We picked a youth hostel in Basque country south of San Sebastian as our last stop on the way back to Madrid. Reservations could not be made online–only telephone–and there was no finding the address on any mapping service. We had sketchy-sounding directions over the phone, but found one landmark after another, even as the road turned narrower, then single lane, then passed through fields of cattle. Finally we arrived at what turned out to be a renovated 16th-century farmhouse, with the sounds of cow bells in the distance.