Yes, even in Spain they celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, San Patricio. However, I asked Carmen why she was not wearing any green and she didn't understand. I explained to her that if you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day than the kids will pinch you! She got a laugh out of that and said she had never heard of it. But that night a group of us went out to one of the many Irish Pubs in Bilbao, The Irish Stone, and found it was crowded with other Spanish students. There was a band and all the students had these tall, green, foam hats that said, "Happy St. Patrick's Day 2010! Guiness" I really wanted one but wasn't sure how to get one, oh well. We just stayed out for a little while, but it was a good time. I was just happy that Spaniards do celebrate St. Patrick's Day!
The past 2 weekends, March 12-14 and March 19-21, have been spent just relaxing in Bilbao. I decided not to travel and rest up for my big spring break coming up. However it seems that in Bilbao we have great weather during the week, like this past week was in the 70s and sunny. Wednesday some of my friends had a picnic on the beach, sadly I could not join them because I was in class. But once Friday rolls around the weather turns cloudy with a chance of rain, fortunately it stayed warm this past weekend.
For the first weekend in Bilbao, on Friday the girls, Val, Katie, Dayna, Kassandra, and Morgan, had been craving good Mexican food and they heard of this place called Placer de Guadalupe that was really popular and we needed to get a reservation. For Friday lunch we got a reservation, however when we got there we were the only ones in the restaurant, which was fine with us. I think one of the greatest things about Spain is the menu del dia, menu of the day, which every restaurant has during lunch. It is a set price, three courses, appetizer, entrée, and dessert with about 3 to 4 choices for every course, also, wine or water and bread are included. At the Placer de Guadalupe it was only 10 euros for 3 courses! The USA really needs to adopt this idea. It was the best food, the bread was toasted garlic bread served with salsa, for appetizer I got a sort of quesadilla with ham, entrée was chicken enchiladas, and dessert was an amazing chocolate mousse cake drenched in rich chocolate sauce and whipped cream! And all for 10 euros!! This is definitely on my list of places to come back to!
Quesadilla, Patato cakes (which I didn't try), and Garlic Bread
Sombrero decoration on the wall
After a great lunch, I met up with Mike and Jacklyn for some bike riding around the city. Bilbao through the tourist office allows people to rent bikes for free. All you need to do is register the first time you rent and then there are multiple locations around the city where you can pick up and drop off bikes. For about an hour, we road through the streets of Bilbao and along the Ria. It was a little colder than I would have liked, my hands turned bright red, and after a while it looked like it was going to pour so we decided to drop off the bikes. I still had a lot of fun even if my bike was little broken and kept shifting gears on its own when I would go up hills. It is a great, free way to see the city. I just am planning on doing it again when its warmer and sunnier out!
Mike and Jacklyn ready to ride around Bilbao!
Riding through the streets of Bilbao
That night was decided to be the Spanish all nighter night. In Spain, the clubs do not open until 2am so that is when everyone goes out and nobody returns until they are kicked out at 6am. We hadn't pulled an all-nighter yet so we decided to go to Fever which is way far away from Algorta so it would got 30 euros for a taxi if we wanted to leave early. See on Friday nights, the metro stops running at 2am, so enough time to get to the club and doesn't start running again til Saturday morning at 6am. First all the Spaniards hang out and drink in front of the club on the streets before going into the clubs, therefore they don't have to pay for expensive drinks in the club. So once we got to the club we were stuck until 6am! After about 4 hours and lots of dancing, I was very exhausted and ready to go. I successfully made it though! But I was about to fall asleep on the metro ride home. At 7am I tucked myself into bed to fully recover!
Me, Kassandra, Morgan, Val, Dayna, and Katie outside the club
Stage and DJ in the club
Saturday was just a relaxing day. Later that night I went to the Spanish cinema for the first time which is cheaper, 6 euros, than going to see a movie in the states. Also, they let you bring whatever food into the theater, like McDonald's. We went to see An Education which Dayna said was going to be a chick flick, although there is a romantic plot line in the story I would not call it a chick flick. I loved the movie though! I cannot wait to see it in English because Spanish dubbing does not show the true quality of the acting. Also, I was so excited that I knew what was going the whole time, my Spanish is improving!
Sunday, the sun made a small appearance so I figured it was a good time for a walk, but by the time I made it out of the house it was cloudy again. I met up Kassandra, Val, and Dayna and we walked along the beach. There is a great walking path with benches all along the Getxo beach, also it is scattered with ice cream stands which replaced the churro stands for the spring and summer time. We decided to take the cable bridge over to Portugalete, talked about it in one of my first posts, to just go explore. Even though it was Sunday we found a few things that were open, China Oriental store, bakery, and few bars. These Chinese Oriental stores are everywhere in Getxo and Bilbao. They are run by Chinese immigrants and sell basically about every cheap thing in the world, almost like a dollar store. They sell makeup to barbies to paper cutlery to party hats to linens to workshop tools and on and on and on. These stores are jam packed with anything and everything imaginable at a ridiculously low price!
We stumbled upon this Mexican bar, Nopal Bar-Mex, and they have an excellent tex-mex menu so we got some guacamole to share. The guacamole was delicious and it came with salsa verde and jalapeños, which Dayna was very excited about! We decided to go back there this past Saturday too, Morgan and Katie us this time. We ordered margaritas and guacamole again. Then the bartenders put sombreros on top of our heads and took our picture for their website. It was hilarious! But Val started talking to the guy in Spanish and he said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak english." And we were just so confused because she was speaking spanish! Other than that this is definitely on our list of places to go back to.
Dayna enjoying her Jalapeños
The delicious guacamole!
with our margaritas & in our sombreros!
This past Friday, we all went to Casco Viejo to grab some pintxos and hang out because it was such a nice night. But first we saw this big, fair going on in the plaza by the ria. It is like a world market with vendors from all over the world. It is only going on from March 18 to April 11. They were selling jewelry, scarves, clothes, and other things. I didn't buy anything but I would love to go back to try and find some unique gifts for people.
Entrance to the Fair
After exploring the market, we headed into Plaza Nueva in Casco Viejo for some pintxos. Pintxos are small portions, like appetizers, of seafood, salads, meat-filled pastries, deep-fried pastries, and on and on. Each bar has their own variety of pintxos that they sit on top of the bar. You just ask for a plate and pick out which ones you want and then just let the bartenders know how many you got. I grabbed two, a croqueta and a seafood one. A croqueta is fried ball filled with a mixture made from butter, milk, and flour, and ham. (Carmen makes the best homemade ones). The seafood pintxo was shrimp and squid on a skewer on top of a piece of bread. It was very tasty! We sat outside the bars in the tables they have set up in the plaza. We just ate and talked for a while with many other Spaniards enjoying the weather and pintxos while their kids just ran around the plaza.
Pintxos!
It was nice to just have two weekends to chill in Bilbao, although I love to travel to different places, I need to explore where I am living too. I only have 7 weekends left in Bilbao and I would hate to leave a place I have lived for 4 months and not know it at all. I am very happy to have relaxed and seen where I have been living. Now, I just wish the weather would be nicer during the weekends!
I have been living with my host mom for a little over two months now. It is going well, I mean it is a very different living situation than I am used to. I cannot just walk down the hallway and hang out with friends anymore, also it is very different than having a roommate of your own age. I miss my roommate. However, my accommodations are very nice. My host mom always has delicious food prepared for every meal. Although it is harder to live on someone else's schedule who expects you to be home for every meal and spend time at the apartment. So at times, I feel like I have lost some flexibility and independence.
With that being said, I really like my host mom, Carmen. She is flexible if I want to go out with friends or just spend the whole day in my room. Every once in a while we will watch one of her movies from her large collection. So far we have watched, My Best Friend's Wedding, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Serendipity. The majority of the days Carmen sits in her chair and watches TV while knitting a scarf. She actually knit me a scarf! But I can always count on her being in the house if I ever need anything. I have almost become spoiled because I never cook my own food, if I do it consists of me putting it in the microwave for 2 minutes, I don't change my sheets, or do any of the laundry, my clothes show up clean, folded, and ironed on my bed! It will be an adjustment when I get home because I know my Mom won't be doing everything for me. Another great thing is Carmen is very patient with my Spanish and corrects me if I'm wrong so I can learn. We have conversations that range from everyday life to political topics.
Carmen has a side table next to her couch that has a picture of her with every student she has ever had. We finally took our picture this last weekend. I am having my mom print and frame it so I can give it to Carmen as a going away present at the end of the semester!
I got really lucky, I know two people that have already moved houses due to their host moms and some other people that requested non-smoking houses and their families smoke. I got everything I asked for in a host mom and I am certainly grateful for it.
The weekend of March 5-7 I went on my last CIDE Program excursion. The program got charter buses and 5 hours later we were in Madrid. We actually got to stay in a nice hotel, no hostel, with a big buffet of delicious Spanish food! I learned in my culture class that Madrid has more of dry weather and it is warmer in the interior of the country. However, this was like the one weekend it rained and snowed and was freezing!
DAY 1: We arrived at about 1pm and checked into the hotel. This was suppose to be our walking around and seeing all the plazas day but it was pouring! At least the first part, we went to Palacio Real, the Royal Palace. It is the third-greatest palace in Europe with over 2,000 rooms. Of course there are only 24 open to the public. We were running a little late and didn't get an actual tour so we just wandered throughout the rooms and I didn't learn much about them. However, it was all very impressive! It says that you cannot take pictures, but I took a few slyly.
Palacio Real
After the Palace we headed over to la Catedral de la Almudena which is right next to the Palace. The altar of this Catedral was amazing! It is detailed in gold with many religious images!
The Altar
The plan was to walk around the all the Plazas and then have free time to walk around, but it was raining very hard. We walked through Plaza Mayor, which is the main plaza. It was built in 1619 and each side of the square is uniform. In the middle of the square is a statue of Philip III who ordered the square's construction. It is not as pretty when its gray and wet out. After that we all just went back to the hotel for the night.
La Plaza Mayor
DAY 2:
Saturday we took a day trip to the city of Segovia, about an hour and half north of Madrid through the mountains. During the bus ride I fell asleep and when I woke up we were in a winter wonderland with 5 inches of snow covering the mountains and pine trees. I was so confused and hoping we weren't going to be walking there! I fell back asleep and when I woke up again there were sunny valleys surrounding me. I was very confused and wondering if the winter wonderland was just a dream.
The winter wonderland we drove through.
Fortunately, Saturday was gorgeous in Segovia, much warmer and sunnier than Madrid. The main sights are the Roman Aqueduct, Alcazar, and the Cathedral. First, we saw the spectacular Roman Aqueduct which is over 2,000 years old. Nine miles long, 2,500 feet long and 100 feet high with 118 arches, it was built to channel water from Rio Frio to the city. The most spectacular part is that it is made out of 20,000 granite stones with no mortar or concrete. Every stone is perfectly balanced on top of one another!
Me in front of the Aqueduct
The tour of Segovia continued on to the Cathedral, built 1525 to 1768. We were unable to go inside because of time and it cost 3 euros, but the outside was gorgeous. Next, was the Alcazar, a fortified palace that was home to the monarchs of Castile. One of the rooms is where Christopher Columbus came to ask Ferdinand and Isabel for money to sail the ocean blue in 1492 (so cool!!). After being a palace, it was a prison for 200 years then a Royal Artillery School. It became a museum after a fire in 1862. Through the decorations and structure of the buildings you can see Arab influence. The ceilings are the best part of the whole castle! Also, there is a tower with a spiral staircase of 152 steps I climbed up after the tour. The view from the top was amazing!
Cathedral
Alcazar
Arab painting from the 12th century
On top of the tower
View from the top, City of Segovia
Lunch, like always, was amazing! Then we headed back to Madrid. As we were driving through the winter wonderland again, a sheet of ice flew off from one of the trees straight into the bus windshield and cracked it in two places! It was so scary! Of course when we got back to Madrid it was still cold and wet. Unfortunately, my boots that were originally my mom's so they're about 25 years old, split on the bottom of the sole. So my feet were so wet! It was just miserable so we just headed back to the hotel after some unsuccessful shopping.
DAY 3:
Our last day in Madrid we took a trip to the Prado Museum where we saw beautiful, classic Spanish works by Francisco de Goya and Diego Velazquez. My favorite had to be by Hieronymous Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights. It is a three paneled work that sends a message that "the pleasures of life are fleeting, so we'd better avoid them or we'll wind up in hell." All the works in there were spectacular. However, our tour guide took us through the place very quickly so we didn't get to see everything.
The Garden of Earthly Delights
After our tour, we had some free time so some of us walked over to Retiro Park, Parque del Buen Retiro. It was a beautiful park full of jugglers, puppeteers, and other local color. I would have loved to walk around the whole thing but we didn't have the time. We ate lunch back at the hotel and then got on the bus for our 5 hour trek back to Bilbao.
Retiro Park
These trees look like they belong in Alice in Wonderland!
El Estanque, the big lake in Retiro Park
I'm really glad that CIDE took us to see Madrid and Segovia. I definitely enjoyed Segovia more than Madrid. Madrid was nothing too special, just a big busy city. I did like, though, that there were only 4 skyscrapers so the city was not overwhelming or didn't feel claustrophobic. I am happy that I'm visiting it again when Mom comes, hopefully it will be better weather! However, I am glad that I studied in Bilbao because it still has aspects of a city but it is small enough where I'm never overwhelmed and it isn't too crowded. After visiting Madrid, I knew I didn't make a mistake of where I chose to study.
Friday, February 26, I woke up bright and early at 4am to head to the airport for my flight to Frankfurt. I was on my way to Germany to visity my friend, Annalyse Hamill, from UMW. She is studying at Schiller University in Heidelberg, Germany which is about an hour south of Frankfurt. So I had to find the train station and get on the right train from Frankfurt airport to Heidelberg and let me just say that I know NO German. Fortunately everyone I talked to was really nice and basically everyone in Germany knows English. You just have to ask "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" (Sprecken Zee English) which is "Do you speak English?"
I arrived in Heidelberg around noon just in time for lunch. We went to Haupstrasse which is the main, old pedestrian street in Heidelberg which has all these shops, restuarants and churches. We ate at the Dubliner, an irish pub, (yes, i ate at an irish pub in Germany) and I had the BEST vanilla milkshake and bacon cheeseburger ever! It was like a taste of home. Next, we stopped in the Jesuitkirche, Jesuit Church, which is newer. Annalyse attended Ash Wednesday Mass there but she said it was all in German and she couldn't understand half of it. But the church itself was just beautiful! We also went by the older church in Heidelberg, Heilgegeistkirche, Holy Ghost Church, which was not as impressive at all at least on the inside. The outside was much nicer. Unfortunately the day was cloudy, windy and spitting rain. So we stopped in a really cute Starbucks to warm up! Oh how I miss Starbucks! It seems that every European country has them except Spain! It is not necessarily that I miss Starbucks, even, I just miss having a big, warm, cup of coffee to just sip on. In Spain all you get is these tiny mugs with an espresso shot that I can finish in two sips. I still enjoy those, but I do really miss Starbucks.
Haupstrasse & steeple of Heilgegeistkirche
Inside the Jesuitkirche
Alter in the Jesuitkirche
For dinner that night, Annalyse took me to the "Oldest Brewery in Heidelberg" called Vetter for some traditional German food. I had wiesßwurst which is white sausage that comes with a sweet mustard sauce and a soft pretzel. I also got a pale ale which tasted so good! Nothing like good German beer. However, I actually found out later that my meal is not usually a dinner meal, its usually eaten for breakfast or between breakfast and lunch. I still enjoyed it, however. Oh, but for dessert Annalyse and I shared an amazing apple strudel! It was drenched in a vanilla cream sauce and topped with whipped cream! It was the best apple strudel I have ever eaten!
Vetter- Heidelberg's Oldest Brewery
My German meal of wiesßwurst and Pale Ale
Best Dessert Ever!
After dinner, we saw the Alt Brücke, the Old Bridge, and Schloss Castle lit up at night. Also, next to the Old Bridge was this statue of a monkey that you can put your face up into and look out from it. Annalyse didn't really know why it was there but I still took a picture with it!
Old Bridge lit up at night
Castle lit up at night
Me inside the Monkey Statue
The next day we walked half way up the mountain on a path called Philosophenweg, Philosopher's Way. It leads up to an amphitheater created by Hitler and the Nazis which was used for Hitler to make propaganda speeches for the war. The people of Heidelberg were actually strongly for the war and Heidelberg University was one of the first universities to kick out its Jewish professors. Now the amphitheater is a popular place for people to walk up to and get a great view of the whole city. We could not have asked for a better day, upper 50s and sunny! At the amphitheater there were buttercups blooming which reminded me that Spring is almost here! We caught our breath after climbing the steep hill on one of the benches and just took in the view.
Signs of Spring
Amphitheater
View of Heidelberg
Castle & Church behind me.
Me & Annalyse
Then we climbed back down to where the Old Bridge is, took some pictures by the river and then went and found somewhere to eat for lunch on Haupstrasse. After being re-energized by lunch, we hiked up another steep incline to the Castle, Schloss. It was built in the 8th century but in 17th century it was bombed by the French so there are some towers missing and parts that are fallen down, but it is still a pretty castle. And we got to see another amazing view of all of Heidelberg.
Old Bridge
Old Bridge, Church, & Castle in background
View from the Castle
Annalyse and I at the Castle
Inside the citadel is a representation of how much Germans enjoy their beer. There is a monstrous Keg or Grose Fass, Great Barrel, which is 25 feet high and can hold 59,000 gallons of beer. When it was built in 1750 it was too big to fill with beer so they just made the beer inside the keg. I cannot even explain to you how massive this thing is! Quite a site!
Gross Fasse
I look so small next to it!
Schoss
Inside the Citadel
After exploring the castle more, we did some shopping on Haupstrasse and headed back to the dorm to get some needed rest! That night we went to a cafe for dinner where I got tortellini which is also a food I miss greatly! Then we hung out and watched The Office all night! The next morning is when the real adventure began!
Let me just sum up my traveling fiasco with a few bullet points:
Left Sunday morning by train for the airport. However, I had to change trains in Frankfurt main for a regional train to the airport.
While waiting for my airport train, every sign in the station changes to a German announcement which I found out said all the trains have been stopped until further notice.
After an hour and half of waiting, I finally made it onto a train going to the airport.
Arrive at the airport at 3:30pm, my flight leaves at 4:10pm, I was suppose to get there at 2:15pm.
Check-in, sprint all the way to my gate which of course is the last one in the terminal. I made it just in time to find out my flight is canceled, along with just about every other flight going out of Frankfurt due to an incoming wind storm.
Stand in the Lufthansa ticket line for 2 hours to be put on a plane back to Bilbao on Monday at 11:30am.
Spent another night in an airport, which was very uncomfortable, long, and contained little sleep.
Finally make it back to Bilbao at 2pm just in time to get to my afternoon classes but not enough time to make it home. After 3 hours of class, I finally make it back to the apartment at 7:30pm, quick dinner, and I pass out to get some sleep I desperately needed.
My name is Ashley Cameron and I'm a volunteer with the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps. Starting in August 2013, I will be living in the Northern Philippines and working with the Episcopal Development Foundation of St. Mark, based in Santiago City. I am helping manage funds of the development program to ensure they are loaned out in poverty-alleviation ventures and that funds are made available when participating communities submit proposals for new projects. I am very excited about this new adventure and hope you will share it with me by following this blog!
