France Chaotic: Heading Back to Home

I woke up today with stiffness in my leg, but not really any pain. After breakfast I went with the group to the aquarium in San Sébastian. We ended up walking there instead of taking the bus, and while I couldn’t walk as fast as I usually would, it didn’t really hurt. We spent a couple of hours in the aquarium, and it was nicer than I expected, but I guess I’ve been spoiled by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They did have a cool tank which included a tunnel through which we could walk through the middle. There were some large bull sharks, several rays, a sea turtle, and a scuba-guy cleaning up with a vacuum.

Turtles are awesome

When I exited the aquarium, I sat and rested for a few minutes. Most of the group had moved on to spend the two free hours we had roaming about the city. I went into a souvenir shop where I met back up with Stephanie. We walked up to a viewing platform for a good view of the bay and then made our way into the Old Quarter of the town. We got some gelato (we had planned on getting some the night before, but it closed before we got there), and saw the Eglise Santa María, which was an 18^th century Baroque cathedral. I don’t have a picture of it because my camera was low on batteries.

Old European cities are awesome.

We walked back to the hotel and got on board the bus back to France and St.-Jean-de-Luz, a small beach resort village. This village included the home in which Louis XIV was raised and the church in which he was married. But ultimately, this stop on the tour was about kicking back and relaxing. I walked around for a while with Emily and our USAC advisor Ryan. We ended up just sitting at the harbor and talking for about an hour. It was a bit of a relief to be back in France, where I could more successfully communicate with people.