Boltonian fun in the sun! Part 1: Conspiracy

I realise it is a while since I last wrote, but that was purely because nothing overly special happened and given that I don't have a free weekend from now until I go back home to England for Easter in a month, I knew that I'd have many a story to tell, which is where this weekend comes in...what a weekend! I had two of my friends from home (one is on a year abroad like me, being an assistant in Paris) over, Mandy and Kris. Mandy rather spontaneously decided to book tickets a month ago, not having been out of the country nor flown before, and Kris rather spontanously booked tickets last Thursday to arrive early Saturday morning...now you see where my spontaneity comes from! haha.

Anyway, as Mandy had never flown before she was shall we say, petrified. My attempts to reassure her weren't exactly successful as she was very apprehensive about the whole thing. She had to take the plane from Birmingham to Biarritz as annoyingly none of the routes from Manchester are actually up and running yet, so on Friday I had to jump on the train to go and meet her. Was such a gorgeous day, wish I could have stayed in Biarritz and gone to the beach, but wasn't to be, plus there'll be other occasions! Got the train from Pau to Bayonne and then had to jump on a bus to the airport...sounds easy, actually wasn't! Had to ask at the bus terminus with regards to which bus to get to the airport and either I completely misunderstood (which I doubt) or the woman wasn't explicit with her instructions...I am pretty sure that 'town hall' without specifying in which town is not explicit! Anyway, I managed to jump on the right bus etc no problem and it was only once I realised we were getting close to Biarritz town centre that some doubts started to set in, so got off the bus at what I thought (wrongly) was the Town Hall and asked some passers by for help. While all this was going on I got a phone call from Mandy to say she was at Biarritz airport as the plane had arrived 20 minutes early...the one time I was praying for it to be delayed it was early! Since when have planes ever arrived early? It just doesn't happen! After realising I was waiting for the bus on the wrong side of the road and then having to wait another 10 minutes on top of the half hour I'd already waited and then once on the bus I had to sit through 12 stops. I felt so bad given that it was the first time she had flown and at this point she was alone in a country where she couldn't speak the language, I apologised on arriving at the airport and finding her as you can imagine! Got a taxi from the airport to Biarritz station (which I found to be much nearer the airport than Bayonne, I asked a mate so was misinformed) and found that we had an hour and a half wait until the next train we could get. Drawing up a rather spontaneous contingency plan, I suggested that as the bus to Bayonne station was outside the station, to get on that and then get the train as it arrived in Bayonne...the buses let me down for the second time! There was a bridge being repaired so quite a big diversion near the centre of Bayonne so we missed the train. It wasn't too bad though as we only had 40 minutes to wait and in that time we decided to get food in order to be able to head straight out into Pau when we arrived back. Was so funny listening to Mandy's first impressions of being abroad, for example, feeling like she needed to close her eyes and hope for the best as we were travelling on the opposite side of the road and how euros seemed like toy money, haha! Bless her!
When we arrived back in Pau we decided to take a taxi back from Pau station given that Mandy had been up since 4.30 in the morning (out of choice- I think possibly due to nerves about the flight), the fact she had her suitcase and bag, and also I wanted to get home after having set off around 8 hours previously. After having changed, shown Mandy round and got her settled in we headed back out into Pau to meet up with some of my friends- probably worked out for the best that they were all English given that Mandy speaks very little French. We came home earlier than normal as we had to be up for her 'surprise' at 5.30am on Saturday morning, which she was led to believe was the time we had to be up to catch the 6.30 train to Toulouse...little did she know me and Kris had been conspiring! Our plan could literally have not worked better! We got up at 5.40 to go and meet Kris from Pau station (or to get the train to Toulouse as I had lead Mandy to believe). She was clearly tired and wanted to stay in bed though as she asked me 'Is there anywhere closer we can go instead of Toulouse?' to which I had to seriously reply 'No, it'll be worth it, believe me', which made her leave the confines of the bed and duvet. The funiculaire wasn't running as you'd expect for ridiculous o clock in the morning, so we had to do the whole journey on foot. Kris texted me as we were walking down the Boulevard to let me know he'd arrived safely....that and to tell us to hurry up! I told Mandy that the text was from my phone company to say my credit was almost up and then once we got to the station Kris stepped out fron behind one of the SNCF machines and all was revealed...couldn't have panned out better, I swear me and Kris could give the Gunpowder plotters a run for their money when it comes to conspiracy! As we had to be back at the station for 8.13 in order to catch the actual train to Toulouse, we then ran home so that Kris could dump his bags and headed back to the station, stopping off for breakfast at La Mie Caline en route...I love that place, the chocolatines are heavenly :)Train was on time so it was all good and soon we were on our way! :)