It's finally that day. I'm down to less than 24 hours in Bilbao and Europe too. I'm packed for the most part and I think I should be able to make it home with all of my things. Keep your fingers crossed, though because it's going to be close.
I leave at 6:45 in the morning from the Bilbao airport and thank God my host family is driving me. Most kids have to take the bus or a taxi. I know I wouldn't be able to handle the bus with 3 suitcases! From Bilbao I fly to Brussels and from Brussels to Chicago. I believe we land in Chicago around 1 in the afternoon and then we have a 7 hour layover before I get to come back to Nebraska. If I did the math right (which I'm sure I didn't) it will be around 25 hours of traveling before the drive back to Broken Bow.
For my last blog entry, I thought I would share some of the lessons I've learned over the past 4 and a half months.
1. Some people just weren't created to backpack through Europe. I am one of these people and I am perfectly happy checking my suitcase so I can travel more comfortably.
2. There may be a word for "excuse me" in Spanish, but it isn't a part of daily vocabulary-- Which is fine because I love knocking old people over.
3. There are other people in the world besides my mother that appreciate my sense of humor. This week I was voted "Funniest Girl" in our CIDE Superlatives.
4. Driving lanes and speed limits are just suggestions. It's a miracle I've survived European roads, but I still have one more car trip.
5. Also just a suggestion-- Customer Service. If I was that rude my own mother would fire me!
6. But if you ask people for help in the streets, especially in Spain, everyone is more than happy to help you and they appreciate that you are learning their language.
7. If you want to learn funny or naughty words, the best place to look is to the 10-year-olds who think you must be famous since you are American.
8. People from other countries hate it when we call ourselves Americans. Did you know we aren't the only country on the American continent?
9. There is absolutely no reason why you need to buy a completely new European wardrobe. But if you do and have the ability to get it all home, more power to you.
10. Do Not-- I repeat, DO NOT under any circumstances help friends with money emergencies unless they have done a full psych evaluation beforehand.
Thank you so much for reading along with me on my journey. It meant so much knowing I had a full support system back at home (and knowing that people actually took the time to read these).
Next stop- America!
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
San Sebastian and More
So I realized it's been over a week since I've blogged so I guess I should fill everyone in. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited that this is probably my second to last blog. I hate it!!
Last Friday I visited San Sebastian with my friends Mackenzie and Elizabeth. San Sebastian is about an hour and a half bus ride from Bilbao and is in the neighboring providence of Gipuzkoa which is also in Basque Country. This city is beautiful. It's right on the coast and has a huge beach. The beach itself isn't particularly pretty but it looks out onto island cities.
When we got there, we decided to take the long way to the beach by following the river. San Sebastian has another Deusto Campus (where I go to school) that's way prettier! The walk was beautiful and the town is full of old, intricately detailed bridges. When we got to the beach, we started our day by going pintxo hopping. Pintxos are like mini appetizers and it's traditional for the Basque people to go from pintxo bar to pintxo bar to try a little bit of everything. San Sebastian is known to have the best pintxos in the world and the definitely lived up to their reputation. My favorite that I had was bread covered in a spicy tuna and cheese. It was the first time in Spain that I had something that I could actually consider spicy!
We spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the beach. It was too cold and rainy to swim but we sat on the beach, drew in the sand, and walked until there wasn't any beach left. For as little as we did, it was probably the most fun part about the day. The rest of the day consisted of walking through the town looking around before our bus left for the day. Of course, in true Emily/Mackenzie traveling style, we had to run to the bus stop because we went to the wrong place and were about to miss our bus. But don't worry, we made it home.
That Sunday, I went on another hike with my family in the mountains my Pelentzia beach. It wasn't as hard of a hike as the last one, but it was hot! As always, I ended up making friends with kids half my age. They heard the word American and knew that I had to know someone famous. The entire downhill hike was spent saying things in English so they could put their lessons to the test. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, the kids' mom asked Isabel if she could take me home with her and where to get one of me. I'm pretty sure I just recruited a new host family for the program.
The rest of the week was really slow. I spent most of it putting off writing one of my last essays. It rained the whole week too which made it go extremely slow. Last night I got to "attend" Jack's graduation ceremony via Skype. I couldn't really see or hear anything so that was great. I'm so glad I got to see and talk to everyone at the reception. I can't wait to come home and see everyone. 5 days left in Bilbao!!
Last Friday I visited San Sebastian with my friends Mackenzie and Elizabeth. San Sebastian is about an hour and a half bus ride from Bilbao and is in the neighboring providence of Gipuzkoa which is also in Basque Country. This city is beautiful. It's right on the coast and has a huge beach. The beach itself isn't particularly pretty but it looks out onto island cities.
When we got there, we decided to take the long way to the beach by following the river. San Sebastian has another Deusto Campus (where I go to school) that's way prettier! The walk was beautiful and the town is full of old, intricately detailed bridges. When we got to the beach, we started our day by going pintxo hopping. Pintxos are like mini appetizers and it's traditional for the Basque people to go from pintxo bar to pintxo bar to try a little bit of everything. San Sebastian is known to have the best pintxos in the world and the definitely lived up to their reputation. My favorite that I had was bread covered in a spicy tuna and cheese. It was the first time in Spain that I had something that I could actually consider spicy!
We spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the beach. It was too cold and rainy to swim but we sat on the beach, drew in the sand, and walked until there wasn't any beach left. For as little as we did, it was probably the most fun part about the day. The rest of the day consisted of walking through the town looking around before our bus left for the day. Of course, in true Emily/Mackenzie traveling style, we had to run to the bus stop because we went to the wrong place and were about to miss our bus. But don't worry, we made it home.
That Sunday, I went on another hike with my family in the mountains my Pelentzia beach. It wasn't as hard of a hike as the last one, but it was hot! As always, I ended up making friends with kids half my age. They heard the word American and knew that I had to know someone famous. The entire downhill hike was spent saying things in English so they could put their lessons to the test. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, the kids' mom asked Isabel if she could take me home with her and where to get one of me. I'm pretty sure I just recruited a new host family for the program.
The rest of the week was really slow. I spent most of it putting off writing one of my last essays. It rained the whole week too which made it go extremely slow. Last night I got to "attend" Jack's graduation ceremony via Skype. I couldn't really see or hear anything so that was great. I'm so glad I got to see and talk to everyone at the reception. I can't wait to come home and see everyone. 5 days left in Bilbao!!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
San Juan de Gatxugalatxe
The day finally came! I finally got to visit the site in Europe that I had been anticipating most. And it was right in my backyard!
We didn't have class today for Spanish Labor Day. I went with a group of friends this morning to San Juan de Gatxugalatxe which is an old monastery between the towns Bakio and Bermeo which are both in Bizkaia. It was about a 45 minute bus ride to Bakio to get to the starting point to get to the starting point.
We had to hike 3 miles to the starting point of the hike to San Juan by following the highway up a mountain. I won't forget to mention that this is a steep highway without shoulder to walk on.
The day was way better than we had expected. It was 60 degrees in the early morning and we had all packed coats and I had a backpack full of extra clothes in case it rained. We never ended up needing any of that. The walk up the mountain was beautiful and you could tell that this is a wealthier area to live in compared to the other parts of the country we had driven through in the past. All of the houses were huge. Along the walk there was tons of wildlife, or almost wildlife. Cows, sheep, roosters, dogs...everything that was normal for me. We did see a wild hog at one point but that was nothing compared to the lizards crawling around everywhere! I didn't even know before yesterday that there were lizards in Spain. You could hear them the entire hike lurking through the tall grass.
It took about an hour and a half to walk up the mountain and arrive at the beginning of our actual hike. The first part was downhill through rocks and dirt and the second part was up over 300 stairs to get to the church. There was hand railing most of the way but you didn't want to put your hand down on it because there were lizards everywhere. The hike wasn't half bad, and we ended up at the top in less than a half hour.
The view from the top of the hike was amazing. Indescribable actually. The best part of the view was the stairs that we had just climbed. The monastery wasn't anything special. The view from the monastery is the real attraction. We had lunch at the top and then headed back down.
We hiked back down the mountain which took a lot less time. We still had an hour before the bus would return to take us back to Bilbao so we sat at the beach for awhile. It had gotten cold by this point but there were still surfers out in the water. At the beach I had ran into Naia, the girl I tutor and her family. How weird to see someone you know when you visit a new town in a foreign country! I slept the entire bus ride home and then most of the afternoon after this trip.
We didn't have class today for Spanish Labor Day. I went with a group of friends this morning to San Juan de Gatxugalatxe which is an old monastery between the towns Bakio and Bermeo which are both in Bizkaia. It was about a 45 minute bus ride to Bakio to get to the starting point to get to the starting point.
We had to hike 3 miles to the starting point of the hike to San Juan by following the highway up a mountain. I won't forget to mention that this is a steep highway without shoulder to walk on.
The day was way better than we had expected. It was 60 degrees in the early morning and we had all packed coats and I had a backpack full of extra clothes in case it rained. We never ended up needing any of that. The walk up the mountain was beautiful and you could tell that this is a wealthier area to live in compared to the other parts of the country we had driven through in the past. All of the houses were huge. Along the walk there was tons of wildlife, or almost wildlife. Cows, sheep, roosters, dogs...everything that was normal for me. We did see a wild hog at one point but that was nothing compared to the lizards crawling around everywhere! I didn't even know before yesterday that there were lizards in Spain. You could hear them the entire hike lurking through the tall grass.
It took about an hour and a half to walk up the mountain and arrive at the beginning of our actual hike. The first part was downhill through rocks and dirt and the second part was up over 300 stairs to get to the church. There was hand railing most of the way but you didn't want to put your hand down on it because there were lizards everywhere. The hike wasn't half bad, and we ended up at the top in less than a half hour.
The view from the top of the hike was amazing. Indescribable actually. The best part of the view was the stairs that we had just climbed. The monastery wasn't anything special. The view from the monastery is the real attraction. We had lunch at the top and then headed back down.
We hiked back down the mountain which took a lot less time. We still had an hour before the bus would return to take us back to Bilbao so we sat at the beach for awhile. It had gotten cold by this point but there were still surfers out in the water. At the beach I had ran into Naia, the girl I tutor and her family. How weird to see someone you know when you visit a new town in a foreign country! I slept the entire bus ride home and then most of the afternoon after this trip.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)