CHEEEEESE

[Queso shop in Pamplona]

Nothing makes me more happy than cheese....

seriously.

One great thing about commercial spain is that it still holds the NON-commercial shops and family run cheese shops, meat shops (carnicerias), fruit and vegetable shops (fruterias), and bread shops (panaderias), fish shops (pescaderias), etc. It was like this in Costa Rica as well depending on where you were and i think it's like this in most spanish speaking communities...Anyway, once you've found your niche it's nice to be able to consistently go to the same spot and see the same people. It helps build up the relationships with the store owners because, at first, people in northern spain aren't that friendly with you and rarely have any patience for your terrible accent and inability to speak. So, this is one way to get to know them and once they see that you're coming in on a regular basis they're (most, anyway) are a little friendlier and open with you. Even the ladies in the fruteria that I go to up the street are helping me with my "J" sound. I just can't seem to say berenjena (eggplant) correctly EVER. So they always correct me with the terrible throat noise of the J sound and get me to repeat it as I try not to spit all over the fruit in front of me....they don't seem to mind tho haha.