We didn’t do much at Bordeaux because the weather wasn’t great. Yesterday we took the train down to Hendaye, which is right at the border of France and Spain. The weather cleared up the further south we came, and the scenery grew more mountainous. It was great to get our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m sorry, France, but so far, Spain is kicking your arse. Having said that, I’m sure there will be parts of France that I absolutely love too; I can’t judge based on the couple of cities that we saw.
So we got off the train at Hendaye, which is still in France, and walked over the border to the train station in Irun, Spain. That sounds a little dodgy, but everyone else was doing it and there’s not many trains that go straight through to Sans Sebastian. We walked briskly through Irun using “Zen Navigation”, a form of navigation in which you follow someone who looks like they know where they’re going (reference “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”). Luckily, this succeeded in getting us to the correct train station and onto the Sans Sebastian train.
Our Hostel is quite good, with a very friendly owner. He doesn’t speak much English and we don’t speak much Spanish but we get by. We were able to check in straight away, so we dumped our packs and went for a walk up and around Urgulla the fortified headland looking over the town. It was such a ridiculously nice afternoon.
For dinner we decided to treat ourselves since we saved a lot on our accommodation. We went and tried some pintxos, which are like tapas specific to this region. In all the bars and cafes and restaurants there are loads of plates of different pintxos covering the bar or counter, and you just go up and select what you want and pay at the end. The same for sweets and desserts in patisseries – they are all over the counter. We started off with a beer and a selection of pintxos. (We are getting good practice at ordering food in Spanish, although our pronunciation is very, very bad! Still, they manage to understand us so it’s all good). Then we moved on to a restaurant to try a Paella – so good.
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