Michelle and I wanted to see France, so we were planning on taking a bus close to the border - we were only 10 miles away - and going for a morning run. The hostel owner suggested that instead we catch a bus or train to a beautiful French beach town, Biarritz. It was hard to talk the other girls into going… not! We got up and caught a train for 2$ to the border, then from there it was a half hour to Biarritz.

We waited in the border town for about an hour and a half for the next train, so we went to the beach to eat our breakfast/lunch. I found a really polluted beach but it had a ton of shells on it, it was really hard to get to too but I managed to climb down from the boardwalk. The fact that I couldn't get there should have been my first clue that I wasn't supposed to be there, but I just thought no one wanted to go because there was so much trash all around. I think it Melissa who found the Wildlife Reservation sign, in French, so we skedaddled before being sent to French jail.

Biarritz is beautiful, the water was pretty chilly - I was the only one brave enough to get in - and the city was great. Definitely a favorite spot for a lot of Europeans to go; we met people from France, Spain, and England just around our little campsite on the beach. On the way down to the beach I had seen a surf shop that offered lessons, so I went to check that out and Michelle came with. We decided not to do a lesson because we didn't want it to be in French or Basque or broken English, but they had afternoon rentals for 5 euro, and for 3 euro you could rent a wetsuit.

Melissa joined us and we went up to rent boogie boards, having never surfed before we thought that was a good plan. There were a ton of surfers out so we didn't want to embarrass them haha. Michelle decided to get a surfboard so we could all try it out at least. The shop owner asked her if she had a preference (referring to board type) and she responded 'heck yes, short and cute!' That was when he found out we'd never surfed before. But no pasa nada, he gave us a couple tips and sent us on our way.

Another guy on a boogie board showed me how to ride in and the beginnings of maneuvering on a boogie board, which I got the hang of pretty quick. The waves were perfect, not too big but big enough for beginners, and we were nice and warm inside the wet suits. Paddling out on the board is a lot tougher than it looks. I was swimming swimming swimming trying to get through the breakers, and once I did I didn't realize right away. It took me a minute to realize that I was in calm water… but still flailing trying to stay on the board… with 4 REAL surfers staring at me.

But again, no pasa nada, I just did what the locals did which turned out to be the best way to learn. When they talk about surfers waiting for the perfect wave, its true. Some of those guys waited for 20 minutes for a perfect wave to come. Meanwhile, I had a lot of failed attempts to surf, but I did manage to get to my knees and ride in a couple times, and once I stood up! For a split second but it counts for me!

So that's how we spent the afternoon, surfing and laying on the beach in France. We got to the bus stop with what should have been enough time to catch the bus back to the train station to get back to Spain… but little did we know there was a street market going on so the stop we wanted was closed. The note at the stop said 'closed, go to next stop' which was SUPER helpful considering there was no name or map to go by… so we missed the bus and consequently missed the train, but no pasa nada, we hopped on the next one and got to Bilbao around 11 pm.

We found our hotel after a little while-Spain has this thing about naming the street after 3 different people, and using a different one for each sign, but in the end we got there, with 20 minutes to spare before reception closed!