a quick trip across the boarder

The beauty of travelling with your best friend, who also owns a car is that you can change your travel plans on a whim. As in,

me: "is that sign pointing to San Sebastian, as in Spain?"
Julie: "yes, we are only 50 km away"
me: "can we go? Wouldn't tapas in Spain be better than tapas in Biarritz?"
Julie "great idea! Let's go!"

And that my friends is how I ended up spending Easter Sunday (afternoon) in San Sebastian... from the surfing mecca of France to the surfing mecca of Spain.

We left Biarritz in a rain storm that left us convinced that the sun would never break through the clouds and that we would end up holed up in a small Spanish bar enjoying tapas and drinking red wine. Low and behold, we parked the car as the rain stopped; another beautiful day in a seaside town. San Sebastian is everything I could have imagined, the beach for miles, the ocean absolutely clear and the town just as charming as I had hoped.

We wandered around and found a small bar to enjoy a glass of wine... asking for wine when I don't speak the language was certainly interesting... honestly, I thought I could get by better than I did -but holding up two fingers, pointing at glasses and then wine is universal; with the exception that I couldn't specify that I wanted good wine. We ended up being served probably some of the worst wine I have ever tasted. I'm so happy that I can laugh at myself, chalk it up to being a tourist and saunter out to try something else.

The next mission was tapas... when in Spain right? Oh my... I've never seen tapas like the ones that we enjoyed (they seemed larger than expected); but the fish was fresh, as were the veggies, and the bread they rested upon was light; making it the perfect base. Plus, our drink options were easy - either a beer or sangria. A big smile, a "sangria por favor" and a plate full of tapas later, Julie and I were very happy to have crossed the boarder (sans map) and enjoy an afternoon in the sun, wandering around without a care in the world... that is until it got late and we wanted to find a place to stay overnight.

It would seem that every pension we spotted was full due to the holiday weekend - perhaps we weren't the only ones who decided that a seaside escape was the perfect way to spend Easter? With no place to stay and our bellies full; we decided to take the hint, grab the car and hit the road... 4 hours later we'd finally arrived in Eymet, Julie's quaint little French village (I will say it could be a bilingual village since I am meeting as many English folks as French).

Three days of adventure, two countries, loads of pastries, seafood, wine, and mostly laughter has brought me to Eymet - I wonder what I'll find here?