the little old woman who lived in a tiny shoe store July 4, 2005 5:37 am >> From Barcelona, we moved on to San Sebastian, a gorgeous little resort town in the Spanish Basque country (right). It was amazing how everywhere we went -- Sevilla, Barcelona, San Sebastian -- had such a different feel to it. But I guess its the same for the States -- NYC, Atlanta, and LA are all strikingly different, so I'm not sure why it surprised me so much about Spain. San Sebastian had a much cozier small-town feel to it than the other two, not to mention the promenade and its view of the Bay of La Concha were breathtaking.
It was our last stop in Spain before entering into other countries, so I absolutely had to pick up a good pair of espadrilles. I have been in love with them since I was a zygote, so really, I couldn't pass up the chance. My boyfriend/translator (he speaks the Spanish and I speak the French) asked the hostess at our hostel where she recommended finding a quality pair of said type of shoes, and surprisingly, she didn't understand "espadrille." Now that's funny. Here I was always thinking that espadrille was a Spanish word (so maybe I'm ignorant), when in fact, it was French, all along. Tricksy, that word "espadrille" is. So after describing the shoe to her, we come to find out that espadrilles are actually called "alpargatas." Off we went.