Saturday we got up at 8:30 to board onto a bus at 9:00 that would eventually bring us to Saint Jean Pied de Port (or in Spanish- San Juan de Pie de Puerto) which is in France! I should have been forewarned when our culture professor who was accompanying us on the trip told us that she had medicine for when you get carsick with her for the ride. Little did I know that the "highway of the mountains" that went through the Pyrenees mountains, honestly had the same, if not more, amount of tight twists and turns as oh..Superman at 6 Flags. It was ridiculous. I was pretty cocky about it getting onto the bus, like oh puh-lease, I can read books in the car...no problem. A quick stop at this beautiful lookout about 30 minutes into the ride, I was basically praying to God that our professor, who's name is Nakane (nah-kah-nay) still had more dramamine. Thankfully, my prayers were answered, and as soon as the drugs kicked in I was good for the rest of the day.
Anyways, that quick stop that we made was to look at La Foz de Arbayún, which I would consider to be like the Grand Canyon of Spain. We were so high up into the mountains, and this canyon was so low. It was absolutely gorgeous:
Next was a small pueblo (village) named Ochagavía. The town was adorable and it was really cool because they were having their annual culture festival. Everyone in the town was dressed up in traditional clothing, and kind of have little stations of old food and activities. It was kind of like sturbridge village/amish county except it was real town residents just acting like it for a day. They had this really delicious stuffing-esque thing that was just being made on huge pots over fires on the ground, and everyone just grabbed leaves off of the trees to make little plates to put the stuffing on. Best part? It was freeee!!
We also made a stop at a town called Roncevalles, which is the first stop on the Camino de Santiago. There wasn't much going on there, and I think we were all pretty anxious to get to Fraaannnceeee! Woo! It was so cool driving there, because all of the sudden our program directors were just like, oh heyy left side of the bus is in France, right side is in Spain. Then all of the sudden, it was like what up. You're in Spain. I might have altered their words and/or language a bit, but you get the point. No border patrol, police, passport checking, nada. Maybe the U.S and Mexico can take some notes from this Spain/France relationship? Just an idea. Anywho, I'm off topic (what? me? A.D.D?). France was absolutely gorgeous! The entire town was on this huge mountain, so I think all of our legs were a little confused thinking that we weren't going to encounter any of that now that we're away from Holy Cross. I also think our brain's were a bit confused as to what language we should be speaking. They don't speak English...so Spanish? Crap, they don't know that either...uhh sign language? Spanglish? Bon Jour? It was tough, but I got my iced tea (aka- carbonated nestea in a can. Strange to say the least) and other people got their coffees. Of course, being that San Juan de Pie de Port is on a mountain, here's a pic of the gorgeous views!
On Sunday we didn't have a planned trip, but we all wanted to go to the beach, so our program director (who I may or not be in love with) Julian offered to accompany us to San Sebastian, Spain. Although we somehow got onto the 2 hour bus, when it's normally only 1, it was completely worth it. The city was gorgeous, ornate, and just very Spanish overall. We also got lunch at this sandwich place which was delicious, fresh food that we'd all be craving. The beach was honestly one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my life. It was kind of enclosed by the mountains that wrapped around it so the beach was kind of shaped like a crescent moon. It was also interesting to see the way Spaniards go to the beach. By that I mean the lack of tops, and very small bottoms on both men and women. Also, it's completely acceptable to let your infant boys run around and do cartwheels naked on the beach. Seems like a lot of work to get the sand out from every nook and cranny...but that's just my opinion! As has been the theme of this post, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I now present you with San Sebastion!
So yeah! That was my weekend! It was one of those that just seemed to last forever, and was so amazing. I remember sitting on a step in front of a little store in France with my friend Emily, and we just said how content we were feeling. It wasn't like we were elated, or joyful but we were just happy and content with everything that was going on in our lives. It was a great moment, that I think I'll be seeing a lot more of this year. I hope everyone is enjoying reading these. I love the comments, and feel free to e-mail me too! I've added new pictures on facebook, so if you go back a couple posts and click on the link, you'll get to see some more pictures like the one's that you just saw!
Love you all <3
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