Greetings from Tapas Land

Russell and I made it to San Sebastian. It took us a while to find the hostel we were staying at. I had looked it up on a map, so I had a vague notion of where it was, but when I went to mark it on our more detailed, tourist map, it wasn´t included. The little tourist map we had only showed the beaches and old part of town. Pretty much nothing else. Not even the bus station in down town. I asked a very nice pharmacist for directions and she showed me a faster way to get where we were going. That wasn´t on the map either, but it worked great.

Today we are vaguely following the tourist guide of sights to see, but we got bored of it after a while and now we´re just wandering aimlessly. One thing we knew about San Sebastian before we came was that it was known for its tapas. Tapas, in case you haven´t heard of them, are like little appetizers. Traditionally, you get a small but free appetizer with your glass of wine or beer at the bar. It might be a little cup of peanuts, a slice of cured ham, a bit of cheese, or something similar. The story goes, that at some point a fellow asked the bar tender for a cover to keep the flies out of his wine, and the bar tender gave him a slice of cured ham. The tradition apparently stuck. In some cases, though, the tapas are more spectacular and you have to pay for them. That´s how it works here.

We have been walking around the old part of town and have seen just how fancy a tapa can get. Russell had one composed of a slice of baguette, two slices of hard boiled egg covering it, a roll of smoked salmon with crab salad stuffed inside and a sardine over the top. I had one that that also started with the bread, had crab salad piled up high, and was decorated with some sort of green herb and a shrimp on top. We´ve seen even fancier tapas since then. Tonight we plan to go tapas sampling. They seem to range from one to two euros.

For lunch we played the lost Americans and went to eat too early (1:00). The restaurant had just opened and was absolutely empty. The next couple didn´t arrive for another half hour, and the third couple came just as we were leaving at 2:00. We knew better, but we were hungry. Coffee just doesn´t hold us until 2:00. We also ordered the cheap wine. We´re generally used to cheap wine. It doesn´t phase us. In fact, we tend to relish it. But this was the cheap wine king. The waiter tried to warn us, but since it was 4 euros for the small bottle of wine, we weren´t too worried. It tasted vaguely of watered down grape juice.