Northern Nights

So as a little pre-finals/pre-end-of-program treat a couple of my friends and I decided to head up to the north of Spain for a few days. We left Thursday afternoon and headed to Bilbao (a grueling 45 minute flight) and then left Friday morning on a bus to San Sebastian (a horrible hour long ride…).

Both places we’re absolutely wonderful and it was amazing how green (as in foliage, not environmentally friendly) the north of Spain is. Bilbao is a small city with one major attraction: the Guggenheim. The building was designed by Frank Ghery and is a work of art in and of itself. Seriously, go look at the pictures. Anyway, besides their permanent collection the current exhibit was about the history of American art dating back to, well, when America first became a nation leading up to present day. Very interesting. Sure Bilbao has some other museums and pretty buildings but that was the main attraction.

After the museum and a little putzing around we decided that we were, in fact, quite hungry so we set off to find a restaurant and had a bit of a hard time doing so. Then I remembered what the wise and all knowing Laura told me we should do for food in Bilbs: play the tapas plan; just bounce around from bar to bar, grab a drink, grab some tapas (pintxos as they’re called in the Basque country). So that’s exactly what we did. We ended up going to 6 or 7 bars and tasting the local flavor… Good times…

Anyway, the next day we decided to leave for San Sebastian (Denostia as it’s known locally) around noon. The bus, as I said earlier took about an hour and I slept most of the time so it wasn’t bad at all… When we got there it was raining and we weren’t quite sure how to get to the hotel and my theory is, when in doubt, take a cab… So that’s what we did. As we were driving in the cab we saw the beach and got a small glimpse of just how gorgeous the city is.

The hotel was very nice (★★★★) and the lady behind the desk kindly decided to speak to us in English after seeing my passport (what I don’t get is why, after conducting an entire conversation in Spanish we find out that I’m from the US and therefore I suddenly lose the ability to speak the language…). Moving on, the room was nice, big bathroom. We rested a bit and then decided to head out to the old part of the city (which also happens to be the pretty part). Along the way we got to walk along the water and I began to fall in love with the place. We got to the old part of the city (about a 20 minute walk) and decided to explore a bit and then find some lunch. We ended up stumbling upon a bunch of really gorgeous old buildings and churches and noticed a big statue of Jesus on top of a mountain/hill thing (more on that later).

So for lunch we ended up finding a sandwich shop that happens to be a local staple. The food was amazing (and cheap!) I had a calamari sandwich with sautéed green peppers on it. Absolutely delicious and only €3,60. After lunch we decided that we were going to climb the mountain and say hello to Jesus but on our way to do that we stumbled upon an extremely breathtaking church and paid it a visit.

After the church we began out climb up Mt. Jesus. It was quite a walk but it was amazing and absolutely gorgeous. There was so much green and the view of the water was spectacular. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen or been too in my life. We spent what must have been 2 or more hours just walking through and exploring this area (check out the pictures)…

After our semi-spiritual hike we decided to go check out another pretty church we spotted in the distance. Yet again, super pretty. After that it was about dinner time and as we we’re walking back to a restaurant that we smelled (and wow did it smell good) Laura called just to check in on me. She’s so cute sometimes…

Dinner ended up being a little bit of a debacle seeing as most of the restaurants we wanted to go to were full but we ended up finding a place with an open table. The waitress was a heinous bitch but the food wasn’t bad (I had some seafood soup and some local variation on crab. We also tried the local white wine which was quite tasty…) After that we went to a wine bar around the corner and had another glass of wine and then decided to give our poor feet a break for the night and head back to the hotel (we had really been walking all day with the exception of lunch and dinner. On a side note though, I have developed legs of steel since being in Spain).

Here’s the overall thought on the weekend: I now know where I want my Spanish vacation home. I fell absolutely in love with San Sebastian and would take another trip there in a heartbeat.

So there you have it, a small summary of my trip. Talk to you soon!