Friday, June 24, 2011

Pays Basque

19 & 20 June
We are finally away from all the tourists! Whoooooo! We made our way from Rome to Bilbao, then by car to St. Etienne de Baigorry where our family is at. Our two days spent in the Basque Country were amazing. My mom's cousin had two guest houses built that she rents out, so we stayed there and it was awesome to have so much space to just relax. The first day we spent eating and drinking with our family. For lunch, amaitchie (grandmother in basque), who is my grandfather's sister (so my mom's aunt) came downstairs to eat with all of us at the bar. Backstory: Amaitchie and her husband owned the bar that is in the center of town. It was passed down to one of their daughters who now owns it, but they lived above it, and amatchie still does. She is 84, and can't walk, so she stays upstairs. It was an awesome thing that she agreed to be brought downstairs to eat with us.

That night, we went to dinner with the entire family, and it was so fun. They are all very close, and even though we only get to see them every few years, we still fit in seamlessly. The next day we drove to the beach at Anglet, about an hour away. We just hung out there for a few hours, then we came back to the house. That night, my mom cooked dinner for everyone, and they came up to our house to eat. I finally got to put my three years of french education to use, and although I struggled a bit, I managed to have a conversation with my cousin. We all agreed that this has been the favorite part of our trip so far, and we could have easily spent a week there, just making day trips to places like the beach, or down to Pamplona.  

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