San Sebastian Seafood Satisfaction

San Sebastian, or Donostia, as it's called in the Basque language Euskera, is simply beautiful. Beautiful! The scenery changes suddenly and drastically at some point in the 3-hour drive from Soria to the coastal city, from a military camouflage-colored combination of vegetation to a breathtaking chain of mountains and hills covered in lush, vividly green grass. The autumn yields a blanket of foliage in muted versions of reds, oranges, and yellows. And then there's the picturesque, occasional herd of sheep, cows, horses, or donkeys standing on a steep hill and feeding themselves so that we may eat their delicious fatty meat and the cheesy cheese they produce. Which brings me to my next subject: FOOD.

San Sebastian is all about the food. OK, and the beach - but it was too cold to swim and sunbathe. Erin, Steph and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening exploring the Parte Vieja (Old Part) of the city - OK, not really exploring so much as walking through it in circles, lost, in search of our hostel. Then, we climbed Monte Urgull - which we referred to as the Jesus mountain due to the big Jesus statue situated on its peak - and got this stunning view:


Yes, the water really is that colour

San Sebastian is renowned for having some of the best pinxtos in Spain. Pinxtos are tapas, or little appetizer thingies that you can get at almost any bar. We went to Bar Bergara, grabbed a table, and proceeded to FEAST upon the most incredible, mouthwatering, earth-shattering delights of mushroom, vegetable, cheese and fish-laden tapas.


Ingredients featured in these hot tapas, in no particular order: mushrooms, potatoes, eggs, roasted peppers, bacalao, alioli, shrimp

We ate a lot.

The next day, quite a few things happened (churches were seen, pastries were eaten, rain and wind tried and failed to put a damper on our enjoyment of the beautiful city), but I will only relay the one of utmost importance here. I shall refer to the event in question as "COSP": "The Consumption of a Seafood Paella". Erin, Steph and I like to talk about food, you see. So we'd been talking, in the days leading up to the COSP, about the importance of achieving COSP. We searched and we searched for a restaurant without success, until a lovely local lady angel person saw us stumbling through the streets in hunger and confusion and pointed us in the direction of a paella-serving seaside restaurant. We stumbled on over there, shaking with hunger and anticipation, and placed our order, assuring the waitress that we could handle the 30-minute wait during which the chef would probably go outside and grab the ingredients for our paella straight out of the ocean.

I could write a poem about this paella and its masterful combination of sea creatures and saffron-infused fried rice (so poetic, guys: masterful combination of sea creatures). I could try to explain to you, through words, the ecstasy of COSP and its permanent, life-changing effects on our collective psyche of food idolization. But I would fail. I would fail because simply thinking about COSP, never mind writing about it in detail, is making me drool onto my defenseless bed, and frankly, I ate 8 big pastries yesterday and I just had bread with mashed potatoes and the carbfest that is my stomach right now CANNOT AFFORD to be tempted by a recollection of the delightfulness of COSP. So you'll just have to look at this picture and believe me when I say that even though it looks a little funky, this SEAFOOD PAELLA (it has earned capitalization) was the highlight of an already entirely highlighted experience.



San Sebastian was definitely my favorite trip in Spain so far. The great company; the incomparably delectable and palatable scrumptiousness of food; and the most vivid harmonization of colors: the vibrant green grass, the yellowy yellow sand, the turquoise sea, the palm trees, and the jewel toned buildings, all flanked by the red, yellow, and orange tones of the autumn. Amen.

Hahahalloween

Hola! As I've been telling anyone I've talked to the past few weeks, there was recently a week-long occasion in Soria that filled me with joy and riboflavin: semana de la tapa micologica, or "Week of the Mycological Appetizer" (Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, or mushrooms). It's amazing how this tiny city comes to life whenever there's any event that yields an excuse to leave the house, eat, drink, and enjoy oneself. I went setapeando ("mushroom appetizer-ing") 6 days in a row because food is life, and by the end of the week, word had spread about which bars were serving the best tapas, leading to ridiculous overcrowding and a wait sometimes as long as an hour for the tiny appetizers because here, they don't cook in bulk or in advance, and so everything is fresh and delicious.


Left: mushroom tapa at Templo, consisting of some kind of delicious mushroomy sauce-gravy thing (that's the technical term) served on an edible doughy spoon, accompanied by a scallop with peach nectar? complicated but delicious and memorable. Right: mushroom empanada type-thing at Santo Domingo II.

On Sunday, my friends and I went to our first soccer match in Spain. Soria's team, Numancia, was playing. There were a lot of people, and on our side of the stadium, there were two groups of "cheerleaders" consisting of mostly men and some women who were waving huuuge flags, playing various percussive instruments, yelling, chanting, cheering, and stomping. Numancia won!!!



Then, I had a great week in school because I prepared a class on Halloween and the kids were so into it. Spain doesn't do Halloween; instead, they have Dia de los Santos and then Dia de los difuntos for which they go to the cemetery, bearing flowers, to clean loved ones' graves. To pique the kids' interest in Halloween, I brought them whatever candy had made it out of my house alive (I had a regrettable and unavoidable binge session that led to an actual intervention by Simon and Erin, who had to physically restrain me while they locked up the meager remains of the candy in the living room credenza) and showed them a variety of Halloween-themed pictures, including this guy:



So I'm explaining "On Halloween, kids sometimes prepare gross stuff like eyeballs made out of olives and baked goods that look like fingers, and you can also make a brain out of hamburger meat and ketchup!". The kids weren't disgusted by this because THEY EAT BRAIN AND FINGERS HERE.

On Saturday, we headed to a chino to look for Halloween costumes. I picked up a hot pink wig and a matching pink scarf because I'm full of imagination. The resulting classy costume, which was greatly enhanced by Steph's contribution of her very own tie-dyed leggings, got named "Colour Vomit". We headed over to our neighbors Candy and Kim's for a fabulous Halloween party. Check out these costumes!!



From the top left, clockwise: Shane as Guy Who Goes to the Chino 20 minutes Before They Close on Halloween Night to Look For a Costume, me as Colour Vomit, Shannon as Abstract Wounded Lion, Kim as Shane, Simon as Chilean Miner, Candy as Terrifying Zombie, Erin as Pumpkin Dressed Up As a Greek Goddess, and Estephie, stealing the show as Amy Winehouse.

The party was tons of fun and the cookies were delicious, even though Candy did not make her delicious brownies. Candy, if you're reading this, please make the brownies. Please.