To leave Paris josh and I woke up around 3am to catch our
4:45ish train to Bordeaux. It was a pain leaving our luxury hotel and by luxury
I mean it was 20Kms out of Paris, $60 a night motel and every 5 minutes a plane
would fly overhead. Leaving that place was no problem. We caught the train and as soon as we got
into Bordeaux I think we realized just how hot the rest of this trip was going
to be. Bordeaux was more my mind of city
though. Not a ton of people, but amazing old buildings and small. It was so hot
though so I didn’t do much but set up my tent and pass out for the whole day.
Lucky for us Bordeaux is a right next to the coast so when leaving Josh and I
headed to the ocean and rode down.
On the way Josh and I had to stop at a bike stop for some
supplies. The guy grabbed a map and told us that there is not only a bike path
that goes down the coast it goes right by some dunes that are a big sight in
France. Josh and I had no idea, but it sounded fun. We got to the dunes and
they were massive with tons of people climbing to the top of them. Josh and I
couldn’t help, but get to the top of them and have a picnic with meat bread and
cheap box wine, while staring at the water on one side and the forest on the
other. We got down and started looking for camping and some ass decided to put
a sign for camping on the road we were on.
Said why not and rode toward it thinking it would be right around a
corner, but instead we rode 5 miles up a hill and it still wasn’t at the
top. It was 2 miles down the street and
the shitty part about that was it didn’t allow tents. So we had to ride back
and in a childish rage I took some of my melted chocolate from my bag and put
my mark on the sign so no other biker has to go through what we had to do.
After sucking the chocolate off my fingers, josh and I rode about 100 yards to
the next camp site and camped there. Found some other bike tourist and the best
part of that camp was the thunderstorm that came right over us at night.
MASSIVE is the only way to describe it.
The next two days was spent riding through the forest on a
bike trail and on beaches. On the second day we rode to a town and couldn’t
figure out where to go. The town had a huge fair going on where everyone was in
red and white like the running of the bulls. All of the people were also our
age and seemed like everyone was camping in any patch of grass and parked
wherever they could. We wish we could have stayed but, the schedule said we had
to get to San Sabastian. We went into hotels looking for maps but, nothing was
good. So we hopped on the train and rode for 15Km. We got off the train and
rode for 4 minutes and josh just turns to me and says “We just rode into
Spain”. I look around and see Spanish words on some of the signs. And once
again we had no idea where to go. Josh’s maps aren’t the best when it gets to
big towns. So as the amazing Americans that we are we said screw it and hopped
on the train and took it straight to San Sabastian.
San Sebastian is also great. There are tons of small bars
and a drum line marching thing going through the town. Josh and I now have the mission of finding
something to eat watch some Olympics (GO USA) then a cheap hotel or camping.
I’m starting to think at this point that Spain doesn’t believe in cheap hotels
and Josh and I don’t believe in paying 120 dollars a night for a room so we
head for camping. If you don’t know the
layout of the city it’s at the bottom of two mountains that form a cove with an
Island in the middle. We had to ride up one of those mountains. We kept on
riding till we got about 2 and a half miles up then it was walking time. Josh
Chris and I never had to walk up a hill, but this one did it, this one beat our
ass. We get to the top and get back on the bikes and ride to the camp and get
there at 12:04 pm, the guy behind the counter said that they close at 12 and
they couldn’t let us in. People are walking in and out and we started riding at
9 in the morning and caught the first train around 6 so we did a lot of riding
and just wanted to sleep.
We turned around and tried to figure out what to do. I said
we get drunk with the people at the bus stop and Josh said lets find a field to
sleep in and well we and a bunch of kids got kicked out of the field and the
people at the bus stop were from Sweden where we started our trip. I went and
shared a beer with them and told them about our little journey and they called
me their hero, which is pretty amazing to me and said Josh and I can use their
camp site. We go to the gate and the same guy stopped us and told us no. We tried
as hard as we could to explain that the people said we can use it and he said
no. So josh and I did the next best thing, got to the bar down the bar for a
beer. By the time I got to my second beer they told me they would be closing in
15 minutes. Josh was a little down, but I knew we would be alright and then a
conversation started with one of the middle aged men about the Basque people
and black panthers and Opera then called us bastards along with some language I
wouldn’t repeat in front of my mom. Then he asked us what we were doing. We
told him about our day and he offered us to stay at his house. I instantly said
yes and josh said I was way more trusting than him. We told him we have bikes
so we will ride behind him and he refused, said that we will put our bikes in
his vehicle and he will give us a ride. “You see that red light on top of the
hill? That’s my house, time to go”. This guy is a character. He sounds like the
perfect man to lead a revolution against Franco Francisco, or some Mexican
general. Well It was a good thing I had those 2 beers because his car is a mix
between a work van and a station wagon and I had to get into the back with our
2 bikes some other random stuff and the door wouldn’t close so he took one of
my bungee cords and used it to not so much close the back doors as much as just
make sure I didn’t fall out. (sorry mom) He then took us one a 5 minute rally
competition to the top of the mountain and we weren’t racing anyone, but he
didn’t know that. We got to his gate
chained shut and he opened it and then showed us the shed we would be spending
the night in. Josh asked him where he could go to the bathroom and he said
“Anywhere”. He closed the door behind Josh and I and Josh made a joke about how
he doesn’t like getting stabbed in the middle of the night and spiders. He came
back and I tried to open the door and it wouldn’t open from the inside only the
outside. He opened the door and said “If anything happens, come knock on the
door”, which made me think what could happen, but then I asked him what his
name is. He said to the Basque, names aren’t important because if you know
someone’s name you could use it against them in evidence, but they are in times
of peace and he converted to Islam so he told us his new name and shook our hands.
After that I felt pretty safe.
In the morning, I had to use a wrench to open the door and I
had to knock on the door so he could unlock the gate for us, but he showed us
around his house and his pot plants and goats and then the view of the city he has.
He told us about how he has the highest house on the mountain and then gave us
his number in case we had any problems with the camp again or needed a place to
stay we were welcome to stay with him again. I’ll always remember this man as
another man in Europe that has showed me what kindness and being a good human
really is. We spent the next 3 days eating gelato, cured pork, and one night of
cheap cheap wine. Thanks for the read. Next stop Madrid!
