Even though I've done nothing but nap since my last blog, I feel the need to give a quick update before I drop off the face of the Earth for 2 weeks.
Here is the Spring Break 2013 itinerary:
March 22nd- Heading to London!!! after a long day of traveling of course
March 26th- Leaving London for Prague in the Czech Republic!
March 28th- Back to Bilbao for a night in my own bed.
March 29th- Bayona, France to my host family's friends' vacation house for a quiet weekend in the South of France.
March 31st- Back to Bilbao again to pick my family up from the airport!!!!!
April 1st- A day in Barcelona with the fam.
April 2nd- Visiting Paris!
April 3rd- Finish Paris and return to Barcelona before bed.
April 5- Back to Bilbao to see all we have to offer here!
April 7- Bye bye to the fam/ sleep through the next day's classes.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
17/3/2013
Today feels like the calm before the storm. It's the last full day of peace before my 2 week vacation starts. I'm proud to say that I'm making my lazy time count.
Nothing terribly exciting has happened this week. Again, it's the calm before the storm. I've had a few tests and papers, but nothing worth stressing about. I took Friday off instead of being a human, though I did enjoy a run by the river, which is actually more gorgeous than I can describe. After this, I took a much needed, yet short, nap. I'm sure all of you love to read about my many naps :) That night, I went bar hopping with my friends Danielle and Gus. We learned by the third neighborhood we visited that it wasn't a very popular day for kids our age to be out at the bars. It was an early night back at the house.
Saturday, Isabel and Perico took me to Mount Arantxa which is pretty much right out the door of my university. We took the funicular (tram) to the top of the mountain to see the best view of all of Bilbao. You could see each individual neighborhood and I'm pretty sure the only parts of the city you couldn't see were the parts hidden by the mountain (my university). If you walked to the other side of the mountain you could see the entire city of Getxo, which is pretty much Bilbao. Off in the distance, you could even see the ocean. There are even restaurants, houses, and a rec center on the top of the mountain. And also a monument in honor of those killed in ETA's terrorist attacks. I will definitely be bringing my family for a visit in 2 weeks!
Saturday night, Isabel surprised me by setting up a "play-date" with a "16-year-old." It turned out to just be me walking around town with two FIFTEEN-year-olds! I've definitely never felt more twenty! It turns out the girl's (who's name is too Basque for me to remember) mom works with Isabel. Though I'm not exactly sure what Isabel's intentions were, it was nice to meet new people. If only they were actually my age. Isabel made sure to remind me before she left me with them that they were too young for me to take to the bar.
Today my family went to lunch at a friend's of Isabel and Perico. It turns out they were the parents of the girl I had met the night before. My "aunt and uncle" were also there for lunch which always makes me feel more comfortable. After the father (Carlos, I believe) offered me a beer, he informed me that I would be eating at the kiddie table. I was definitely worried because I was having trouble understanding Spanish. Usually when I'm having that problem, I sit by my "uncle" Jose Augustine and he talks slow about countries that I should visit. It's definitely comforting. But I was fine at the kiddie table with my friend. I got to eat paella, kebab frozen pizza, and plenty of other house specialties. At some point I was talked into trying "duck butter" before I realized what it was. I wasn't aware before today that it was an actual thing. I'm sure if I was with my uncle it wouldn't have happened. At least I got a brownie afterwords.
4 more days until Spring Break!!
Nothing terribly exciting has happened this week. Again, it's the calm before the storm. I've had a few tests and papers, but nothing worth stressing about. I took Friday off instead of being a human, though I did enjoy a run by the river, which is actually more gorgeous than I can describe. After this, I took a much needed, yet short, nap. I'm sure all of you love to read about my many naps :) That night, I went bar hopping with my friends Danielle and Gus. We learned by the third neighborhood we visited that it wasn't a very popular day for kids our age to be out at the bars. It was an early night back at the house.
Saturday, Isabel and Perico took me to Mount Arantxa which is pretty much right out the door of my university. We took the funicular (tram) to the top of the mountain to see the best view of all of Bilbao. You could see each individual neighborhood and I'm pretty sure the only parts of the city you couldn't see were the parts hidden by the mountain (my university). If you walked to the other side of the mountain you could see the entire city of Getxo, which is pretty much Bilbao. Off in the distance, you could even see the ocean. There are even restaurants, houses, and a rec center on the top of the mountain. And also a monument in honor of those killed in ETA's terrorist attacks. I will definitely be bringing my family for a visit in 2 weeks!
Saturday night, Isabel surprised me by setting up a "play-date" with a "16-year-old." It turned out to just be me walking around town with two FIFTEEN-year-olds! I've definitely never felt more twenty! It turns out the girl's (who's name is too Basque for me to remember) mom works with Isabel. Though I'm not exactly sure what Isabel's intentions were, it was nice to meet new people. If only they were actually my age. Isabel made sure to remind me before she left me with them that they were too young for me to take to the bar.
Today my family went to lunch at a friend's of Isabel and Perico. It turns out they were the parents of the girl I had met the night before. My "aunt and uncle" were also there for lunch which always makes me feel more comfortable. After the father (Carlos, I believe) offered me a beer, he informed me that I would be eating at the kiddie table. I was definitely worried because I was having trouble understanding Spanish. Usually when I'm having that problem, I sit by my "uncle" Jose Augustine and he talks slow about countries that I should visit. It's definitely comforting. But I was fine at the kiddie table with my friend. I got to eat paella, kebab frozen pizza, and plenty of other house specialties. At some point I was talked into trying "duck butter" before I realized what it was. I wasn't aware before today that it was an actual thing. I'm sure if I was with my uncle it wouldn't have happened. At least I got a brownie afterwords.
4 more days until Spring Break!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Madrid y Segoiva
So I've been home from my weekend trip for three days now and I finally feel like writing about it. I've really just been lazy. I finally got Project Free TV to work on my computer, so I haven't been doing much besides watching the 3rd season of Pretty Little Liars... But anyway!
Our group left for Segovia Friday morning and took the four hour bus ride to the city. They picked Segovia because it was a good stopping point with many cites between Bilbao and Madrid. Segovia was highly influenced by the Romans when the city was being built. The highlight of the city is the aqueduct system running through the city. It is built entirely of stone and reaches who knows how far. I couldn't see the end. The stones were placed without using any type of mud or mortar. This means that the constructors had to place the stones in the perfect position to prevent leaks. Since they are all different shapes and sizes that had to have been pretty hard especially without the technology we have today. Even the architecture of the aqueduct was incredible.
After lunch we went on to a castle on the outskirts of town which is where I believe was the home of the king and queen of Castillo or something like that. I wish I had more background history on Spain so I could understand more when guides are speaking Spanish to us, but I think I pick up on enough. The castle seemed like it also served as a fort and was surrounded by moats. At the end of the tour, we were able to climb to the roof and look out at all of Segovia. From there, we left for our hotel in Madrid.
We stayed in a hotel that was probably a little bit too nice to let a large group of college kids stay. There was a bidet in the bathroom and also a phone. Definitely too fancy. It was also where the Canary Island professional soccer team was staying. The hotel restaurant served an all you can eat buffet for every meal which was included in our trip. We all took all you can eat very seriously! I'm just starting to get my apatite back.
The next day we started out with a bus tour of the main part of the city. Madrid is enormous. The lady giving the tour was actually very annoying so I didn't feel bad about falling asleep halfway through. We got off the bus at Puerta del Sol which is a plaza that is very popular for travelers. I will never understand why because there was nothing to see. There was a small protest being held there and tons of people running around in knock-off character costumes. I was beyond thrilled to see Mickey and Minnie. Of course I was going to get my picture taken with them and get away from the annoying tour guide for a bit. My friends and I took lots of pictures with Mickey and we said "gracias" and "adios" when we were done. But then Mickey took his head off and held out his hand and started demanding money. We were all shocked and didn't understand what was going on so we pretended to not understand and ran back to our group. The tour guide then decided to inform us that the people in the costumes were actually just street beggers and it was customary to pay them for taking pictures with you. We avoided people in costumes the rest of the day, which was difficult since there were probably 20 or 30 people doing the same thing.
We continued our walking tour and we saw the first restaurant in the world. I'm sure there were probably other restaurant before this one, but I'm guessing it was the first licensed restaurant. From there we walked past some other sites which had no significance to me. And then we got to the cathedral and the royal palace!! The palace was absolutely incredible. I was beyond pumped to be able to go on a tour of the inside... until I found out that they strictly prohibit pictures. How was I supposed to make it through the entire palace without taking one picture? It seemed like the security team was challenging me to see how many pictures I could take. I challenge I willingly accepted. I believe I won, because I came away with about 24 pictures. They are all horrible, but I'm proud of every single one of them. Others weren't so lucky and were forced to delete theirs when they got caught. They just don't have my moves.
The rest of our day consisted of free time. By the time my group of friends had the subway system figured out, we had used up pretty much two hours. Our goal was to get to the Reina Sofia Museum, which houses modern art pieces, so we could see the painting of Gernika which we had been studying in our classes. We didn't get the subway figured out to take us directly to the museum, so we got off at Puerta del Sol and found our way walking. It took forever and we were all exhausted. But we did end up making it and we got free admission since it was Saturday. We saw the Gernika and a few other rooms of paintings before we got tired and left so that we could make it back to the hotel in time for dinner.
That night, most of the kids in my program went out to Capital, which is a 7 story nightclub. As lovely as that sounded, I was not feeling paying $15 dollars to stay out until 6 am just to get up again at 8:30. I got plenty of sleep :)
The next morning we visited the Prado Museum. There were a few famous works featured there that I had never heard of, but this museum was my favorite part of the trip by far. All of the art was from the Middle Ages and was done for the houses of kings and queens, or done by famous artists. Everything was so real, and if I wasn't so exhausted, I could have walked through the museum all day. Luckily, I didn't have to. After grabbing lunch at the hotel, we headed back to Bilbao.
After the weekend, I realized just how much I love Bilbao. It's so peaceful, quiet, and safe. I never feel like I'm going to be mugged and even though I am careful with my purse, it's never my main concern. I also missed the comfort of my host family's house. Despite all of this, I am beyond ready for my trip to London and Prague next weekend!
Our group left for Segovia Friday morning and took the four hour bus ride to the city. They picked Segovia because it was a good stopping point with many cites between Bilbao and Madrid. Segovia was highly influenced by the Romans when the city was being built. The highlight of the city is the aqueduct system running through the city. It is built entirely of stone and reaches who knows how far. I couldn't see the end. The stones were placed without using any type of mud or mortar. This means that the constructors had to place the stones in the perfect position to prevent leaks. Since they are all different shapes and sizes that had to have been pretty hard especially without the technology we have today. Even the architecture of the aqueduct was incredible.
After lunch we went on to a castle on the outskirts of town which is where I believe was the home of the king and queen of Castillo or something like that. I wish I had more background history on Spain so I could understand more when guides are speaking Spanish to us, but I think I pick up on enough. The castle seemed like it also served as a fort and was surrounded by moats. At the end of the tour, we were able to climb to the roof and look out at all of Segovia. From there, we left for our hotel in Madrid.
We stayed in a hotel that was probably a little bit too nice to let a large group of college kids stay. There was a bidet in the bathroom and also a phone. Definitely too fancy. It was also where the Canary Island professional soccer team was staying. The hotel restaurant served an all you can eat buffet for every meal which was included in our trip. We all took all you can eat very seriously! I'm just starting to get my apatite back.
The next day we started out with a bus tour of the main part of the city. Madrid is enormous. The lady giving the tour was actually very annoying so I didn't feel bad about falling asleep halfway through. We got off the bus at Puerta del Sol which is a plaza that is very popular for travelers. I will never understand why because there was nothing to see. There was a small protest being held there and tons of people running around in knock-off character costumes. I was beyond thrilled to see Mickey and Minnie. Of course I was going to get my picture taken with them and get away from the annoying tour guide for a bit. My friends and I took lots of pictures with Mickey and we said "gracias" and "adios" when we were done. But then Mickey took his head off and held out his hand and started demanding money. We were all shocked and didn't understand what was going on so we pretended to not understand and ran back to our group. The tour guide then decided to inform us that the people in the costumes were actually just street beggers and it was customary to pay them for taking pictures with you. We avoided people in costumes the rest of the day, which was difficult since there were probably 20 or 30 people doing the same thing.
We continued our walking tour and we saw the first restaurant in the world. I'm sure there were probably other restaurant before this one, but I'm guessing it was the first licensed restaurant. From there we walked past some other sites which had no significance to me. And then we got to the cathedral and the royal palace!! The palace was absolutely incredible. I was beyond pumped to be able to go on a tour of the inside... until I found out that they strictly prohibit pictures. How was I supposed to make it through the entire palace without taking one picture? It seemed like the security team was challenging me to see how many pictures I could take. I challenge I willingly accepted. I believe I won, because I came away with about 24 pictures. They are all horrible, but I'm proud of every single one of them. Others weren't so lucky and were forced to delete theirs when they got caught. They just don't have my moves.
The rest of our day consisted of free time. By the time my group of friends had the subway system figured out, we had used up pretty much two hours. Our goal was to get to the Reina Sofia Museum, which houses modern art pieces, so we could see the painting of Gernika which we had been studying in our classes. We didn't get the subway figured out to take us directly to the museum, so we got off at Puerta del Sol and found our way walking. It took forever and we were all exhausted. But we did end up making it and we got free admission since it was Saturday. We saw the Gernika and a few other rooms of paintings before we got tired and left so that we could make it back to the hotel in time for dinner.
That night, most of the kids in my program went out to Capital, which is a 7 story nightclub. As lovely as that sounded, I was not feeling paying $15 dollars to stay out until 6 am just to get up again at 8:30. I got plenty of sleep :)
The next morning we visited the Prado Museum. There were a few famous works featured there that I had never heard of, but this museum was my favorite part of the trip by far. All of the art was from the Middle Ages and was done for the houses of kings and queens, or done by famous artists. Everything was so real, and if I wasn't so exhausted, I could have walked through the museum all day. Luckily, I didn't have to. After grabbing lunch at the hotel, we headed back to Bilbao.
After the weekend, I realized just how much I love Bilbao. It's so peaceful, quiet, and safe. I never feel like I'm going to be mugged and even though I am careful with my purse, it's never my main concern. I also missed the comfort of my host family's house. Despite all of this, I am beyond ready for my trip to London and Prague next weekend!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Lazy Post
Thank you everyone for over 3,000 views! I love the support! I'm not going to write much today because nothing terribly exciting has happened this week. It's been close to 70 degrees, but besides that everything has been pretty normal. We leave on our trip for Segovia and Madrid tomorrow morning at 9 and we won't be back until Sunday night.
Here are some pictures a friend of my host-mom took during our hike. I've been too lazy to upload mine :s
Here are some pictures a friend of my host-mom took during our hike. I've been too lazy to upload mine :s
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Last "Calm" Weekend
I haven't been doing a ton out of the ordinary lately. I go exploring with friends every once in a while and buy more clothes than I need at stores you can't find in Nebraska. But every once in a while, I find things worth sharing (like the building that I kept seeing on Pinterest but never found until Wednesday!).
On Saturday it was nice and warm (50 degrees!) so my friend Mackenzie and I went walking around the city. I was determined to show her the Pinterest building but of course I didn't remember exactly how to get back. Luckily, my lack of directional ability lead us to an awesome store that we will be visiting again sometime soon. Let's just say I really need to stop finding new stores! We did eventually find the building and after we took off toward the end of a street where there was a large statue that we wanted to see up close. The statue wasn't anything exciting, but up the block there was a beautiful huge building behind stone fences that had to be a castle. We went to see what it was and found out nothing except that there is a security entrance and there was a man in a creepy mask sitting on a bench inside the gate. Now I have to know what the building is!
On our way back we realized that a protest was starting. There were only around 50 people when it all began and we figured we would stick around and see what was going on. The protest was for some type of Basque rights. That's all I figured out since I don't speak the language. We were bored of the protest pretty quick so we kept walking and a few blocks up the road, the police were blocking off traffic. The protesters were going to march. We decided again to stop and watch. It turns out this was a lot bigger than a 50 person protest. We estimated that we saw around 5,000 people walk by us and we stopped watching before we could see the end. We guessed that there were approximately 8,000 people marching for whatever the cause was. I will be asking about that in class tomorrow too.
My favorite part about the protest was all of the Basque people. Many Basques have a pretty extreme look so it's always fun to people watch. That's all I will say because I want my parents to be shocked when they get to Bilbao and see the Basque "look."
Today I joined my family on a hike through one of the mountains in a neighboring village. It was a guided hike for kids going to school in Bilbao that are Martin's age. In total, there were probably 250 people including lots of parents to help supervise. I had never climbed a mountain before so I had no idea what to expect. Isabel had let me borrow her spare pair of hiking boots which I am so thankful for now that I've experienced the mountain. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but I was imagining not making it down from the mountain. It took awhile for my body to get used to the climb, but after that I was completely in love with everything. At some point we reached the steepest part of the mountain, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't covered in snow. Climbing up that was very slow and I kept thinking that maybe I didn't need to go to the top that bad, but I was more scared of going down than going up, so I kept going. Of course the view from the top of the mountain was worth it! Down wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be either. I did slip a few times in the snow, but after that it was way too easy. Well, except for the part where my legs were shaking the whole time from lack of moving lately and all of the loose rocks. I was definitely relived when I made it to the bottom but at the same time I felt amazing. I never even imagined actually climbing to the top of a mountain. And really, I did it all by myself wondering off on my own. I hope we go out on another mountain soon, but I'll let my legs take a bit of a break for now.
So even though a lot happened this weekend, it's definitely the last truly calm weekend for awhile. Next weekend is our class trip to Madrid and Segovia. The weekend after that will be for last minute Spring Break arrangements and the next THREE weekends will be spent traveling. So I definitely appreciate every weekend I get to spend in Bilbao, even if I just sit in my room the entire weekend.
On Saturday it was nice and warm (50 degrees!) so my friend Mackenzie and I went walking around the city. I was determined to show her the Pinterest building but of course I didn't remember exactly how to get back. Luckily, my lack of directional ability lead us to an awesome store that we will be visiting again sometime soon. Let's just say I really need to stop finding new stores! We did eventually find the building and after we took off toward the end of a street where there was a large statue that we wanted to see up close. The statue wasn't anything exciting, but up the block there was a beautiful huge building behind stone fences that had to be a castle. We went to see what it was and found out nothing except that there is a security entrance and there was a man in a creepy mask sitting on a bench inside the gate. Now I have to know what the building is!
On our way back we realized that a protest was starting. There were only around 50 people when it all began and we figured we would stick around and see what was going on. The protest was for some type of Basque rights. That's all I figured out since I don't speak the language. We were bored of the protest pretty quick so we kept walking and a few blocks up the road, the police were blocking off traffic. The protesters were going to march. We decided again to stop and watch. It turns out this was a lot bigger than a 50 person protest. We estimated that we saw around 5,000 people walk by us and we stopped watching before we could see the end. We guessed that there were approximately 8,000 people marching for whatever the cause was. I will be asking about that in class tomorrow too.
My favorite part about the protest was all of the Basque people. Many Basques have a pretty extreme look so it's always fun to people watch. That's all I will say because I want my parents to be shocked when they get to Bilbao and see the Basque "look."
Today I joined my family on a hike through one of the mountains in a neighboring village. It was a guided hike for kids going to school in Bilbao that are Martin's age. In total, there were probably 250 people including lots of parents to help supervise. I had never climbed a mountain before so I had no idea what to expect. Isabel had let me borrow her spare pair of hiking boots which I am so thankful for now that I've experienced the mountain. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but I was imagining not making it down from the mountain. It took awhile for my body to get used to the climb, but after that I was completely in love with everything. At some point we reached the steepest part of the mountain, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't covered in snow. Climbing up that was very slow and I kept thinking that maybe I didn't need to go to the top that bad, but I was more scared of going down than going up, so I kept going. Of course the view from the top of the mountain was worth it! Down wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be either. I did slip a few times in the snow, but after that it was way too easy. Well, except for the part where my legs were shaking the whole time from lack of moving lately and all of the loose rocks. I was definitely relived when I made it to the bottom but at the same time I felt amazing. I never even imagined actually climbing to the top of a mountain. And really, I did it all by myself wondering off on my own. I hope we go out on another mountain soon, but I'll let my legs take a bit of a break for now.
So even though a lot happened this weekend, it's definitely the last truly calm weekend for awhile. Next weekend is our class trip to Madrid and Segovia. The weekend after that will be for last minute Spring Break arrangements and the next THREE weekends will be spent traveling. So I definitely appreciate every weekend I get to spend in Bilbao, even if I just sit in my room the entire weekend.
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