SS

We had the best time in San Sebastian with Jake and Jeno; i had only ever met them briefly years ago in SF, we both missed each other's weddings and every other time we've tried to get together, so i was happily surprised to thoroughly enjoy traveling with both of them. It's so damn hard to find couples where both josh and i actually like both members, but then to compound that by actually spending 5 full days together and have to be able to travel together is really challenging. I admit, a large chunk of that difficulty lies with me as i typically don't care for many girls, so i was thrilled to find both Jake and Jeno were a lot of fun.

SS is gorgeous, north coast of Spain with incredible beaches in the mountains. And oh my god, the food. Pintxos is Basque for tapas and they have the greatest food ever. A large majority of the pics are either of some grouping of the four of us drunk, or of the tiny plates of food we plowed thru ungracefully. The Basque culture is really interesting, so different than the Catalans in the south, yet still so fiercely independent from the idea of having much to do with Spain. The beaches were beautiful, and we made the most of them; the churches and tiny little winding towns were lovely, but hands down, the best food ever.

It's a funny place, even though Jeno and i would declare that after the craziness last night, tonight we are taking it easy by god, it never happened that we made it back to the hotel before 2. And that is 5 nights in a row, which is unheard of for me on several levels. We found this little bar, called Bar Nestor, owned by two brothers who were nothing short of fabulous. We found the place the first night when Jeno and i got diverted away from the guys by these little old Spanish men who took us in the bar and fed us dinner and bought us all these drinks. We loved the place so much, we went back every night except the last night we were there, and we weren't there Monday only because the bar was closed. Amazingly simple food, just plates of heirloom tomatoes cut up with huge salt flakes, roasted gindilla peppers, and these slabs of steak with an inch of fat still on them that is barely seared, then served to you on a griddle, all of which are covered in the salt flakes. Got to figure out where to get that. We adored that place, and by god, Jeno and i will end up on their wall of fame. Nestor gave each couple an apron to take home.
Great trip, we'll definitely be back; leave it to Josh and me to have a few places we continue to go back to over and over when we should have all of Europe to explore...

Everything else is going really well here! Nothing new, the dreary weather hasn't gone anywhere and it's raining yet again, but Harp and i are hoping for a bit of sun to hit the park this afternoon. We're laying low for the rest of the month, Spain took it out of us. Pics are below!

http://picasaweb.google.com/erinhittman/SanSebastian?feat=directlink