Breathtaking Biarritz

Back to the cold weather today, sadly.

Friday after class 5 of us girls - Kelly, Maria, Tiffany, Heather & I - went to Biarritz. It's an hour bus ride and only costs 12 euros roundtrip! The weather was perfect on Friday. I walked around San Sebastian in a t-shirt & jeans before we left - was sweating with my long sleeve shirt on. I definitely have learned to appreciate the warm weather. And it was very exciting to be able to not wear boots (for the rain or the cold) and sunglasses. We got to Biarritz around 330 and got some information from the tourism office. None of us speak French so it was pretty interesting trying to get around. Heather had done some research and found a pretty cheap hostel (17 euro a night) so we had the lady at the tourist office circle it on our map. She gave us a direct route to get there but it was so pretty we decided to walk along the beach. It was only supposed to be a 40 minute walk but we figured it'd be like an hour or so because we were so excited to able to actually be by the beach in the nice weather.

Me in front of the beach in Biarritz!


We ended up walking around for a few hours. I was exhausted! The hostel Heather had found was not by anything else - pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We all had our bag for the night - and Tiffany was wearing boots that were not good for walking so her feet were aching. It was pretty miserable - but supposedly we weren't ever lost. Heather is very independent and I don't think she's really into traveling with a group (even though there were only 5 of us) - she'd much rather go on her own. But whatever, we finally found the hostel and paid. We had two rooms. I had never stayed in a hostel before so I had a very bad image in my mind but this one was very clean and we got free breakfast in the morning. So Heather basically gave us enough time to set our stuff down and sit for 5 minutes before we went to search for dinner. We were just walking around (for another couple hours) and trying to find something where the average plate wasn't 15 euros! Everything was super expensive there. We were just walking and I happened to look down an alley and saw a sign that said "Mex Tacos" and jokingly suggested it. Heather really wanted it and everyone has been craving Mexican since we got here since there isn't any spicy food here so we decided to try it. How many people can say they've eaten Mexican food in France? Haha. The people there were soo nice - along with the rest of the town, everyone was much nicer than the Spaniards we encounter daily, but this town was very very little & quiet & a much older crowd, especially since it wasn't exactly tourist season. But we all ordered tacos and then we could go up to the buffet and this guy showed us all the sauces we could put on them, then there were potatoes that you put this cream stuff on and rice. Kelly was soo excited to have some spicy sauce! It was really good though and definitely cured our Mexican craving for a little while. After dinner we decided we had to see the beach and we ended up just hanging out there for a couple hours - we walked around without shoes on (even though it was freezing). And I learned how to count to ten in Norwegian! Then we headed back to our hotel - another hour long trek, that seemed to me like it was all uphill - I felt like we hadn't walked down a hill yet but were only walking up them. But we were all exhausted so we got back and went to bed around midnight.

We had to get up for breakfsat between 830 - 930 the next morning and we had cereal (which I haven't had in soo long so that was great!) and coffee. Then we just kind of wandered around for awhile - we got some post cards, went in some bookstores, and just explored. The bus didn't leave until 645 so we had PLENTY of time to kill. We ate some crepes - I had the fruit ones that had some kind of berries on them & came with a scoop of sorbet - they were AMAZING! I'm definitely going to have to go back and try some more. Maria got chocolate ones that came with some kind of coconut ice cream that was delicious. Then no one really felt like walking around because it had gotten alot colder than the day before and so we just sat in a cute little panaderia/pasteleria and read - I finished my book "Water for Elephants" which was so good and I highly recommend. Then we decided to wander around again, but were kind of running out of things to do. It was a good break from the norm in San Sebastian but was rough since no one speaks any French and it wasn't tourist season so we didn't have much entertainment. OH, but there was a chocolate museum we never made it to so we decided to buy a little piece of chocolate in a chocolatier which was delicious - we all tried something random and the guy thought we were so funny when Kelly whipped out her Switzerland book that had a few phrases in French (none of us could read French either) and we each just bought one little piece of chocolate opposed to like a box of them or so.

We got dinner before we left at a little place by the beach - I had a ham and cheese panini which was delicious. And it was funny cause some of the people working could speak a little english or spanish so we had some rough translating going on. And we got some fruit from an outdoor marketplace which was really good too. Then we headed back around 7. We got back to San Sebastian exhausted - I just showered and went over to Kelly & Maria's and skyped and checked my e-mail. I got to talk to alot of Chi O's and initiation was Friday night so that was exciting to get to hear about!

Today I woke up and went to the Evangelical church with Maria & Kelly. I could understand some so it was pretty interesting. Everyone at the church is from Latin America so I guess that's why they were a lot nicer and more welcoming. We stayed and ate lunch - and Kelly & Maria had made a friend the week before so we talked to her and her other friend for awhile. Also, another lady sat by us and talked. They understood that we want to practice our spanish and Pilar (the friend from the week before - around 25 years old, works in a restaurant outside of San Sebastian) was very patient and helpful for Kelly & me. We're going to try and hang out with her and her friend Jessie sometime. For tonight just have homework and talking to people from Tulsa. It's been a fun weekend but hopefully the weather is nicer again this week. I have a test Wedensday and one Thursday. My first class (we have 4 - each lasts a month) is finished Friday so that's really exciting! Starting next week it's going to get really hard so I'll have to study and practice alot more.

Hope the states is treating everyone well - hopefully you get some warm weather - and anyone (especially Reilly) is welcome to take the rain from me! :)

Miss you all.
More later.

Love, Jill