OUT AND ABOUT: SUNSET AT THE BEACH

Waking up at 5:30AM is no fun. But when it is to go to the beach to watch the sun rise with your friends, then it doesn’t seem as bad. I love pretty skies and, in fact, I have stayed up a few nights after a night out just to see the sun rise from my terrace. So when we talked about missing on a lay in to go to the beach very early in the morning, I was 100% down.

It was weird seeing that beach so empty as, during the day, it is absolutely packed and you can barely walk without steeping on someone’s towel. We got there at about 6:40AM and sat down to have some coffee and biscuits whilst the sun was rising.  I had seen many sunsets from that same spot before but they had been nowhere near as beautiful as that sunrise. As you will see in the pictures, it was breathtaking and something worth doing if you live near the beach or are on holiday.

We stayed there until about 8AM, when the sun was completely up and shining. I don't think I had ever taken pictures that early in the day - as I am usually in bed or rushing to uni - but the lighting, oh the lighting, it was incredible. The most ordinary picture looked like straight out of a travel magazine, and I did feel like I was in some tropical island in the Caribbean or Hawaii.

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.