..And 1, and 2, and 3!

If anyone is wondering, I survived both the large wind gust nary a scratch and the encounter with Jesus who I swear is giving the finger to San Sebastian. As Danise said, this town is a quality step up from Santander and we felt immediately more excited to be here. The odd bit about our hostal is that it a flat in a large apartment building and I am sure that the neighbors are less than thrilled with the influx of randoms/Urban House guests. Urban house does their best to regulate quiet hours and the RA in me is getting anxious. Hello adulthood.
Yesterday while Danise took care of some office work I crossed the street to the local park to catch up on some light reading. And by light, I mean obnoxiously mind-dulling reading. Please, if anyone has any suggestions, I am dying for a good book. Barbra Pymś Jane and Prudence just aint cuttin in it and the previous book, Momzillas wasn't much better. The park was quite mini and surrounded by flats identical to ours on all four sides. The flats are tall five story camel colored buildings with the quintessential balconies and styled trims. The park was lush green with small ponds and viewing bridges. I chose a bench in the sun and loaded up on sunscreen so as not to have another accident. This park harbored two of the trends we have come across in Spain, babies and dogs. Galore. Everywhere, are fantastically adorable children and equally rambunctious pups, mostly terriors and occasionally the ugly chiouou accompanied by an older man or woman. Personally, I am finding Spanish youth and adults stunning and an attractive people comapred ot most. Although, they don seem to age well which is different.
In the midst of Jane and Prudenceś adventures two women in their thirties who I presume to be sisters or cousins as they looked very much alike, guided an older woman, their mother or aunt, to my bench. The two women sat her down and positioned her properly, fussing over her outfit and hair and chatting with much enthusiasm. The older woman seemed completely vacant from life and it was very hard to watch but at the same time, heart warming to see the younger woman so devoted to her every move. Meanwhile babies and their fathers (I know right? Always fantastic to see) waddled around us chasing imaginary fun. It was a peculiar space to be in and the binaries of age toyed with my own sense of agency. It didn't help that Jane and Prudence, two pre-feminist movement ladies were considering what to serve for tea. They chose sandwiches. Wahey.
That afternoon we dodged massive groups of kids (not so cute this time) at the Aquarium and went on a wild goose chase trying to find the routes to visit the village of Olague that is so ridiculously small, absolutely no public transportation passes through the area. In these areas you must be 23 to rent a car so Danise gave up on her personal pilgrimage and we went for lunch in the church square where the locals like to dine.
Our second night in San Sebastian and we finally got to eat at La Cuchar, a tapas restruant that is in all the guide books and recommended by several people who work at our hostal. We had to try it and it was well worth it. At La Cuchara they make the tapas fresh right in front of you, unlike the cold tapas made earlier that are still delicious, but much less savory. I ordered pata confiet, a delicious falling off the bone leg of duck soaking in itś own fat and sweet glaze, and Danise ordered Croquette, the usually fried ball of goodness (cheese, ham, fish...etc) but this time it was much more posh, not fried, and in a sweet little noddle like package with meat inside. Of course the obligatory vino and we were off to hit up another tapas. After a leisurely walk back to our section of town we enjoyed gelatti and a good chat with Daniel on the main street. Across from our bench however, was a white grafetied swastika. I would say that the abundance of these are the major disconserting thing about San Sebastian We first encountered this naive sort of intolelrance on the walk up to Jesus. A weird irony and incredulous.
We ended our night in stitches, literally, from a group stretch in the hostel. Explaining to the girls from Newcastle and London that my goal is to eventually be able to do a back bend from standing position and back up, we got to stretching and practicing. Danise walked in on us legs apart, hands against the wall, and bouncing to Pipaś count, "and one, and two, and three." The four of us spent the next hour exchanging great stretches, clenches, and bends and it was just a hot mess. At most points, had anyone walked in on our version of a crazy night out, we would have gotten the stare down. Actually, the RA type did knock on the door to hush us up and for gods sakes we werent ripping body shots off each other or anything. Just a nice little stretch. It was deeply hilarious though and we cant wait for the next installment tonight!
This morning Danise and I caught the bus to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim which was magnificent. We very much enjoyed the modern insulations, and in particular, Cai Guoqiangś Head On. Cai is the artist who designed the Beijing summer Olympic firework display and this piece is entirely different (although they did show his firework pieces too). This piece of work involves many stuffed wolves that are very realistic, all running in the same direction. He uses a huge space, the wolves are suspended in air, running up and around in a circular motion, towards a glass wall which they collide into, slide down, and again begin to run towards whence they started. It is a fascinating, clever, and deep way of critiquing and challenging the toxic ideologies that war and other travesties grow from.
We walked along the river to find a lunch spot that a woman at the info desk recommended and were very thankful we took her advice. We found ourselves eating on stage in a theater that is a lunch room during the day! We could see up in the balcony and down where the audience would normally be. The place was packed and we tucked into the menu of the day. I ordered a delicious pumpkin soup and fish dish. Danise ordered a fantastic mushroom and filo mix and chicken stuffed with cheese and pepper. We sure got our moneys worth as it came with a bottle of water and a full bottle of wine...I left quite drunk and cant imagine who in their right mind would be able to drink a bottle of wine at lunch time! As a result, the walk and ride up in an elevator that took us to the top of Bilbao where the Basilica sat was a thriller. From the top we had some great views of the very industrial city. Each place we visit is incredibly Spanish but so different from one another. Similar colors are used but the architecture and city plans give an entirely different feel to each. We love to just look out over the cities and take in the beauty and air.
A quiet night in for us tonight, perhaps a nice drink with the girls but no sleep without a good stretch sesh first!

Much love,
MK

Daniseś Post Script Top Trends in Spain:
1. Saggy, Low-slung, patterned hippie pantalones that have a bunch of extra fabric that hang down between the legs, thus looking like a cross between coolots, a flowy hippie skirt and a sarong. Almost every other woman in her 20s wears them here. (Gladiator style leather sandals are a must as well with this fashionable piece of clothing).

2. Small dogs and small children. Everywhere we go we see couples and women walking these tiny weeny little terrier toy dogs. Large or medium sized dogs are an anomoly here. In addition, we have noticed that Spain is definitely adding to the world population as there are adorable infants and small children all over the place! The children we have seen in Madrid and San Sebastian have also been the most fashionable and well-dressed little ones we have ever seen! (Weŕe still waiting to see a 2 year old wearing the low-slung hippie pantalones though).

3. American music is big here. Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Jason Mraz, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez...you name it, they play it in the clubs, in stores, bars, restaurants, in bus stations, on the radio, in gelaterias, in our hostel common area. Maddie and I always take note if a store has actual Spanish music playing as opposed to Madonna.

4. CONSTRUCTION. Especially in Madrid, there has been tons of construction going on. Many times we had to walk through dust walls, jackhammering, detour paths and underneath scaffolding. Weŕe not complaining, we just want to see what Madrid and all these cities look like in 5 years after their apparent face lift!

5. RUDE PEOPLE. Everywhere there are run ins with not very nice folks. We have not run into äny horrible people, but there have been a fair share of folks who like to either disrespect, rip off, or scare us obvious tourists. For example, today Maddie and I were in line at a fruit store and these two old ladies cut in front of us, pushing us aside to place their fruit on the counter before us. We looked at them and said perdon! but this did nothing and the ladies did not even look up to say lo siento! Another example of this is when we were walking the streets of San Sebastian and I was staring at a store front when I turned around to keep walking and an old man looked at me about 4 inches away from my face and said OOOH! scaring the begeezus out of me!

How to Tell if a Restaurant is Bueno o Mal!:
1. BREAD: A good restaurant always gives bread in the beginning of the meal. One must test the bread´s outer shell and knock it against the side of a plate by tapping it to see how hard the outside is. Next test, break off a piece of break from the loaf and see the density and texture of the meat of the bread. If the bread is soft in the inside, but hard on the outside, this is a good piece of pan! Youŕe on your way to eating a good restaurante.

2. NAPKINS: If thick, soft, large, sturdy and cloth-like, this is the recipe for good food. If the napkins are small, waxy, plasticly, come out of a dispenser and have the restaurant´s name on it or just have little images on it, bad news bears.

3. CROWDEDNESS: I believe this is a universal rule, but the more people are waiting out front for a table or a place at the tapas counter, the better. We have lived by this rule since day one and have not yet had a bad experience at a crowded restaurant (speaking only for the foodś quality and deliciousness, definitely not the service, many places force you to be very aggressive and loud to get what you want).

4. GARBAGE ON THE FLOOR. This rule only applies in San Sebastian, but it really holds true and we found it extremely interesting so we thought we would share. In San Sebastian tapas bars are deemed highly delicious if you walk by the open doors and can see lots of little crumpled up white napkins and cigarette butts on the floor. I guess this rule goes along with the crowdedness rule since they are inseparable from each other.

Amor, Danise

Also, the reason weŕe not posting any photos lately is because this hostel does not have any USB connections available for us to use, boo. Weĺl try in our next hostel.