Tiempo intermedio

I am currently curled up in my hostel bed, nice and cozy, after a day of traveling and sight-seeing on minimal sleep. The past 10 days have been an odd mixture of non-stop work, sight-seeing, partying, goodbye-ing, and packing and I have finally gotten a chance to slow the pace a little to breathe in the crisp, coastal breeze.

My trip into the city was pretty uneventful - the bus ride was long and when I got to San Sebastian, I just hopped onto a city bus and headed to my hostel. The staff is friendly and the location is absolutely wonderful. Coffee & pastries were on the agenda, followed by a stroll through the Old Town, and a mini tour of this region's gastronomic delight: pintxos.

Holy gastronomy! All my friends that have visited San Sebastian have RAVED about the quality of the food, but somehow it just doesn't sink in until you see it and taste it for yourself. Pintxos are basically like gourmet tapas - anything ranging from various types of tortillas, stuffed peppers, fish, ham, and oxtail piled atop a thick slice of bread, enough for about 3 or 4 bites of foodgasmic goodness. What's even more appealing is that they lay them all out on platters all across the bar, so you see tons and tons of pintxos as soon as you look in the door.  Something similar to this:

(not my own picture)

I would love to share photos of what I sampled today, but naturally I had inhaled all of it before I even thought of taking out my camera. I have a list of the best pintxos restaurants and I plan to visit them all before I leave :)

With all this great food and the beach just 2 minutes away, what more could I ask for? There is a museum or two that I could visit, but honestly, winter quarter was filled with intense learning and and a whole lot of museum time (helloooo women in art!) so I will settle for a spring break filled with beautiful views and beach time before heading back for another quarter in Madrid.