Dear Mom,

St. Jean-de-Luz, the French Pays Basque
After our excursion into the wonders of Spanish Basque Country (País Vasco) with Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastián, of course we have to go to the French Basque Country (Pays Basque)!

We hopped on  the train from San Sebastián to Hendaye (where Hitler decided that Franco was too much of an idiot to become an ally with, thus cutting Spain out of the wrong side of WWII... lucky Spaniards!), then from Hendaye we hopped on another train to St. Jean-de-Luz, an adorably tiny coastal town.

Pictures below!

Our hotel... :D

Fotos del pueblo y de la playa cerca de nuetro hotel.  ¡Qué bonito!  (Photos of the town and the beach near our hotel.  How pretty!)  The beach was literally half a block from our hotel.  Wahaha!

So the first thing we do when we get to France at 1 p.m. is not to figure out what to do for lunch.  Oh no, my friends.  The first thing we do is take care of . . . DINNER.

So we found a little place that was a few blocks from our hotel (recommended by God-of-European-Travel Rick Steves) and with the help of Alea's awesome phrasebook and my embarassingly horrendous and nonexistent French we managed to make reservations for 7:30 p.m.  Excellent.  And, at 2 p.m., it was time to find . . . lunch.

Where did we go?  Yet another place on Rick Steves´recommended places to eat in the French Pays Basque.

Yes, we hit up two restaurants in one day.

No, we are not heifers.

Not really, anyway.  :D

Our main course:

YUM.

We went for a walk around, and . . . I FOUND MACARONS!

Not quite the same, but I bought a bag anyway.  Because I'm silly like that.  Heh.

Three and a half hours later . . .

We hit up restaurant 2...  Heh.

This one, I think, was the better one.

This little French child kept staring unabashedly at me.  And smiling.  But the second I busted out Priscilla's camera, she hid.  This was the one picture I managed to get of her.  Adorable, no?  Maybe I should find a way to make sure my future children have golden ringlets . . .

Hmm, somehow I don't think my Asian blood will let that happen.

We were close to the Bordeaux region, and since it is really difficult to make it to Bordeaux without a car, we splurged and bought a bottle of Bordeaux.  Heh.  And yes, we had wine with our lunch, too.

 Squid in black sauce.  Delicious!

Ttoro, a tomato-y seafood stew.  Also drool worthy.

French Pays Basque is TOO CUUTE!

Too bad I can't speak French to save my life.

Our petit dejeuner (breakfast) included:  a croissant, a large pat of butter, orange juice, a baguette, jam, and a café.  :D

Unfortunately, it was pouring that day, so we had to hide for cover as we made it back to Bilbao.  Just in time for our 5 p.m. class!

Dear Mom,

Donostia-San Sebastián-- the first time
These pictures are few because it was after my camera was stolen, so these are Priscilla's pictures:

We were there for the 58th San Sebastián Film Festival.  Pretty cool, no? 

The weather was pretty crappy, but we still had a ton of fun. 

We tried to look glamorous.  See??

Sadly, my camera was stolen shortly thereafter, so I have no more photos from that weekend of myself.  SO SAD.

-------

Donostia-San Sebastián-- Take 2 (Priscilla´s Birthday fun)
We went to San Sebastián again because, yes, the food is just THAT good.  Good fortune followed us this time (or better planning) and we were met with gorgeous weather.

Many photos stolen from Priscilla.  Yet again many photos are my own.  Can you tell the difference?

我們那一天一大早就出發了.  7:30 a.m. 的客運.  太棒了.  天起超漂亮的!

我們到以後當然要吃早餐, 對不對?

 我, Priscilla, Simona (另外一個室友), Jesus (Simona 的朋友).

記不記得我寫的卡片嗎?  我就是坐在這裡寫給你們的.  好漂亮喔!!!

 我和Simona. 他22歲耶! 跟哥哥一樣... 可怕.

 這變成我的FACEBOOK的照片.

風景...

啊... 對啦.  要上去到那麼高的山上看風景要坐一個"funicular" . . .

一群小朋友也跟著上去

Funicular 就在這裡面...

 頭髮好亂喔...

OK  看完風景了!  去海邊了!

 Charlie's Angles . . . sort of.

曬完了... 3PM.  開始要找中餐...

...可是餐廳已經關門了.  最後找到的... 不好吃.  要等到晚上吧!

到那時候呢 . . . 我們就只能走來走去... And I GOT MARRIED!!!!!  To a BASQUE MAN!!!

Ok, maybe not a man.  And maybe not a Basque....

 晚上... 新買的裙子...

 You know how I told you that there would be two large men who would be protecting us?  That would be Thomas (far left, in the orange) and Kevann (right back, in the yellow).  Too bad they're not particularly reliable . . . (Thomas texted me at 2pm asking me when we were leaving, I texted him back saying that we had been there for 4 hours already.  We lost Kevann somewhere in the morning... and then again in the middle of the night.  Both of them had phone trouble, too.  Thomas had no battery left-- Kevann had no money left... SIGH!  BIG MAN-BABIES!  :D  Love them both regardless, though.  They made the night fun!  It just... took us the whole day to finally meet up with them...)

 Our second stop were for the MOST TENDER BEEF CHEEKS in the WORLD.  I would die happy if this was part of my final meal.  In fact, this beef was one of 3 reasons why we came back to San Sebastian a week after being robbed... the first reason were "brochetas de gambas"-- skewered shrimp-- which have got to be the MOST delicious shrimp ever in my life....  By the way, the beef cheeks are a little bit like 媽媽's 紅燒牛肉...But, dare I say, even more tender...

I am ridiculously happy. Can you tell?  (The short Indian guy in the front was someone Jesus met in his hostel... from Australia.  Didn't speak a lick of Spanish.  Poor fool.  Lucky he met with us to get some great grub...)

 And this picture does not do it justice--  Foi Gras with Apple compote... the texture of ice cream... the taste of heaven.

I'm drooling now.

You should be, too.

 Roommate love!

 We went to Herria Bar, which is the bar that is notorious as a meeting place for the Basque separatist terrorst-rebels (the ETA).  They're crazy.  Thomas wanted to go.  Soooo... we stopped by.  And had this nasty local drink that tasted like licorice.  Yeecchhh...

PS, I had to get permission to take this picture of Thomas.  Which was allowed only if no bartenders or workers were included in the picture.

 I don't think I had been that happy in a long, long, long time.

 One of our last stops...

Happy (belated, now) Birthday, Priscilla!  Twin sister from a different mother and best traveling buddy ever!!!  <3 

And the next day, the two of us headed off to France!  ... St. Jean-de-Luz!!!