Despite the hardships of the previous day - or perhaps precisely because of them? - I slept wonderfully. In fact, not only I, the doggies did too. I didn’t hear a single peep from anyone.

Annick, early in the morning before she went to work, prepared my breakfast and set the table on the terrace. I thanked her and apologized for waking her up the night before. “No problem, no problem!” I asked if there was a forest trail here where I could walk with the dogs. Of course! Why wouldn’t there be, since this is Paradise! And it’s only about 200 metres from the house. Panka could sniff around off leash, because she’s an angel and a “model dog” who always comes back when I call her. Gerbeaud is a tougher case. If he catches a scent or notices movement, whoooosh, and I can call him until my head turns blue and green. So I didn’t tempt fate.

The weather is fantastic, the sun is shining beautifully, a thin sweater is enough. Annick said there’s a path that goes in a loop. Of course I couldn’t find it. I had to take out my great helper: the GPS. It took me home—bless its heart.

José sent a message at  11:05 that they would be here to pick me up in 45 minutes. At 11:50 I went out and waited for them in front of the house. At 12:20 still nothing. They arrived at 12:30. They only swore a little, with a smile on their faces, that the labyrinth had fooled them again. What’s interesting is that it’s easier to get out of it. To get in??!!! You really have to want that. Determinedly, head down, trying for the thirtieth time, if necessary. It’s as if we were the little silver ball in the labyrinth game, and when we feel like “Phew, now we’ve definitely found the right way, this is it, no doubt about it!”, it’s as if a hand tilted the game with a tiny flick of the wrist, and you just stare: “I can’t belieeeve this!!! What are we doing in this street again? This is the fourth time we’ve passed the concrete mixer. Where the hell are we again??” And you’re already reaching for your hair to grab it... then you realize there’s too little left to allow yourself to rip some out. And then you put your hand under your butt (if you’re not the one driving) and quietly, inwardly, you just keep saying it, keep saying it...you know what. Then suddenly the one who’s messing with you gets tired of it too, and you stop in front of the house. HERE IT IS! WE FOUND IT!!! Today we only circled around for 35 minutes. In a week we’ll manage it on the first try. Only then there won’t be anyone here to visit. And next time - who knows when that will be - we’ll have to take our posts on the START position.  

We went to Sitges for lunch, a fairy-tale seaside town full of artists. Tamás Náray also has a gallery here; we found it in no time, went in, and admired his colourful paintings. He was there too, but he was talking with three Hungarians, so I didn’t push in to ask for a photo with him.

Instead, we went into a tapas bar and drank a glass each of delicious, cold, dry white wine in memory of my dear David. We agreed that David would always be with us; we would never forget him.

We had lunch at a seaside restaurant. First we sat at a sunlit table, but the sun was so strong that in the end we had to move into the shade. At the table next to us, a woman in a sleeveless top enjoyed the February sunshine. We ate delicious paella, with excellent red wine. The waiter was kind and attentive. Ana only speaks Spanish; José translated back and forth. But from time to time Ana threw in an uncommon English word that took my breath away. An adorable woman! She thinks I’m a damn brave girl: alone across Europe by car, with two dogs! Wow! I told her I’m enjoying all of this incredibly. The freedom, my dogs, the new places, new people, being on my own - EVERYTHING. I’m so glad I went for it, and that I have the means to do it. I have time to figure out where to go next, how to go on in life. This is an incredible gift from fate and I’m so grateful for it. After lunch we took a walk on the beach. Children were squealing; they were learning to surf.

José paid everywhere and I told him this won’t do. He said, “Zizi, I confess I’m doing this with an ulterior motive.” “And what would that ulterior motive be?” “We’d like you to come back.” Aaaaaahhhhh, they’re so sweet!

On the way back we only got lost three times. They came in with me and they really liked my accommodation. It truly is like paradise. They brought me special Spanish wines as a gift, and I gave them special Pipacs and Pillangó Pince wines, but I asked them to wait a few weeks before tasting, because I shook the poor things up a lot on this 2,000-kilometer journey.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent writing down our adventures on Thursday. In the evening Annick and Sergio’s neighbour came over, an Argentine woman whose husband is Belgian and they live in Spain. She speaks English amazingly well; we understood each other very well, and not only because of linguistic similarities. I told them we should write about this big mishmash of our lives: who, from where, why, when, because I think a brilliant book could come out of it. They agreed.