It was a very good massage. One girl working on my feet and legs, and one on my shoulders and back and neck. This may surprise you, though: They are way more conservative than US massages, particular US Thai massages, where usually you have NOTHING on. Here, they made you wear these brown 3/4-length linen pants and a black linen shirt. I looked like a P.O.W. But it was good.

2. Every hotel in Spain so far has had the entrance level as "Level Zero". Sure this makes sense, and the math geek in me particular likes the Floor -1, Floor -2, if there are underground floors. This is much more intuitive than the "B" or "M" or "G2" floors you'll see in American buildings. BUT. There is still this: I have ridden elevators 50 times so far from my room to the lobby, and I canNOT stop myself from pressing Floor 1. Old habits. Floor 1 just gets you to a bunch of hotel rooms, and they are not happy when you start knocking on doors asking where the concierge is. Sigh.

and #1. Wine is crazy cheap here. A glass of house Rioja wine here is usually under two bucks. And bottles are less than $10. And in the corner shop, you can get a whole bottle for $2. Sure, you CAN spend more than that, but not that much. The nicest bottle of wine on the entire restaurant menu is often $25-$30. I guess they don't mark it up by 400% like they do in the US! Viva San Sebastian!

I'm now excited about the following:

1. I have an all-night sleeper cabin in my train to Lisbon, Portugal tonight. Very anxious to get the vibe of an Agatha Christie or Mission Impossible movie!

2. So far, I've stayed in a 2-star hotel (San Sebastian), 3-star hotel (Barcelona), and 4-star hotel (Pamplona). My Lisbon hotel is 5-star, and I'm excited about it. $105 per night. Thank you, Priceline.com!!

3. Having reliable internet. I have really struggled with my crappy little San Sebastian hotel's internet service. Very hard to work. (and blog!)

Signing off from San Sebastian (oh and remind me to tell you about my bus trip to visit the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao yesterday!)

-S

(PS--Melissa and Antje: you two should be partcularaly proud of me for not dwelling on all of the bad crap going on!)