Off the beaten path.

Every time I turn on my car the it tells me how many satellites I've just connected to.Its usually about eight.We seem to be leaving less and less room for serendipity in our lives and more specifically in our travels so what follows is a small tale of being lost.
   My mother,my sister and myself were driving north in the Basque country after a weekend of tapas and sightseeing in San Sebastian.We had stayed in the memorable Hotel Terminus which was literally at the end of the train station.My mother could step out onto the platform for a late night smoke and pretend that she was Humphrey Bogart.
   Spain wasn't covered by my cars navigation system so we were relying on the somewhat fraught ongoing back and forth map reading of my mother and sister.We were running low on diesal so I made an executive decision and took the next turn towards a town called Leitza.Near the road we found a petrol station where we somehow with limited Spanish managed to ask the attendant for directions to a place to stay.The large smiling woman drew a map and we headed off up the mountain towards the centre of the most Basque town that we had seen yet.The first thing we noticed were the nationalist murals on most gable ends.This caused a frisson of nervousness to ripple through the car.The locals had no problem staring at the strangers in their midst either not in a threatening way but off the beaten track the mind can play tricks.As it turned out our imaginings of forced induction into ETA were unfounded and we soon found the bar where we were to stay the night.
   After dropping our bags off in the perfect apartment we set out for a dusk time stroll around our new village.There was a magic in the air that only we visitors could perceive composed of as it was of the normal evening activities of the residents of an ancient mountain village.None of the impressive stone houses had gardens so the village became one communal garden where people congregated and ambled in a relaxed fashion.
   After our stroll we headed back to the bar for a meal in the disappointingly empty restaurant.We were just out of sync as within an hour what seemed like the entire population of the village joined us for a great ham based feed washed done by a good local red.Afterwards we went to another bar where a local band just happened to be fusing traditional Basque music and rock.
   A great evening and experience that I look back on fondly , all thanks to the lost art of getting lost.