Wandering around and learning about Basque, pintxos y vino y cerveza

Today's weather wasn't quite as pleasant as yesterday but all that means is that we walk a little longer and a little faster to keep warm.

As we walked about it was becoming evident that all the signs were written in two languages. A bit of research reveals what I guess I should have known before we came here.
This north eastern part of Spain speaks and is sign posted in Catalan Spanish, which is the common language throughout Spain, and Euskara, which is the Basque language.
What I found fascinating about Euskara is that it is so old that linguists cannot definitively tell us of its origins although they believe it dates back to the Stone Age and know it is isolated from any every other language.

This bi-lingual approach can, and does, really confuse a lot of us visitors.

Where do you think you're going?

Looking at the sign above I thought that Donostia was suburb of San Sebastian or maybe another part of it or ....... whatever, BUT not the same place.

Methinks the local Basques take great delight in watching the foreigners confusion and are simultaneously annoyed by their ignorance.

Overall I have found them to be less able/willing to speak "non-Spanish" but it doesn't detract from their helpfulness. 

Anyway, it's not hard to ask for "Un vino tinto, una cerveza y dos placas, por favor."

Load up the plates with pintxos o bocadillos y "stuff ", wash it all down with vino o/y cerveza and everyone's happy.

We have found that booze is cheap but food, not quite so much.

A wine or beer is less than €2 and yet a mouthful, albeit gorgeous and then delicious, will set you back €3-4.

As you can imagine, this leads to people drinking more than they eat, and that's not a bad thing because the vino y cerveza around this part of the world is muy buena.

Trying to get educated about which are the better places to get a drink and pintxos is far more difficult than actually just setting out and trying them. 

Everyone on the interwebz has an opinion and we've found most of them to be less than helpful.

"Take a local friend with you." Sure, 'cos everyone has "a local friend" at their disposal. The locals at the bar help you anyway.

"Don't eat what's on the bar. Eat what's written on the blackboard." What?!

"Take a tapas bar tour." I would but I can bar hop without paying someone to lead me.

etc. etc.

We tried a few that looked good from the street and had locals eating there. Simple and effective.

We've not been disappointed.

We tried the Bar Bergara last night, mainly because it is close, and it was very, very good.

We've also tried a few in the "old city" using the "the mountain of choices on the bar look good and there's heaps of locals in there" method and have walked away happy every time.

We've only been here one and half days and have two days left so I think we'll continue our research as best we can and report on our findings.