Today was our last day in Pamplona, and, coincidentally, the last day of the Sanfermines. The plan was to go to the much-acclaimed beachtown of San Sebastian. Robbie, a Tufts student who's travelling Europe before doing a year of study abroad (lucky guy), who's stayiing in the same place we have been in Pamplona joined us. It was a day of promises of a beautiful beach town, combined with the promise of delicious pintxos, or Basque tapas.

We got up early to meet Robbie (he was watching the running of the bulls today - the last run of the year), and then headed out for the bus. We decided first to get a breakfast of accalimed churros con chocolate. At 4 Euro for each of us, it wasn't a particularly good deal, but it was tasty. To complain a bit, the churros started to get to be a bit heavy on the oil, and the chocolate was a bit too choclatey for me, but all in all, not a bad breakfast.

We headed to the bus stop (with which Michelle and I were now familiar after the near-fiasco yesterday). Today, however, as it was the last day of the festival, the bus station was just packed. We got the tickets and found our bus, but it appeared that it was running late. So they sent a second bus that took a huge hoarde of people out to San Sebastian. The countryside on the way, again, looked a bit like the Central Valley back home in California.

We got off the bus at San Sebastian, found the river right next to the bus terminal, and followed it out to see. The city was beautiful, and really looked more French in its architectural style than it did Spanish. The shoreline itself was beautfil, with a large carved-out sandy beach, surrounded by large resort hotels (eg the Hotel Londres), facing a nearby island. A hill nearby featured a giant Jesus statue overlooking the city. We wandered around the alleyways a bit and headed down to the beach. Michelle get her toes wet in the water, while Robbie and I stood around in our shoes. Personally, I was just too lazy to change into flip flops, so I just stood around.

The real highlight of San Sebastian, though, awaited us back in the alleyways. In the Lonely Planet guide, I'd read that regions of Spain all vie for best dishes, but apparently all admit that San Sebastian's a cut above the rest. I don't question that at all. We decided to do some pintxo hopping and were rewarded. We started out at this one bar, pretty confused. Let me set the scene: the bar is filled with plates, each filled with food - each plate features one type of bite sized morsel. Half of these clearly are raw, and the other half, ready to eat. A little confused, Robbie (who speaks better Spanish than either of us) asks for clarification. The guys behind the counter (a Spaniard, and a short-tempered German) end up explain it to us in English. Here's the clue if you don't want to be as confused as I was. Grab a plate, load it up with what you want to eat, and show them. They'll keep track of it and charge you when you leave. For the raw stuff -- get a separate plate for those, and hand it to them to cook. They'll bring that out to you on a plate when you're seated.

The food was delicious. I started off with some sort of tuna on a slice of bread, a skewer of shrimp, and various other tasty dishes. It was all very good, and we paired it with some wine. A very nice local lady whom Robbie had asked for help, came by before she left to check on us. Robbie asked her for some recommendations, and so we got a few more places to try.

The next place was really fancy looking. A black chalkboard and menus (available in English, French, and Spanish) tell you what's available, unlike the last place. We had some pork shoulder, and a little Kobe slider - both of which were quite good, and again, went down well with wine.

The third place was one that was famous for its veal cheeks. We had some of those - not too shabby, and a dessert, which was, a bit too chocolatey for me. After this, we relaized we had little time before the bus we had to take back to Pamplona in order to make our train to Barcelona.

I think we worked off our Pintxos in our mad sprint to the bus. We bought our tickets for our bus ride back to Pamplona (our bus pulled away probably 5 minutes after we got our tickets), and Robbie got tickets for his bus to Bilbao to check out the Guggenheim. We parted ways, and Michelle and I headed back to Pamplona.

We took it slow once we got back, went back to get our stuff, and headed out to the train station. Taxis don't actually come close to where we stayed, as it was in the old town, and was made only of narrow alleys, so we decided it was just as convenient to walk, as the weather wasn't too bad.

We made it to the station, and met a few new people on the train. We were seated in a set of four seats, with each pair facing each other with a table in between. Across from us was a guy from DC named Chris, who had run with the bulls on Friday (and actually had pet the bull that gored the guy who died!), Daniel (a USMC), and his wife Veronica. They were interesting company, and we talked to them for most of the 4 hour train ride.

Once we got into Barcelona, we hopped onto the Metro and headed to our room. This place (Casa de Billy) was a nice apartment whose owner rented out rooms to travellers. The nice furniture, decorations, and other accoutrements were a nice upgrade from the Pamplona residences. After a short break, we headed out for food. Unfortunately, Inopia (a recommendation from my friend Craig) was already closed for the night, so we ate at a random bar type place for dinner, for some regular Spanish tapas, and of course, Sangria. this time, it was Sangria de Caba (champagne instead of red wine), a specialty of the region.

Off to bed, because tomorrow is Bari Gotic exploration day!