Day 10 - Surf's up!

I'm writing to you all from my new beach house. I am trapped here even though the beautiful beach is outside my door. I arrived at 3 and thought it best be laundry day as this might be my only chance until Spain. So I started my only load and thought I could hang it to dry in the sun and then hit the beach. Wrong. I started it at 330pm it is now 510pm and it is still going!! My clothes won't be dry for tomorrow.... there's no way. Plus I'm stuck here in my room because I am not cool enough for this place. It is a surf house. Full of hot chick's with chic Bohemian Hippie style and a bunch of hot surfer guys walking around shirtless, tanned and ripped haha and wearing only a towel. And then there is me. Older, chubby, dorky and sweaty hahaha, possibly drooling. They are speaking in a sexy bedroom surfer dialect hahaha je ne comprende pas!! I have a private room but everyone else is sharing 2 dorm rooms. I do however have to share the bathroom. Every time I open my bedroom door I see directly into the bathroom and there is always a guy in a towel coming out of the shower. I feel like Josie Grossie from "never been kissed" (cute  movie by the way)

Omg... I can't even imagine the morning bathroom horrors 🤣

The guy Jeremie who checked me in gave me the grand tour and I felt like saying, look buddy, this isn't necessary because I will not be joining in the hot tub or sharing meals in the kitchen or Netflix and Chilling. You don't need to show me where the surfboard wax is or where to hang my wetsuit. You people are all too beautiful and young and hip and I've never felt like a bigger Nerd in my life hahaha. Could you show me to the nursing home please? I think they may have a bed for me there.

It's 530pm and I think we're in a spin cycle. I can't believe I walked this far just to do laundry 🤣

As soon as the machine stopped, I hung my clothes on a rack outside my room and hit the beach. This beach has remnants of Nazi blockhouses and it seems so surreal, covered in graffiti while beach-goers frolicking about. 

On my way back from a sunny stroll, I found a place to make me a salad. I prepped them for a solid 10 minutes on the gluten free thing and then sat and waited with a giant glass of wine. The salad came out looking fabulous and I was about to take a bite when I saw a crouton. A fucking crouton. My French is not that bad and neither was buddy's English but clearly the kid in the kitchen non comprende pas! 

He took it back and brought another minus the GLUTEN 🤣🤣🤣

It was awesome and so was the wine. In fact, I bought the bottle and brought it back to my room. The owner offered to join me, cheeky bastard but I said it's not enough for two! 🤣

I came back and was forced to say Bonjour to a bunch of hot surfers lol... but then I met a girl from Morocco and she spoke English, French, Spanish and Arabic! She was gorgeous and friendly and I had my first real conversation since Riley left!!

I'm thinking the surfer guys are going to fight over this one!

I have retreated to my room, brought in my laundry and now my whole room smells like a clean European tourist.

 🤣 Quick dry really does dry quickly!! My stuff will for sure be 100% dry in the morning

Today my hike was monotonous. Most of it was roadside but the beauty of the pine forest diminished the sound of traffic. I walked through lingering smoke from what must have been a significant fire. It was limited to a small portion of my hike today but troublesome I imagine for anyone with respiratory issues.

As I got closer to town, I started seeing signs for the Camino, represented by the scallop shell symbol. 

I was aching for more coffee and when I entered a café patio there was a group of boisterous men who all scowled at me. They went from being super loud to talking under their breath, all turning to look at me, and then laughing out loud all the while maintaining a pitiful glare. I wanted to walk up to them with all my pent up French aggression and ask them "what the fuck is your problem?" But I didn't. I was mature and ignored them. Then I thought, wow maybe it's PMS 🤣 

Anyway, it was a great coffee and a clean restroom and it served its purpose. 

Since the majority of my walk was uneventful today, I did a social experiment. I said a cheery bonjour to everyone I passed today. 8 out of 10 people ignored me. The occasional one would respond or even initiate. The tourists on rent-a-bikes, the locals and the joggers were the most friendly. The majority of the serious bikers in their cute spandex and hot pink ankle socks were the ones that didn't respond and/or looked miserable. Maybe their shorts were too tight 🤣

There are so many bike options here. Today I saw a guy with a German Shepard in a cart being pushed. I also saw a cute old man on a bike  with his wife riding shotgun in a cart beside him!

According to my fitbit,  today was 18+kms. I'll take it. Felt like 1800kms 🤣

I'm exhausted. Big day tomorrow.

Bon soir and Bon nuit