
Cathy on the other hand had been up for hours and was hustling all around the apartment to get the breakfast ready! Turns out I am the only one who takes sugar with her coffee, but they love me anyways.



We made it to the bakery but then ran into a problem - with many different types of baked on site each day and tasty plates of croissants, chocolate treats and breakfast muffins and rolls, it was tough to decide what to eat! Eventually we sat down with our yummy breakfast and our café con leche to wake up right.
Being Easter week the windows and display cases were stuffed with choclate bunnies and delictable eggs, although Mr. Easter Bunny himself doesn't really play part in the religious way that the locals celerbate the holiday. It appealed to the American in us though!
We continued our strolling, always making sure to look up from time to time to appreciate the old-style beauty of the buildings - their cornices, balconies, stone-work, flowers and more. Being a weekday morning, the outdoor farmer's market was in full-swing. Walking onto the Boulevard, the main drag, Cathy and Grammy were able to recognize where we were and that we had been there the night before chomping down on pintxos. This time instead of artistic snacks on bread we were able to stare at the bright colors of the fresh veggies that graced the tables. From strange shaped tomatoes to eggs that were stacked many cartons high, they were able to see the city in action.
While greens make a good meal we couldn't miss checking out the fish market where massive entire fish are laid out - octopus, crab, live lobsters, monkfish, shrimp, the works - all there for your eyes to feast on! Drastically different from the fresh food fair we had been seeing, they were incredibly shocked at the frozen food store. We are not talking frozen food like TV dinners or anything, because this place really just has food, but it's frozen. Do you want a half a pound of frozen peas? Well, here you can just scoop them up like the bulk section of American grocery stores. How about some chopped onions? Ready for the taking too! They were shocked and had never seen such a thing which gave me a good chuckle as it is something I have become used to.
Wandering up and down the pedestrian streets of the Old Part we passed many a pintxo bar, gorgeous houses, cute clothing shops, meat markets, my first apartment (which warranted a photo), the main plaza and more. We continued our destinationless walking, also known as the Basque Stroll, throughout town gazing left and right. We made it all the way to the port and walked along the Concha Beach when we realized a few miles for the first day was probably enough and headed to the grocery store to get them supplies for the week to come.




We also nibbled on some Basque cheese and membrillo to finish the meal off nicely. When 1 o'clock rolled around, Grammy couldn't believe she was burning the midnight oil and seeing as it was only thier first day we thought we'd let them get some rest because the following day was going to be an important one - meeting the fam!
More to come soon! Muxu!
Amanda
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