A week to remember
Wow!
Time whizzes by when you're having a good time. It's hard to express the sensation I felt traveling home for the first time in a few years. Very little has changed and that's a good thing. Having lived in such places as New York and Los Angeles, I know how accustomed we are to rapid change. Within a year, new skyscrapers grace the NYC skyline and in Los Angeles, a new ten lane highway opens to eager and late commuters. Within a year in Les Landes, France, a country road is paved, a few houses are built and another marriage is celebrated. This year though, one of the local town personalities passed on into the after-life. While it was sad, the town came together to mourn and commemorate her life in a way that was communal and festive - unique to small towns where everyone knows everything about everyone at all times.
My parents offered me the trusty French deux-chevaux car to roam the French countryside with. My first destination was a part of the Pyrenees close to my home and near the Atlantic coast. Once there, we, Luigi and I, took a train from 1912 to the summit. The view was spectacular and you could see the Atlantic ocean from where we were. Fortunately the weather was ideal. We enjoyed the sun all the more from our Deux-che. "Her" roof can be rolled back. From the Pyrenees we puttered over to the beach at Saint Jean de Luz. I had no idea what to expect, but the city was far more Mediterranean than I could have imagined. The water was clean and clear and people looked tanner than your average mystic tanning salon hostess. We enjoyed an espresso to kick us back into adventurer mode and walked the streets for a few hours. The streets were lively and bustling - it was refreshing to see people remain involved in all things life, even during the week! Naturally our environment at home is different and varies from city to city... but wouldn't it be nice to have beaches and bustling cobbled stone streets just outside our offices??? Nod. Nod.
We couldn't spend the night in Saint Jean De Luz, as we planned to visit Saint Sebastian, Spain the next morning and so we set off back towards the farm before sun set.
The next morning my father dropped us off at the Dax train station and off we went to Irun, Spain. An hour later we caught our connecting train to Saint Sebastian - and literally 15 minutes later - we arrived to a slightly overcast, but nonetheless stunning Saint Sebastian. I have to take this moment to say...Saint Sebastian is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The old city is a maze of old small streets with bridges extending over them between houses. Look down one avenue and you'll see the old church with its impressive and detailed stone workings, look down the other and you'll see the ocean on the horizon and the masts of bobbing sailboats. It's amazing. The nightlife was also pretty incredible - although slow, since we visited out of season, but absolutely worth the trip and effort. I could go on and on, but the pictures will describe to you what I can't sum up in words without coming off as overly hokey, or cheesy, depending.
Long story short, (too late) last week's adventures will certainly remain in vivid memory - you can expect them to become even more romanticized over the next few years... yeah. Traveled home day before yesterday and am now back in Berlin and planning to visit Munich for its Oktoberfest. You'll see that footage in episode 4! Stay tuned.
Cheers!
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