OUT AND ABOUT: FRANCE, PYRENEES, NAVARRA AND THE BASQUE COUNTRY

I’ve been a bit MIA these past few days, I was away for about a week and when I got back needed a two days to recover from a rather exhausting trip. If you’ve been following me on Twitter and Instagram you would know I’ve been in the South of France and North of Spain this past week. I took a flight with my dad and my sister  to Bilbao where I spent one day before taking a bus to France - where the adventure started.

We did a bit of the famously known Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James in English). If you don’t know what it is, it’s a pilgrimage route which finishes in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (northwestern Spain). It used to be a spiritual route and, though it’s not my case, many people still do it for that same reason. 

After spending the morning in the picturesque French town  of St. Jean-Pied-de-Port - very small but so beautiful -  we started our four day hike and walked about 7km to a refugee in the middle of the Pyrenees. The views of massive green valleys were incredible and breathtaking. 

The following day we walked about 18km to Roncesvalles - i.e. I freaking climbed the Pyrenees, how cool am I. It was hard but not as bad as I was expecting, even though the extreme fogginess, the rain and the wind didn’t exactly help. I was a bit gutted when I realised I had missed the Spanish-French border and didn’t get my picture…I guess I’ll have to go back. 

After resting for the rest of the day and eating A LOT of food to regain some energy, we had a somewhat good night sleep and woke up ready to walk 22km up to a small town in Navarra called Zubiri where I got tendinitis and two bad knees. Despite these small complications I still enjoyed the town and the following day walked another 24km up to Pamplona. On our way there we stopped at a small restaurant in a town where I had an amazing squid and prawn burger which gave me food poisoning so, sadly, I didn’t get to walk around Pamplona much.

Finally, we took a bus to San Sebastián from Pamplona and spent our last day there before taking plane to go back home. I had been to San Sebastian before but I didn't  remember how beautiful it was - the perfect flower arrangements in every single street, the cute unique boutiques, the warm but not too hot weather, etc. Such a beautiful city! 

And, ladies and gents, this was my 6 day break from hot and sweaty Mallorca, it was so nice to spend a few days in a colder weather! It was a bit different to my usual holidays but I had so much fun and it was cool to visit so many different cities and small towns.