Thursday, 29 March 2007

france, lake tahoe, and pais vasco (san sebastian 2)


and so our guide tore me away from the park, and moved us onto the bus to go to Hondarribia, a little pueblo north of san sebastian. we had a walking tour of the town, where we saw a lot of things that i am sure are very important. but, of course, no body was listening or understanding what he was saying. so all i know is that it was an amazing little town that took a bit of my heart.

and then suddenly i understood perfectly what he was saying, lunch time! he told us that we could take a boat to france for lunch if we wanted, and even though he claimed that everything is twice the price once you cross the border, you just can't pass up this sort of opportunity. so we boarded the boat to france (as pictured), and made our way to an afternoon of france. the boat ride was short, and manned by just one guy who seemed quite overwhelmed when our group of 30 americans showed up. the combination of sun and france was not good. when we arrived emily was so excited i thought she might pee her pants.

we had our minds set on some french cheese, a baguette, and some champagne (not cava this time!), and found this guy on the street selling some amazing looking cheese. he was amazing, and apparently knew every language as he was not only speaking french, but also english, spanish, and catalan. every time someone knew was speaking with him it seemed he was speaking a new language (and just to boast, he spoke to us in spanish and NOT in english!). He let us taste some of the cheese, and it was impossible not to buy it. we asked him where we could buy some bread. unfortunately it was siesta time, so nothing was open (according to him), but we can buy this loaf of bread he bought this morning...he only ate a few pieces since he bought it. and wine, where could we get wine? nowhere? oh, you don't have any of that do you? oh.






so we settled on some good french bread and amazing french cheese and ate in the sun and it was lovely. and when we had finished off the bread, we headed back to spain, and back to san sebastian for the rest of the afternoon of free, unguided time, where we re-walked the walking tour from the day before, this time in the sun. it is amazing how different a town can look from way to the next. i barely recognized san sebastian in the sunshine.

my favorite place was this place by the sea with these amazing metal statues worked into the rocks. there were also ladders that led down to rocks closer to the sea, that i should have climbed down in the name of art and photography and general adventure, but tessa talked me and emily out of it. i still regret it.

we continued with some shopping. tessa saw this dress and decided it would be perfect for my wedding. but seeing as it didnt even fit the maniquin they had it on, i don't know how much i luck i would have with it. and then, in order to make that dress fit even better, we went to find some churros con chocolate.

when the rest of the girls went up to the counter to get the churros i held the table. i was sitting next to a couple of little boys wearing firefighter hats (which are yellow here) and i talked with their dad, who was from brazil, and the place was filled with other little kids with firefighter hats (because apparently there had just been some sort of firefighters fair), but our conversation was interrupted by the appearance of churros con chocolate. they were gone in minutes.

we decided to walk back to the hotel, to work off the churros, since we were only returning in order to eat the amazing 3 course meals they were feeding us. on our walk, we happened by a carousel and ended up spending the best euro of my entire time in spain. which was followed by a surprise fireworks show (literally), some of the most amazing, as well as most creepy street performances i have ever seen, and a beach sunset.

dinner time, and then off to the bars. we were not about to miss the barca madrid game, and headed off to find a bar with a big screen and estrella to watch the game and yell loudly at the screen like the old men in the bar by my apartment do, even though they clearly dont pay attention to the game. we settled at the second bar we went to, and emily and i decided to get another beer. i decided to ask the bartender for the beer that was his favorite, he gave it to us, and said it was a czech beer. so we drink it, and half way through, realize that on the label on the back of the bottle it says "label of budweiser". apparently the bartender has bad taste in exports. we were then hit on, attempted to be danced on, and sweated on by these guys from san sebastian. but all they knew about the US was lake tahoe, because one of them had visited lake tahoe, and all they could say or ask us was "Has ido a Lake Tahoe?" (have you been to lake tahoe?). they were quite dissapointed when i said no, but would forget in a few minutes and ask again. it was a vicious cycle of dissapointment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i feel like i have to comment on all your entries so that you know i've read them but all i can say is that your stories bring numerous smiles to my face, and i love you.

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