I have stayed in Sans Sebastian for much longer than I intended, I don’t have any regrets though, this place has been fantastic, people have welcomed me with open arms and extended to me friendships that I think will last me a lifetime.

So the 1,200km bike ride to Gibraltar seems even harder, for me because I feel I’m leaving something special here. But I have decided tomorrow morning I start off again, heading south with little in the way of a plan, just a direction, a map, compass and my bike. I hope the future holds other Houses-on-the-hill, I know for a fact there will be more life-changing experiences, different but hopefully ulitmately as rewarding.

On another note I have a couchsurfer saying he’ll host me if arrive when I plan too in Gibraltar so that’s a massive plus, I need to really motor down there, I’ll be meeting a friend in the south of Spain when I get there so it’s a bit of a rush. Then I slingshot back round to Portugal to meet a friends family then speed up to Andorra.

Hopefully this break wont have damaged my cycling strength too much. But I’ll get it back soon enough, I have some tough terrain ahead of me but I’m confident I’ll cope. So until I next get internet then.

I decided on the whole as I love the company and the place I’ve rented my friends spare room in Sans Sebastian for 2 weeks, I can practise Spanish and still have plenty of time to nail it down to Gibraltar before too late in the year. This is a trip of experience for me so if I’m enjoying it I should savour it.

It’s also been pretty surreal here. We had a couchsurfer chef (who worked at 3 star Michelin guide) turn up day before yesterday travelling Europe sampling different food for 6 months. He’s a fantastic guy and cooked us a royal feast last night. For lunch today we trekked out to a place he knew about and had Lobster for lunch 33 euros. How crazy.

Anyhow, tomorrow I’m going on a bike for an 80-100km jaunt, around the local area, might be raining but I’m not going to let that stop me. It’s over a mountain or two. Should be cool. I have to keep my strength up in fact I can probably improve it around here, every direction is a mountain.

Well either ways, that’s all I wanted to post, oh and I’ve gone over 1600km which is around 1000 miles. kind of a landmark for me. I’m loving this time, I think travelling and working could extend this experience. It’s incredible to think of all the other opportunities and experiences waiting for me ahead.

So I arrived on the 30th and it’s been pretty much Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta all the time since then, BBQ’s, beer great people and fun. I’m couchsurfing with Tobias, Alec at the house on the hill (expect pictures soon). The beer is cheap the weather fantastic (mostly) and it’s so chilled out I feel like a new person.

The most difficult thing about travelling like this is the fleeting nature of finding places like this, in a few days I’ll move on, never sure if I’ll meet my new friends again. In this case I’m almost certain I will though at somepoint catch up with these guys later after (or even during) my journey.

The one thing couchsurfing and travel does offer me though is seeing how other people live, the paths that others follow and whole new ways of thinking about things. It’s enlightening and also interesting. Foreign views of other places, peoples ideas of what’s important.

Spanish is a real trouble for me, the words slowly stick in my head, I find even the simplest things difficult, just practising numbers, directions and simple greetings at the moment. Doesn’t help I’m in the Basque area of Spain (a region with another language and culture in Spain similar I guess to Wales in the UK).

Either way Tobias and Alec offered me the spare room to rent for a month. It’s actually tempting but I can’t see myself accepting, maybe I’ll offer them a week or two and see what they say. It’s nice to be in a place where I feel I can be anyone I choose to be without judgement.

Still I’ll make my decision later today. Certainly staying here for a week or so I’ll at least get SOME spanish under my belt .