Pintxos and wine

Right around the time you realize you’ve been wearing the same pair of shoes for 24 hours, you find yourself with a choice to make.  You can take the shoes off and surrender to the nap your body so desperately demands, or you can walk just a few more steps and try to see what your new destination has to offer.  Cas and I kept our shoelaces tied (though, to be fair, I took mine off briefly and then returned them to my feet, just to have a moment’s freedom), and we wandered around the old town of San Sebastián.  We walked up and down narrow streets, stopping at at least three different places for Pintxos, which is what Tapas are called in Basque Country.  It’s essentially little appetizer-sized portions of things, and you can select from stuff that’s already made. The restaurant will heat what needs to be warm and leave cool what needs that treatment, then bring the plate to your table.  Somehow, though, when we said we would share our food, each restaurant thought we also meant to share a fork.  Maybe it’s a Spanish tradition.  

We listened to an old man play violin on a street corner, though he wasn’t terribly gifted, and we heard a trio (or at times, a quartet) of men from a restaurant across the square singing a-cappella while setting up their outside tables for the evening rush.  We walked to a beach, saw the town’s Constitution Square and took a moment to drink in the scenery and the wine.  

It’s been a pretty long journey getting here.  We got very little sleep on the overnight flight, leaving us to doze off on the Madrid to Bilbao flight and the Bilbao to San Sebastián bus, but we’ve made it to something resembling evening, and I think we may be ready to tackle a regular length day tomorrow.  We’re looking into the different things we may want to see, but we’ve adopted a decidedly slower pace this evening.  After the rush of making plane to plane to bus to bus connections, our whole plan for the rest of our time in San Sebastián is to relax.  And maybe take off our shoes here and there.  

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pfA2563myHYwVp6U7