N43°19.542
W001°59.064
The waterfront along Playa de la Concha is packed with both tourists, mostly Spanish, and locals alike. Even though people are out walking for exercise, they’re immaculately dressed in furs, jewels and stylish boots. The woman are out strutting their new winter fashions, it’s almost like a catwalk in the middle of December, I bet it’s even crazier in the summertime when the beach is packed with sun worshipers.
We enjoyed the walk along the waterfront. Not only did it allow us to enjoy the views of the Bay of Biscay and dogs and people playing on the beach, but it gave us our daily exercise. When we reached the western end of the walk, we realized we were with the same group of people throughout the walk, we smiled and acknowledged them. Literally, hundreds of people were out walking, enjoying the day, yet another holiday in
The children that were able to reach the end of the promenade were circled around several eight inch holes in the granite walkway. When the surf came in a burst of air would shoot up through the holes, blasting them with a gust of mist and wind. One young girl, who couldn’t have been more than seven, bent over looking directly into the hole as the wind shot-up, it shook all the skin on her face and sent her hair straight up into the air. Other children stood near the rail overlooking the bay, providing warnings of giant waves that were advancing. You knew a big blast of air was just seconds away when the children would scream and run away from the rail; of course, always too slow to avoid the splash of a giant wave, soaking them to the bone.
As we made our way back to the center of town, people were exiting churches and pouring into
the streets. Dressed in their Sunday best, many made their way to the closest pintxo’s bar, while others grabbed fresh baguettes and headed home for their holiday meal. Marc pointed out what a strange phenomenon it was that all of the baguettes the women were holding were missing the ends… hmm?
One thing that struck us as being incredibly odd on this day, a weekend, just a mere sixteen days before Christmas, is how all the stores were closed? Not just mercados, but clothing stores, electronic stores, toy stores… pretty much everything except pintxo bars! A holiday weekend, with tons of tourists in town, a great time to make some money as a business owner; it would be unheard of to close-up-shop in the States. But this is one of the best things about being Spanish; it’s all about quality of life. There’s plenty of time to shop before Christmas rolls around. How 
much time do you really need to by a few gifts? No one seemed to be stressed about the stores all being closed; they were simply enjoying the time with their families and the holiday weekend.
Think about it… maybe the stress Americans feel is self-induced. Maybe we should worry less about the number of presents and constant shopping and worry more about quality time with family, friends, and of course, wine and pintxos!
1 comment:
Get your hands off Marc's Pintxos!
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