1. In 2009, I lived in San Sebastian for 2 months. I haven’t been back until now.
2. It’s a strange, strange thing to return to a place you once knew so viscerally and completely… especially when you have the sense of direction I have (aka none at all). I recognized so many things, and yet most of the time, as I wandered the city, I felt wholly lost.
I loved every last moment.
3. Many of the spots I encountered felt like puzzle pieces – they were places I recognized, but I couldn’t remember where they fit. These houses I glimpsed from below were right behind the Aquarium; I remembered them as soon as I came down a staircase, and I remembered, once again, as I emerged into the Old Town, the Parte Vieja, where I was going. It was almost like walking through a dream.
4. I love – have always loved – the colors in this part of Europe. They’re what drove me here what feels like a lifetime ago, when I discovered the Basque Region, on a whim, one weekend in the spring. I didn’t realize, then, how rainy it can sometimes be here, how necessary those colors are to bring warmth into your daily life.
5. In 2009, right before returning to Paris, I bought myself a bracelet reading Euskadi (the Basque word for Basque) with a small Basque flag on it. I wore it so hard that one day it simply broke off my wrist. I replaced it with a new bracelet – a bit less obvious in color, but still boasting the shape of the Basque flag. I wish I were Basque enough to fly these colors at home.