Biarritz 4

It's starting to get an air of sameness about it, but that's ok, because it's relaxing. Today I headed out and got lunch at a nice cafe. I had veal and mashed sweet potatoes and a beer, and it was quite tasty. Following that, I headed back to the Oriental Museum for my second day, which I spent in the China-Nepal-Tibet room. All in all, it took me about three hours to look at the fucking room, and it was exhausting, but it was also extremely fun and interesting. Since there was a new guard on duty today, I recommenced taking clandestine pictures and, by not getting so carried away this time (I think the guy probably saw me on the security camera last time when I was in the middle of taking a four-minute video), I was able to not get yelled at.

Anyway, after all that interestingness, I bought my dad a book as a souvenir/present/thank-you for financing my trip, and then I headed to a boulangerie where I sat and had a basque tarte while going through all the pictures I took. All in all, it appears I took like 375 in the museum. I like to take pictures.

Following that, I bought myself more wine and then returned to my room briefly, to wait an hour or so before the dining hour.

I'm starting to run out of new restaurants I want to try. One thing about this town is that it's crawling with pizza places, and pizzas are substantially cheaper than most of the other items on the menu (i.e., in the single-digit price-range). Nevertheless, I don't fucking want pizza. I'm sick of it. Just as I was about to give in and go to some Italian place for a formula meal that, while not pizza, was still not quite what I wanted, I found some pan-asian restaurant and decided that that suited my tastes better. I ended up getting fried squid, Thai-style, along with a Thai beer the name of which currently escapes me (it was Tsing-something, but not Tsingtao, because that's Chinese, and, I have decided, preferable). Anyway, typically of this country, nothing comes with anything, and so white rice had to be ordered separately. I demand to know how they can justify charging 1.60 euro for white rice. I demand it. Nevertheless, at least the food was cooked to order, unlike every other fucking asian restaurant I've been to here. That in itself was worth a little more, and it felt like home, despite the minuscule portions and ricely stinginess. I've got to say, in many ways, I miss American food.

Anyway, I've kind of run out of shit to do, so I just went home. Besides, walking home, it appeared that there was some sort of rugby or soccer game or something on tonight or something, so there was really very little I could have done. I could have gone to see Eastern Promises (or "Eastern Shadows," back-translated), but I decided to save that for tomorrow, my last night here, where I hope to perhaps go back to that amazing restaurant for my final dinner and then to treat myself to a movie.

Anyway, I returned home and took to my computer for a bit. Wonderfully, though, I discovered a documentary on Tony Jaa on Canal+, so I ended up watching that and drinking wine. Pas mal, ca. What a vacation.

(Be sure to scroll down for videos.)