DATOS INTERESANTES de SAN SEBASTIÁN 22/01/07

Some interesting San Sebastian facts:

1) San Sebastian has less than 200,000 residents.
2) It is on the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) in the very North-East part of Spain.
3) France is 26 miles away from downtown.
4) San Sebastian is hands-down the most expensive city in Spain, however, it is cheaper anywhere in France so the weekends here are full of French people doing all of their shopping.
5) Sales tax is something like16% and you only have to tip 3-5%.
6) San Sebastian is located in Pais Vasco (Basque Country)-The Basque Country is home to the ETA, a very radical political (sometimes-terrorist) group who wants the Basque Country to be a separate state from Spain. (They bombed the Madrid airport on Dec. 30th and killed two South American immigrants.) However, demonstrations here are fewer and supposedly NEVER violent.
7) Gay marriage is legal and seems to be very accepted here, drinking age is 16, driving age is 18. Basically this is how the world should be.
8) San Sebastian is known for having the best food in all of Spain and is home to a world renowned chef and restaurant which ranks in the World’s Best.
9) San Sebastian is 200 times safer than Milwaukee. (Ok , I made that up…but for real…Milwaukee is so much scarier and way uglier)
10) La Universidad de Deusto/ San Sebastian campus has about 3000 students, 250 are international/foreign exchange.
11) The Basque Country has 2 official languages- Castilian Spanish and Euskara (or Basque in English) both languages are on every sign and menu, but I don’t think I’ve heard it yet unless I did and wasn’t paying attention. Btw, Euskara IS NOT a Romantic language (i.e. Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Galician…etc…) it is a very, very ancient language which is completely unique and has unidentified origins.