Last weekend Emily and I ventured to a cute little hidden gem of a place called San Juan de Gastelugatxe. It is a church up on the top of a tiny mountain that is an island off the coast. To get to this beautiful place we took a bus from Bilbao to Bakio which took about an hour and then we began our long 4 mile journey to the island. First we had to hike up a mountain and down the other side to get to the coast. When we got to the bottom we found out the bridge/wall that takes you to the island was closed for construction and we couldn't hike up to the church. It was kinda sad but it was still very beautiful.
Today we went to visit two towns in the urdaibai biosphere reserve, gernika and mundaka. Gernika is a town that was bombed by germany during the spanish civil war. It is also a painting done by picasso which illustrates the bombing and its horror. The city today is pretty and some of the most important parts of the city were not destroyed in the bombing like the parliament house and the most known symbol of the town the oak tree. We were able to see both and we went to the basque history museum there. after that we had a bit of free time so Heidi, Emily, and I went to the peace museum. It was a beautiful museum and had a small room where there was a slight reenactment of a home during the bombing of gernika. It was impactful and it was actually quite scary. When free time was over we enjoyed some lunch and had a gernika specialty, red beans. then we left gernika and went to mundaka. There we walked a little way along the coast and had free time to explore the city. I stayed by the water for a while because there were huge waves and people surfing. Despite it being unseasonably warm out it was a beautiful day!
Thanks to my host mom I have found a drink that Emily and I cannot stop loving. Cariñena is a spanish wine that is super sweet and almost a golden color. It's absolutely delicious and quite cheap. In this very same restaurante called la Viña they have incredible cured ham and croquetas to die for. It's fantastic. After we go to la Viña we head to a little place called Nashville (yes like the city and cowboy and indian themed) which has the best tortilla de patata (with or without onion) in bilbao. Down the road from this place is a place called Floridas (a lot of american names huh?) and they have the best burgers in Bilbao... The best and worst part is that these places are all within 10 minutes walking distance from my home. I'm totally loving the spanish night life now since finding these places. Plus the city looks so pretty all lit up :)
I haven't been putting much on my blog cause I haven't really had anything new to add. We haven't been going on many excursions and things have started to fall into a routine of classes and things. These last few weeks have seemed to go by very quickly and honestly they have all been very good weeks. I love Bilbao! It's such a beautiful city and every day as I walk to and from school I notice myself thinking about how beautiful is it and I never get tired of looking at it and I never get bored walking past the same park, and past the huge Iberdrola tower, and over the same wooden bridge that overlooks to river and the Guggenheim. It's always something new even though it happens four times a day. They people are some of the best parts. I enjoy watching the children playing soccer in the park while their parents watch and peoples dogs are just strolling along and being adorable. I wish I could paint this picture better into your heads but it's something that's hard to explain. It's going to be the thing that I miss the most about Spain. I've been noticing all the small quirks about the life here and they are precious and I'm glad I am seeing this now. For everyone reading this. I do miss you all and I can't wait to see all of you again but I wouldn't leave here a minute earlier. I do recommend for everyone to someday travel to Bilbao to experience this place. If you wanna come visit me I'll give ya a tour :) Love you all!
This last weekend we are traveled the beautiful country of France! Our first stop was in a smallish town called Saint Jean de Luz. This city was so cute and it was right on the coast of French Basque Country. I really enjoyed being able to walk around and see the narrow history filled streets and all the French houses. The houses in that city are all white with red blue or green shutters. I really love it. I also bought some macaroons and they were delicious! I had never had one before and it was an experience to have them in France. After Saint Jean de Luz we went down the coast to Hendaya for lunch. Then we went to Biarritz. Biarritz is a more touristy city and is also right on the water. The waves there were tremendous and people were surfing. We walked a loop down through the city and back up along the beach. It was such a gorgeous day! I really loved france a lot.
This last weekend we ventured to Madrid and Toledo. We staying in a hotel in Madrid and bused into Toledo on Saturday to tour the city. I must say I liked some parts of Madrid but overall I wasn't that impressed. Toledo however was outstanding and I didn't want to leave. Toledo is such a beautiful city with a lot of history. So our first day, Friday, we left Bilbao in the early morning and drove 5 hours to Madrid. When we arrived we went to the old town and toured there. We got to see the royal palace and the plaza del sol. The next day we went to Toledo and drove along the outskirts of the town which is kind of up on the side of the mountains and looked down at the city. Then we went into a blacksmith-like shop where they made swords and other kinds of specialized crafts like making jewelry and putting strands of gold into them. It was a very cool shop. Then we did a walking tour which led us to a small little shop where they made fresh Marzapan (absolutely delicious) then onto the Cathedral. That night at the Cathedral the Queen of Spain was going to be attending a concert so there was a lot of security but we still got to go through and look at everything. After enjoying time in Toledo we headed back to Madrid and had free time. Our last day we stayed in Madrid and went to the prado museum which is one of the top museums in Europe! I have to say though I'm not a fan of older style art I really enjoyed the Prado. They had Goya, Valasquez, and some Picassos. One interesting thing that happened after going through the Prado was that we went outside and there was a protest happening! It was cool and scary to watch at the same time. There were police and security everywhere and the protesters were chanting and singing with their signs. The one bad thing about this trip was the first two and a half hours on the bus back to Bilbao. Why? Because the air conditioning wasn't working. Thankfully when we stopped for a quick break the driver was able to fix the air conditioning and it made all the difference. I'm really glad I got to experience a bit more of Spain. Though it's not a large country with classes and things it's difficult to make time to travel and really experience everything. Plus being able to drive to Madrid was awesome because the scenery is stunning! Can't wait for our next excursion which is to France!
As i walked home from class i thought that it was probably gonna rain and sure enough its raining!!! |