Just over the border, maybe an hour from Capbreton where we stayed, San Sebastian is a popular place for visitors to go. The seafront is nice, with a long beach backed by the city, with high cliffs on either side. The city centre has all the regular shops you would expect in a city of this size, but I preferred to explore the older back streets. These were narrow streets lined with smaller shops and bars. Of course, many of these are touristy, but if you keep looking, you can find some interesting little shops. I split from the rest of the crowd, as I often do when exploring cities, and bought a little Spanish dictionary. Not speaking a word of Spanish, I took myself into a nice-looking bar in the back streets and sampled tapas. The atmosphere in the bar was fantastic, with a nice mix of locals as well as a few tourists. Even though I don't speak Spanish (well, except for "cerveza," which, meaning beer, is obviously a very important word to know), I found that as long as I tried, people were very responsive and accommodating. I think that a very important part of travelling abroad is to at least try and communicate in the native language, even though it sometimes seems quite a scary prospect!
From journal Hossegor