If Only I Spoke Spanish

It was raining when we left the house and it rained on the way to the airport. It was raining when we saw the sign that said the access to the highway was closed and did not see any sign for an alternate route. It was raining as we drove in ever wider circles looking for another access and still raining when we got directions from a passerby.

It was raining when we got to the long term parking and the guy told us they’d overbooked and we’d have to follow his convoluted directions to alternate parking. It was raining as we waited - and waited - for the airport shuttle. It was raining as we scooted indoors and searched for our checkin desk.

It was raining when the announcement board started showing more flights delayed than boarding and it was raining when they announced our flight had been diverted from Bristol to Cardiff. It’s still raining and we’re still waiting. We were supposed to depart at 11:25 but it’s now 12:25 and departure time is still undetermined. Some have been cancelled outright and as our plane is now in the city we drove from this morning I suspect ours may be cancelled as well. So we wait. And watch the rain.

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We were lucky. Some of the flights were cancelled, some delayed for twelve hours or more but we took off two and a half hours after our appointed time and were quickly above the clouds. As we drew close to our destination, the clouds parted and gave us a view of Biarritz from the air. We landed on a dry runway and stepped out into glorious sun. We were in France and the sun was shining.

Our destination was San Sebastian, a cab ride, two trains, a country and a ten minute walk away. Deb called the woman who was waiting for us at the apartment. She was as unimpressed with the British weather as we were. It seems she’d been waiting to go to Madrid and couldn’t until we arrived. We explained the next train left in an hour and while it wasn’t far by car, the transfers and walk put us a few hours away. She decided to pick us up. Twenty minutes later we were in the back of her BMW as she grumbled at us and coo-cooed her lap dog. She got on the highway and almost immediately the clouds from Bristol caught up to us, closing us in and opening up with a pounding rain that sang “you thought you could get away...”

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The view from our apartment

The rain relented shortly after we arrived and we were starting to get hungry, time to hit the streets. Even in a cloudy dusk, San Sebastian is beautiful. It sits on beautiful bay on the north coast of Spain in the heart of Basque country. I’ll let the pics do the talking, my words can’t do it justice.

We walked by one closed shop, bar, restaurant after another and eventually realized that they do things differently here. Yes, there are lots of tourists but the vast majority are Spanish and the Spanish eat late. It was seven o’clock, a full hour before dinnerfest began which runs until midnight. Ah well, gave us some time to see and sigh and get oriented.From the castle facing west

The local cuisine is famous for Pintxos (peenchos) and wine. Pintxos are essentially tapas but vey high end and very tasty. Portions of food and wine are very small but the custom is to go to several places in an evening and sample and savour the various creations. Wine is selected by the owners perhaps to best complement the food, perhaps to unload an excess. You can stand as you eat and drink, as most of the locals do, or you can sit at the bar for a little more. For a little more than that you can have a table and a waiter and I’m guessing at some point we’re going to want to sit down. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Having travelled all day the thought of travelling from bar to bar was more than we could do our first night. We found one, ensconced ourselves at the bar and began to decipher the chalkboard menu. I recognized words like pollo and foie and pointed excitedly at a plate of squid that went by so we ate well and kept the waiter busy refilling our glasses.

We stopped at a small store on the way home and with more pointing and one word sentences managed to leave with bread, cheese and pastries for brekkie and some wine in case we didn’t crash immediately back at the apartment. The wine survived the night unmolested, it had been a long, long day.