Hola, Bilbao!

This past weekend was my first travel weekend outside of Alcala. We went to Bilbao, Spain, which is a city in the north that's part of the Pais Vasco. Here people speak Spanish and Basque, which can be really confusing when you're standing at a kiosk looking for the Basque-translated to Spanish-translated to English version of some pamphlet. However, it was beautiful. We took a 5 hour train up right into the city, and (thanks to me) turned in the opposite direction of our hotel. After cursing my internal compass, we turned back around, crossed the river, and found our hotel.

One of our first stops was the famous Guggenheim with a special exhibit by Anish Kapoor (think "The Bean" in Chicago). I had never even seen pictures of the building and that was incredible, and I was even more amazed to see some of the installations inside. I'm glad they gave out audio tours, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to appreciate those artworks contain one dot on a blank canvas! Here's a photo I took of the building:

Thanks to my very organized friend Claire, we then proceeded to do a self-guided walking tour of the whole city. We went to the Fine Arts museum, which I loved-- once I trekked through the 1500s to the 1900s, I was pleased to see an amazing collection of contemporary art. I was overwhelmed by the huge canvases, bright colors, political/social/artistic statements literally written on pieces, and mixed media. We also walked through small streets with pastelerias, stores, parks, plazas, statues--you name it, we saw it!

That night we tried Basque. Though it didn't seem worth the 20E a person, I was glad to try something different. Here is my duck with apples, peppers, and mushrooms.

Another great thing about Bilbao was it's proximity to Guernica, a city that was completely bombed druing the Guerra Civil de Espana by the Germans. The deaths were especially tragic because it was the first time that the tactic of bombing civilian locations versus military ones was used. Needless to day, almost every building was ruined, except for a few and the exception of one tree. This tree is guarded by large columns, and one of its seeds was planted and its hijo now grows beside it. After a great day in Guernica, we headed back for ice cream, siesta, more walking, dinner (I had a crab/pickle/tomato sandwich thing) and a hookah bar where we met some locals who were teaching us slang and how to say things in Basque.

That evening, we traveled up one of the higest points along the city's edge on the funacular. The trolley took us high above all the buildings and onto the side of a mountain (I forgot to mention that--the city sits between gorgeous mountains and is a short ride away from the coast!) where we could get off and take pictures.

Finally, the next morning before we took the train back to Alcala, we stopped by the coast to see the Bay of Biscay. It was surrounded by cliffs and green hills which we hiked up a bit to get some photos in. It was an amazing day so people were out and about with surfboards and picnics, and it was definitely worth the half hour train ride!

Well, that about sums it up. I have a meeting in about four minutes to practice my spanish with a local. Another great thing about Espana--being late is okay ;)

More later. Bye!