Getting to the starting line...

We had successfully made our flight from Dublin to Biarritz France.  We were nervous because our flight had been delayed by over an hour.  On arrival the plan had been to take a bus to Bayonne and then catch the only train for St Jean Pied de Port at 6pm.  Instead, we arrived at the airport (where we could not read any signs or understand any overhead announcements!!).  This is when we became nervous.  At that moment, we were profiled as pilgrims and approached by a friendly Irishman in his late fifties and offered to split a taxi to St Jean.  Outside the airport there were groups of pilgrims dividing up to share cabs.  It couldn´t have worked out better.  We ended up sharing a ride with Mary and Anna, two Irish women who would be completing 2 weeks´ worth of the Camino.  For a comparable price to two bus tickets and two train tickets (we think) we arrived in St Jean with time early and were able to check into the Pilgrim office and get our stamps at our starting destination. 

We were unfortunate in our selection of hostels in St Jean.  We stayed in a room of 8 people, at least 5 of whom at one point in the night snored, coughed, sneezed, blew their nose, got up to pee, or had an episode of apnea.  Also, this particular hostel owner was also the proud owner of 7 cats, 3 dogs, and 3 hens.  She insisted that we not wake before 7am out of respect to her and the animals (what!?).  After a minimal amount of sleep (and poor Jess struggling with zoo allergies) we were at the door at 7:05am.  We were yelled at.  She said there is no way that we could have woken up at 7 and been ready to leave at 7:05am.  We tried to explain that we are swift and I think she swore at us in French.  But we had no time to lose, we had 24k to hike through the Pyrenees with an elevation gain of 1400m.  (sorry everything is metric, that´s the way the world works)

Next post....the Pyrenees and day one of the Camino