Sheila has a cat

They say that Vitoria is one of the nicest 'Spanish' cities to live in. In the United States they say things like that about places like Omaha and cities in Wisconsin that I've never heard of, so I was sort of bracing myself. But it's not boring or sterile here, it just has lots of parks and bike lanes. There are some parts where the houses look an awful lot like castles, but the old part of town still smells like hash and has Basque graffiti everywhere. Today as I loitered around trying to steal wireless, a man in a tank top had a heated discussion with a woman in a long leopard-print robe. And there were some little kids running through the streets speaking Basque. And in the art museum is this painting of a cat on a couch that for some reason I'm still thinking about 12 hours later -- it made me want to paint my walls red and smoke cigarettes and have affairs. (To be fair, though, I guess I mostly always want to smoke cigarettes and have affairs.) I don't know that I can tell good art from bad, but some things definitely speak to me. Anyway, don't come to Vitoria because it's the capital of Pais Vasco -- the capital building is super boring, and very fenced-in -- but do come for the parks and the plazas and the character and the cat. The art museum is even free.

Aside from bocadillos, though, I haven't had great food luck here. I respect that southern Europeans mostly take the month of August off (even if the markets don't). I covet their Augusts. I've got nothing to complain about this particular August, but it does make me sad that the restaurants I want to go to are ALWAYS FUCKING CLOSED. The Basque country is basically culinary heaven, but heaven has mostly gone on vacation. So tonight I took my whiny self out for Chinese food -- that'll teach those world-renowned Basque chefs to take time off. It was greasy, and almost spicy, and cheap. The end.