First Week felt like Vacation

While in the US nobody has school because it is Martin Luther King Day, I had my first day of classes. This whole past week felt like I was on vacation though. Last Thursday we went to the Bay of Biscay where we toured all these historical towns. Except the weather here is so unpredictable that it rained all day and was really windy. So we didn't get to experience it like they had planned. We visited this ancient town, Balmaseda, which was founded in 1199. It really is ancient, compared to this nothing in America is old! But we saw this bridge which is a protected monument by Spain. It is El Puente Viejo (translated: the old bridge). It was constructed in the 15th century. It was pretty crazy walking on something that was created that long ago. But all I could really think about was this is the most miserable weather! Can we just get back on the bus? If the weather wasn't so bad I think that we would have been able to see more and walk around, but instead we just got off the bus and then back on the bus. 

El Puente Viejo

But then we drove to this restaurant basically in the middle of nowhere for lunch. The food was amazing! Here in Spain, lunch is the biggest meal so it is 3 courses, appetizer, entree and dessert. For it being such a cold day they served us an amazing stew which warmed us up and then I got ribs. It was all amazing! Then we drove an hour to Portugalete which is above Bilbao closer to the sea at the opening of the estuary. By the time we got there it had stopped raining which was nice but it was still very windy. We walked to this church, Basiclica de Santa Maria, which was constructed in 1492. It is a gothic style. 

 

 

 Basilica de Santa Maria

Also in Portugalete, they have the Puente Colgante de Bizkaia. This is a bridge that transports people and cars over the estuary from Portugalete to Las Aretas. It is like a ferry but its not a boat. It is a body of a boat that is hanging from cables that move back and forth over this bridge. It was the first one ever constructed in 1893 by Alberto Palacio who designed the Eiffel Tower and it is the only one that is still functioning in all the world. I'm sorry if I didn't describe this very well, but here is picture. Let me just say we actually rode it and it was the scariest thing ever! You hover over the water, but it moves pretty quickly!

El Puente Colgante de Bizkaia

Friday:

The program set up a tour of Guggenheim Museum for us and of course it was the most gorgeous day out! Too bad that the days could not be switched. Anyways, we were given an English audio guide for the tour so we could understand these things that were called art. Most of the things in there I would not really call art. It wasn't like going to the Natural Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. The Guggenheim is more a modern museum of art with very contermporary works. It had very interesting installations of videos which seemed like they were made for crazy people or people on acid. They had a whole exhibit on Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect. But it was just his blueprints and I don't really want to look at bunch of house drawings that are no importance to me. There was only about one room that had actual art in it and even some of those were like, can't i do that? Anyways, I'm glad I was able to experience it but its not something I will go back to and I'm also glad I didn't have to pay for it.

   
  

Me in front of the Guggenheim Museum

That night I got to experience the night life in Spain. My friends wanted to go to this club called Fever but in Spanish fashion, it didn't open until 2am! So we went to some bars just to hang out and then had to trek all the way to this club which is in this giant warehouse. There are 4 bars in it and a bottom dance floor and a dance floor upstairs. It was fun! But it was all European techno music and nobody in Spain really dances. I would call it more swaying there is not much grinding like there is in the states. Some of us just stayed til 4am but some others in the program stayed out til 6am!! I don't know how the Spanish do it all the time. Now, I know why they have siestas!

 

At the club, Fever, on Friday Night

Fever!!

Saturday was a day of exploration and picture taking. I walked around the old town, Casco Viejo, with my friend Kate who also loves to take pictures. We ended up walking up 213 steps to get a great view of the city! 

 

 

A view of Bilbao

While we were walking around the old town we saw tons of people flowing out of bars around 2pm. It was the day of huge futbol (soccer) game in Bilbao! People already had their jersey or scarves on all getting pumped for the game. Futbol is life... they start early here! We also saw people doing this dance in a circle and waving flags. They game wasn't til 8pm! Kate and I didn't really feel like a glass of wine at that hour, we just wanted some coffee to recover from our late night/early morning. We found a quieter cafe where we tried chocolate con churros and cafe con leche (coffee with milk). The churros are like fried doughnuts with sugar that you dip in chocolate. The chocolate though is like melted pudding, very hot, think, and extremely rich! You are suppose to drink the chocolate you don't eat but it was too rich for that. It was really yummy and I'm glad I experienced it but it is not something I would eat all the time. 

 

Chocolate con churros

That night since the game was against Real Madrid which is like the best team in the world, the game was completely sold out. The tickets were also extremely expensive so I'll just have to go to a futbol game some other weekend. Instead a group of us went right down by the stadium to the bars down there. The bars were packed and had people spilling out of them just standing there, eyes fixed on the game. Bilbao was the complete underdog and in the end, they WON!! It was amazing! There were all these people cheering everywhere. And there were hundreds of people in the streets piling out of the stadium. It was quite and scene and something to be a part of! 

Finally on Sunday, I just went into Bilbao with some friends. We found this park on the map that wasn't far from their dorm so we just walked there. It ended up being the most beautiful thing! There were ponds and fountains. The pond was filled with ducks, swans, and there was even a peacock on this island in the middle of the pond. The cutest little girls were feeding the ducks with bread! It was a beautiful thing to stumble upon!

 

fountain in the park

The peacock!!

Another fountain!

Kate, Me, & Jacklyn at the park

Ok, so that was my first week! I'm sorry that I wrote A LOT! I just wanted to inform you of everything that has been going on! But the first week felt like a big vacation with people from my school. I kept thinking that I was coming back to VA in like a week. Now with today being the first day of classes, it is sinking in that I am here for 4 months! But it has been great so far! I just don't want to start doing homework, projects, essays and tests. Oh well, I guess that is what I'm here for. ;)