Go to Africa: Check!

A few friends and I made plans to travel to Tangier, Morocco right after spring break. I knew I had always wanted to go to Africa and I figured studying in Spain was the best time to do it. Tangier is at the very top of Africa right in the coast, so all we had to do was take a flight from Bilbao to Madrid and transfer from Madrid to Tangier. (Some people take a ferry over from the south of Spain, but this was less expensive.) Of course, nothing is ever that easy.

Right before we left, on Wednesday a volcano in Iceland emitted tons of volcanic ash throughout the skies of Northern and Easter Europe and it was slowly making its way down to Spain. I was worried our flight was going to be canceled, but we were in the clear. However, our flight left at 8:30am from Santander which is a town over, so we needed to get a bus to Santander and then a shuttle to the airport. What we didn't realize until last minute was that the only bus that would get us to our flight in time was at 1:45am that morning. We took it, but then got stranded at the Santander bus station at 3am because the shuttles don't start running again until 6:30. We were afraid we were going to get kicked out of the station at any time ebcause that's what happened to our friend Mike once, but we were able to stay inside the whole time. And we had free WiFi (but one computer).And no one could really sleep on the rock hard benches or in the freezing cold anyway. Well finally at 6:30 we got on the shuttle and to the airport and boarded our flight all in time. But then when we got to Madrid we had another four hour layover. Everyone slept but me and I have to pay 10euro for a sandwich and some fruit! You should have seen the lines due to flight cancellations though... It was crazy, news reporters and media everywhere.

Finally we got to Tangier around 2pm (time change knocked us back two hours) and met up with our tour guide Said in the airport. I found Said, like I said, online. Reviews and websites raved about him. He offered to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel for free. Then after we checked in we had one of his employees Mohammed show us around the city a bit and show us to a delicious Moroccan lunch. We had some bread with some kind of salsa (almost like the toppings for California Pizza Kitchen Greek pizza), soup or salad as the first course (I has soup), and then giants dishes of vegetables, chicken and couscous. It was all sooo good. And we got Moroccan Baklava and mint tea for dessert. They always drink tea at the end of their meals to help digestion. After that we headed back to the hotel to nap and realized we weren't really all that hungry for dinner, so we just stayed in the rest of the night to get a good night's sleep.

The nest day was our all day tour with Said. First, we had a Moroccan breakfast that was included with our hotel. There were these crepe-like pancakes that a Moroccan lady sat on the ground and made in front of you, and all kinds of pastries and things too. They had yogurt, but I think they like their ygurt warm in Morocco, so I skipped that. Said picked us up at 9:30 and first we headed toward the coast. We drove up a huge hill with all these million dollar houses that mainly belonged to the King or Morocco or some Saudi Arabian royalty and what not... He brought us to the point where there was a lighthouse and you could see where the Mediterranean and Atlantic met and you could see Spain in the distance too. After that he drove us over to go ride camels! We were all hoping to ride them on the beach, but it was more like we were taken in circles around a dirt parking lot above the beach. And there were only three so we had to take turns. But it was still fun! And we got to see a baby camel that was only two months old! I even tried kissing him!! After that we went to the Cave of hercules. We had a guide tell us about it, but we could hardly understand anything he was saying! Something about the cave being mapped out like the continent of Africa and the other surrounding continents and bodies of water...? There was this one cool part though that looked out into the ocean and if you looked at the outline of the opening and flipped it, it was in the shape of the African continent! There was also a little boy in the parking lot with a hat on a dragging around a baby donkey and when i took a picture of him he smiled... but I think he expected money... Nina and I realized he wasn't so cute as we were about to leave and saw him kicking a yelling at the poor little donkey!

Then we headed back to the city. Said led us to the Kasbah, the older part of the city. Where he explained how the poorer people live with no electricty and water... And it really made us realzie how underdeveloped this place was. We were led into a little room where two Moroccan men were playing instruments. Said offered us to smoke with them, but we declined. Now we were told we were going to be Rockin' the Kasbah with these guys. We were all handed funny hats (like Abu's in Aladdin) and different instruments and were told to play along with their songs. Thankfully I had the tambourine, so my job wasn't too hard. It was actually really funny. After that, right outside there were the snake charmers! We went up to them and one old guy started playing a drum while the other pulled three snakes out of this potato sack! Then before you knew it the snakes weren't even moving and he was able to put them around our necks, it was really strange, but really cool at the same time. Said told us sometimes they have a black cobra, but when they use him they can only put it around people's legs.. just in case... ah!!

After all this we split up with Said and folllowed Mohammed again to the Medina, the main part of the city. He led us throught the fish market (blehhhh, it smelled so bad!!) and the meat market (terrifying... we saw hanging bloody skins, and bloody cow heads!). We walked through some veggie markets too, but it was so crowded it was hard to get around. We were taken into this the huge cfat store. With wooden boxes, vases, jewlery, swords, anything you can think of really... But Mohammed told us to wait to buy anything because this place was rather expensive. We were taken to a herbal pharmacy where we were taight about all different kinds of herbs and spices. They use herbs for everything in Morocco. Whether it's a heachahe or keeping the mosquitoes away! Some of us even bought a few things.Then we went into a Berber rug store. At the top of the store (four floors up) there was an amazing view. That's when Mohammed told us he needed to go really quickly to pray at the mosque and that we would be drinking tea with the shop owner until he came back. This sounded fine, until while we were waiting the shopowner started pulling out rugs and blankets. They were beautiful and Kate and I thought about getting one until he told us one the size of a bathmat at 90euro. Now in Morocco you're supposed to barter. Even if it's a set price. But Kate and I just didn't want one anymore. Except he wouldn't let down! He kept going, "Well for example, what color would you like?" And even if I told him I couldn't afford and kept saying no he kept pushing it.... "What price? You tell me? For example??" So I just threw out 40euro as a price and he practially placed a folded up carpet in my lap! We were all so uncomfortable. And finally Mohammed came back and when he explained for us that we weren't interested the owner almost seemes pissed that he took out all the carperts in the first place, but hey never asked him to do that! Anyway so we ran out of there. I mean it's great we got the rug down from 90 to 30, but I still wasn't paying 30euro for a bathmat. I wonder what would have happened if I said 5euro??

We wandered around a bit more. Kate and I got wooden boxes and the girls and I got the Hand of Fatima charm for a necklace (it's supposed to bring good luck) and then we went to lunch. We got Moroccan shish kebabs, and once again I was entirely satisfied by my meal. Who knew I would love Moroccan food so much? By then, Mohammed had to go, so we made our own way to the beach. It looked pretty from afar, but once you got there it was not nice at all. There was trash everywhere. High-heeled shoes, a bra, plastic bags and bottles, wires, just everything. Nasty. There were little boys playing soccer on the beach too who kept coming up to us and saying, "Hey pretty girl, come give me a kiss!!" We just walked away and laughed. It was finally time for another nap before our dinner with Said that night. He was taking us to a legitimate Moroccan restaurant which we were very excited about. Mohammed picked us up at 9 and we headed to the restaurant, I later found out that after he didn't dine with us that was the last time we really got to see him and we never got a picture with him! How sad :( Dinner was good, but very expensive. And we were supposed to be eating with Said, but he was off making bussiness calls and whatnot so we never really got to see him and it all got us wondering what he really does... He seems much more well-off than a lot of the others in this city, but his tours aren't very expensive. He has given tours to celebrities like Sting and Bruce Springstein, but walking through the streets he practically knows everybody! We all came to the conclusion that he has to be in some kind of Moroccan mob or whatever. Before going to bed we talked with him about doing a day trip the next day. We decided to go to a beach town about and hour away called Asilah. His driver would take us there and we could explore for however long we wanted. And then we would see him on Monday when we needed to leave for the airport.

Asilah was an interesting town. A lot smaller than Tangier obviously and a lot more residencial too. We found our way to the coast though and got down to the beach. There were these realy cool pieces of beached tile everywhere so I took some of those. I waded into the water too, but the tide was coming in so we opted to go find something to eat. We did that just in time because it started to pour. I got a giant mound of couscous for lunch and by the time we were done with that it had stopped raining and after a little more exploring we decided it was time to go. When we got back to Tangier we wanted to do some last minute souvenier shopping. We got postcards and they don't really have shot glasses because drinking in public is somewhat looked down upon in Morocco so we got Moroccan tea glasses instead. We got a really good deal and they're really pretty. After a short nap, all our naps were disrupted by the local soccer games that went on outside on the court across the street from our hotel, we wandered off to go find a cheap dinner consisting of kebabs, french fries and a soda for 30durham (3euro!).

The next day we packed up and said our goodbyes to Said and Mohammed. Right before we left we found out that our second flight (the one from Madrid to Santander) was cancelled due to the volcanic ash from the volcano that erupted in Iceland on Thursday. Well our flight leaving Tangier was delayed, so we were better off with the cancellation because we probably would have missed the nest flight anyway. We found a bus to Bilbao instead and waited around for two hours to leave at 8. We took a five hour bus ride home where a lady behind me kept singing outloud to her iPod and made it home by 1am. I love travelling, but I feel like every time I get home I am kissing the ground I walk on. Home sweet Bilbao :)

A Much More Eventful Weekend!

So after last weekend's lazy weekend I was determined to make this weekend more adventurous. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and I couldn't go out because I had a grammar test on Thursday, but Thursday night there was an Erasmus St. Patrick's Day themed party. A lot of people were wearing green and the Irish international students were loving it. One guy even had his entire face painted with the colors of the Irish flag. Kate, Nina and I tried to go look for some Irish accessories before the fiesta, but we failed in doing so and only walked away with green beaded necklaces that had tiny mugs hanging from them. The party was just like any other Erasmus party and nothing like an American Saint Patrick's Day party, but at least I got to celebrate!

In my Basque Culture class my professor told us about a festival for EL Dia de San Jose, Spain's father's day.The festival was in Bakio, a northern coastal town in Pais Vasco. The town is known for their txakoli (white wine) and basically the festival celebrated this. It sounded like a lot of fun so I convinced Kate and Nina to come with me and we took a bus early the next morning. There weren't too many people there when we first showed up, but there were dozens of cows and horses tied to posts that everyone was mingling around! We took the oppurtunity to get some pictures with these guys... Kate even pet one! And then we went to go find some food. I saw a stand making Talo (just like a Mexican tortilla but a bit thicker and made with corn flour and water). People were stadning around eating it with lomo (pork) and chorizo (smoked sausage). We decided to give it a try and got some glasses of txakoli as well.It defintiely hit the spot... The txakoli was a tad more sour than the one I tired on my pintxos trip though.

We walked around some more, got some free stickers, balloons and sheep masks (all for little kids of course) and heard some traditional Basque music. Then i thought it would be a good idea to go find the beach. We finally got around to asking someone and found out it was only a ten minute walk. I'm really glad we made the walk because the beach was beautiful! It was just too bad that there wasn't any sun... The beach was known for its waves so there were tons of surfers out in the water. It was really low tide too so we walked around a little bit and I even found a ton of seaglass (all green, probably from all those wine bottles!) We started to wait for the bus after that and then realized it wouldn't be coming for another hour and half... So we went back to the festival and got some chocolate this time. I got white chocolate with pistachios... Sounds kind of iffy, but it was delcious!

The next day Kate decided to go meet up with her Tandem partner Olga in her hometwon Castro again, so I was roommate less for the day/night. Nina and I were still determined to go on another adventure so we decided to take a bus to the capital of the Basque Country, Vitoria. I had a friend who went a few weeks ago so she told me we could get a map at the bus station that would leade us to the Old Quarter and we could see all kinds of churches and monuments and what not. Nina and I accidentally got our tickets to leave Vitoria at 8:15pm so we got that time changed once we arrived and then we headed out! Vitoria was a lot bigger than I expected, but we didn't have much trouble finding the historical part of town. We headed to a church called La Catedral de Santa Maria first. It is a gothic church that is currently going under renovation. We opted to skip a Spanish speaking tour and just go check it out on our own for 2euro. The entrance fee didn't get us much of anywhere besides the main hall of the church that was covered in stone dust, but we did get to wear some pretty cool construction helmets!

After that church and some more walking around (Nina and I found postcards to add to our collection... made the trip worth while!) we found cheap place to eat lunch. With a Menu del Dia that consisted of Paella and Steak. We got nervous at first because we sat by a table with a bunch of crying babies, but the parents were sensible enough to take them outside. We were lucky though, we got the last able in the place and other had to wait for over an hour. After lunch Nina and I spotted a gelato store. If you have never tried gelato, do it! I can't wait to have it practically every day in Italy! I got Kinder flavored. Kinder is a delicious brand of chocolate over here, so obviously my ice cream was fantastic. Siesta kind of got in the way of things after lunch because the churches and places we wanted to get into were closed, but we just walked around and talked for a bit and it was good to just be out of the dorm. After wasting a little more time in some stores Nina, my aching feet and I were ready to go. That night we went out to some local Irish bars with our friends Tony and Matt and of course I added one (or two) more beer glasses to my collection!

A cathedral off in the distance in Vitoria

It was a quieter weekend with a lot of people off doing their own weekend trips, but I enjoyed my trips. And I got to spend Sunday catching up on homework and such (yes I have homework here!) Now I am in the beginning preparations for Spring Break!! We leave on Wednesday so I have plenty to do. So I guess that will be my next entry, but until then hasta luego!

Uneventful Weekend

I am thinking to myself as a write this why I would write a post about an "uneventful weekend" and just because I don't have an exciting trip planned for every weekend doesn't necessarily make it "uneventful," but I'll just say that this wasn't one of my most memorable weekends here thus far. However, there were a few highlights.

Thursday night there was another Erasmus party. Those parties that are held in clubs throughout Bilbao for Spanish and international students alike. I had not been to one in a while and at first I was thinking about just having a night in, but some friends convinced me to come out and I am glad I did. We started out at the dorm called Blas de Otero. I had never been there before, but they are set up more like apartments than dorm rooms. So when we arrived in their common room downstairs it was like walking into a college house party... which I actually kind of miss! Unfortunately, we got the boot about an hour later because the new desk guard didn't like having so many people there that late so we headed to Erasmus instead.

I had more fun than I have at any of the other Erasmus parties, I didn't even mind the crowds. I met a student from Deusto, but he is originally from Mexico and he even went to high school for a few years in Mountain Lakes, NJ. Small world... It was just really fun to be around everyone else who was having a great time too. The next day I made plans to go biking around the city with Mike and Ashley. The tourism offices here allow you to rent bikes for free as long as your return them before 8pm. Sounded like a great idea, until we realized a lot of the city did not have bike paths and I was forced to ride down a busy city street with a dump truck roaring in the lane right next to me.

My friends and I had really hoped to get some day trips in the weekend to places like the Basque Country capital, Vitoria or a town Kate's friend told her about called Burgos, but the weather was not having it. It was gloomy and rainy almost all weekend. We attempted to go out to a new bar on Friday night... But it was nothing to out of the ordinary.

New bar we found called "The Crazy Horse"

Saturday we had planned to try and go to a different club, but on the way we found a carnival next to the Ria. With rides and all that jazz. A bunch of my friends went on the bumper cars and Kate and I went on this ride called the Ranita Loca (Crazy Frog). And it was not at all what I was expecting. Carnival rides in the US last for maybe a minute tops... well this thing kept going! And I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard! Every time we thought it was about to end, it started up again! I really wish there were more places like this. We never made it to the club and Sunday just ended up being a lazy day, but I guess I need to save up my energy for my two and half week long spring break!

On the Ranita Loca!

Futbol y Practicum

I forgot to post about some stuff before I left for Madrid... So here's a quick update on a few things I left out.

On Tuesday a ton of people decided they wanted to go to an Exhibition game (or "friendly match") between Bilbao Athletic and Paraguay. The tickets were really cheap so we decided to join in. This time our seats were up higher, but it seemed like the stadium was a lot more packed. Maybe because they tickets were so cheap that everyone could afford to go. There were tons of die-hard Paraguay fans that used a red, white, and blue flag of Paraguay to cover a section of seats and they went absolutely crazy every time they scored. Which happened a lot since Bilbao was playing their second string team.

Paraguay celebrating another goal...

Now I obviously do not know a lot about soccer... So when some little girls game running up to these guys in front of us for pictures and autographs I assumed they were famous, but I had no idea who they might be. That's when we had our friend Michelle ask a fellow Athletic fan and he explained they were two of Bilbao's first string players, the goal keeper Gorka Iraizoz and the left defender Koikili Lertxundi. It was so strange to me! These guys were sitting right in front of us with their families and friends and not a guard in sight. And they weren't even really bothered a majority of the time. I can only imagine if a player sat amongst the fans in Giants stadium without any protection.

We really wanted to get a picture or have our tickets signed, but that's when the kids started flooding in. They were getting cell phone pictures, having their jerseys signed, just trying to say hi. We weren't so sure we would get our chance. At one point I just threw my camera at a kid and we practically jumped on the goal keeper to get a picture with him. Unfortunately Koikili isn't in it with us. But we were lucky because after that I think they had finally gotten fed up with the attention and they moved their seats to a different unknown section. Hey, at least I got my picture!

On Wednesday I went to my second cooking class. Amidst cooking another three dishes my professor commented on how I look like Nicole Kidman. I never really thought of that before, but I guess I can see some resemblance?? Just a random thought...Anyway, first we made Tomates Provenzales, then Paella de carne, and for dessert we made Torrijas. A very delicious meal that I would probably rank above the last one we made! The Tomates were a really easy recipe. You basically take your desired number of tomatoes and cut them in half. Then you pour some olive oil into a frying pan, let it heat, and then you cook the flat sides of the tomatoes for about a minute. When this is done you sprinkle some salt on the cooked tops and spread a mixture of garlic, oregano, olive oil, and parsley over that and bake them in the oven for about fifteen minutes. I'm not a fan of tomatoes, but these were really good!

 They are more appetizing than they look... I swear!

I was really excited to make the paella. It is one of my favorite dishes over here in Spain (and that says a lot). Paella is a rice dish with meats and other chopped vegetables mixed in. It is also often made with seafood (including shrimp that have eyes!) Our dish was only being made with chicken, but we made the legitimate kind because sometimes people just cook the rice by adding water, but we made a colga. It is a broth made up from water, left over chicken parts, peppers, and onions. A lot of bars just offer it as a hot drink to sip in the colder weather. It made this dish taste fantastic! Javi also did not add saphron or yellow coloring which is usually a major characteristic of the dish, but it tasted just the same!

Looks more delicious when there's coloring... But it still hit the spot!

Then the dessert. I was really excited about Torrijas after our professor explained them to us. It is actually a really simple recipe and reminds me a lot of American french toast. First, you make a mixture with milk, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and a bit of lemon peel and heat it until warm. Then you take slices of stale bread and let it soak in the liquid. (I think Javi may have let it soak too long, because it seemed a bit soggy when we finally ate it.) After the bread is soaked, you dip it into beaten eggs and fry it in olive oil for a minute on each side. When this is done you roll the slices around in sugar and cinnamon. Sounds delicious right??? It was!! But I could barely take another bite after I was done... I was so full!

I really hope I can come home and make all of these dishes for everyone. And I am relieved we're cooking things I actually want to eat, rather than the greasy and mysterious food that is served in my dorm.  I also forgot to mention that during the soccer game I got really excited at half time because I thought everyone was eating hot dogs (nothing like a ball game hot dog...) when they took out a foil wrapped snack, but then I realized everyone had brought bocadillos (sandwiches on a baguette). We can have these made for us if we do not make it to lunch on any given day in our dorm. But just goes to show that this country is all about their meal times!

My class at the Txoko

Last CIDE Excursion

Last weekend was our last trip with my study abroad program here CIDE (Centro Internacional Deusto de Espanol). We took a five hour bus ride to the capital Madrid, Spain and we also had a day trip to the more ancient capital, Segovia. The final excursion was bittersweet... I probably won't see half of the kids in my program until our Goodbye Celebration at the end of the semester, but the trip itself was definitely not listed in my favorites. I guess I will start from the beginning....

Have I ever mentioned that our CIDE trips are cursed by the weather? Every time we plan to go somewhere Mother Nature decides to bring down her wrath. So obviously in Madrid, where it is usually supposed to be warmer in the later months, it was at freezing temperatures and there was constant torrential downpour of rain. Our hotel actually wasn't too shabby, my friends and I had hoped for triple rooms, but were assigned doubles, so Kate and I shared a room (and bed...) I just can't escape that girl!

Then we ate a free buffet lunch, but my meat wasn't fully cooked, so I just opted for some ice cream instead. And then we loaded onto the bus again to headed to the Palacio Real (the official residence of the King of Spain, but not it is really only used for state ceremonies). We also got a brief walk through the Catedral de la Almudena (the Catholic church of Spain that is dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena) which had a very different interior with bright colors and statues of contemporary artists. Our professors walked us through la Plaza de la Villa and la Plaza Mayor (which probably would have been a lot more lively if it weren't for the weather) and then we were given free time after arriving in the city center, la Puerta del Sol.

My friends Michelle and Santi are die-hard Real Madrid fans so we had to go take a look inside the Official Real Madrid store and Michelle even got a green-screened picture with her favorite player, Iker Casillas! We couldn't bear to walk around in the freezing cold and rain anymore so a few of us decided to head to the Museo Reina Sofia. It was a museum that wasn't on our itinerary, but it had the original painting of the Picasso's Guernica. The actual painting was huge! And just as I was thinking about where he could have possibly chosen a starting point, in the room nextdoor there were a few of his primary sketches. All very interesting... And it was time to head back for dinner soon enough. My friends and I had hoped to go out that night, but after walking around in more freezing cold rain we gave up and just had some fun hanging out in the hotel rooms instead.

(Illegal sneak pic of the Guernica)

The next day was an early wake-up call for our day trip to Segovia. I absolutely loved Segovia. I was a bit nervous at first after waking up to a winter wonderland outside the bus, but it cleared up in no time and we actually had amazing weather the rest of the day (take that mother nature!) Obviously we all headed straight for the Roman Aqueduct. An aqueduct that is still standing two thousand years later! With not a drop of mortar used throughout any of the architecture, amazing.

After losing the group and getting lost for a bit, we got a tour of the Alcázar of Segovia (literally translated, the Castle of Segovia). It was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then. It was obviously not as impressive as the Palacio Real inside and I could hardly understand our super-speedy Spanish guide, but I caught on to a few things about each of the rooms. One room with two thrones called the "Pinecone Room" (for the golden pinecones on the ceiling. There was a lot of gold on the ceilings of all the rooms..) was where Christopher Columbus came to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for the funding of his trip to the New World. There was one room with a painting of the people of Segovia, but for some reasons the artist chose not to add any of the people's eyes. Kind of creepy... I also read somewhere that the castle is also featured in the video game Resident Evil 4 and it is said to be influence for many of the castles produced by Walt Disney.

We got to climb to the top of the tower (my legs actually hurt the next day... pathetic) and see a gorgeous view of the city and then we did some souvenir shopping, ate our lunch and headed back to Madrid. We had more free time in Madrid... but this time we were tired so we got some Starbucks and bit of walking around and then just decided to head back for a nap before dinner. Everyone was planning on going to a seven story club called Capital at night, but I was just not up for something like that. Especially if it meant not getting back to the hotel until 5:00am. A few of us opted for bars instead, but we could not find one! You would think that in a major city like this it would not be very difficult to find a bar to go to at 1:30 at night, but we were turned away everywhere we tried to get in... We finally gave up, got a taxi home, and just decided to take advantage of the fact that we were going to be getting a lot more sleep than the rest of the CIDE students.

The next morning was rough for a lot of us. I really only got a solid three hours of sleep until the wake-up call came around... but others got a lot less. We had our scheduled visit to the Museo del Prado on this day and not many of us were looking forward to walking around a museum with less than a solid eight hours of sleep. However, the museum proved to be very impressive. There were several painting I actually recognized from old textbooks and classes. Paintings by Goyas and Velázquez. I really liked see Las Meninas (Spanish for "The Maids of Honor") since I remembered learning so much about it. Our guide spoke English, but we couldn't suppress our laughter when she would say, "dee mader welding" (the other building) or "look at dee perpetive and do you see dee apotles?" (look at the perspective... do you see the apostles?)

After the tour was over a few friends and I took advantage of the last bit of free time we had to go explore the Parque del Retiro (literally meaning "Park of the Pleasant Retreat"). It was a beautiful park, I only wish we had more time there because apparently, it being Madrid's largest park, there was so much more to see. After eating another big lunch in preparation for the long bus ride home, we shipped out. I'm realizing after writing this post that the city probably doesn't seem all that bad... Maybe it was the weather that put a damper on things (literally)... But I have been to a lot of big cities and Madrid just wasn't all that great. Oh well... Still glad I got to go! Next on the list of trips: Spring Break!! (Italy, Granada, Seville, Barcelona), Tangier (in Morocco!!), and Dublin!!

As my mom says... I am becoming "quite the world traveler!"

I think I can...

Saturday was more of a low-key day... There were hurricane strength winds blowing through the city at 95 mph so after Nina, Kate and I almost got blown away buying groceries down the street, we opted to have a movie day. We watched Grizzly Man. I had already seen it and had warned them that the guy in the documentary was a nut-job, but we watched it anyway... Our lights were flickering throughout the night because of the wind, but the next day the winds had died down and it was just as gorgeous as Friday. The perfect day for a hike. A few of my friends went the day before and promised to lead the way once again on Sunday... Let's just say I did not know what I was in for.

The guys had found some hill off the map that started up from a construction site. They had planned to find a better way up today with us girls trailing behind them. After scurrying up an irrigation tube, I started to realize this wasn't going to be any ordinary hike. We were making our way along trails made by donkeys. At one point we came across a barbed wire fence and one kid in our group thought that if he hopped it he could find a better route. Well that was a good idea, until he almost pulled down a powerline and took out half the city's electricity and almost got attacked by a very territorial donkey. The guys then decided it would be a better idea to climb up the practically 90º hill we were standing at the bottom of. That was all good and fine until I had to start clawing at tufts of grass to keep going up. All of us finally made it up... barely. But that wasn't even the top, we had more to go.

Clawing up the last bit of "Donkey Hill"

We finally found our way to a recreational area that definitely had a normal trail leading up to it from another direction, but the view was breathtaking. Definitely made the huffing and puffing worth it in the end. Santi had packed some snacks, so we took a little breather and just when we thought we were going to head back down we found a trail that took us even higher. Then we were really at the top. You could see everything. Even the ocean. It was amazing. I have no idea how we even came across it, heck I don't even know the name of the mountain I was on top of, but the view was not something you get to see everyday. Heading back down was a lot easier and Nina, Kate and I agreed we would do another hike, but we are going to look for trails next time.

Beach Day!

Friday was a gorgeous day with nothing but clears skies. There was no way I wanted to stay inside, so after going to watch some of our friends play soccer Kate, Nina and I decided to go check out Plentzia beach, the last stop on the metro, right on the ocean. After a very long 30-minute metro ride we arrived in Plentzia. And what do you think happened next? Nothing. We were lost ha. Story of my life.

Well after wandering around for quite some time (of course we arrived during siesta again and civilization was no where to be found) we finally found our way to the beach. Someone had said that Algorta was supposed to be much prettier than Plentzia, but I beg to differ. Rather than having cranes and industrial work as a backdrop the beach was carved out between giant cliffs. There were tons of surfers to watch, but the water was too cold to even stick our feet in. So we just laid out our towels and relaxed. I wish it would have been real beach weather! But I'll take what I can get... Lizzie and Michelle showed up a little later, but the sun was going behind the cliffs and we had plans to meet up with Dr. Sainz that night so we headed back to the metro.

Dr. Sainz, for those of you who don't know, is a Spanish professor back at UMW. He studied for his undergrad at Deusto and is the head of the Bilbao study abroad program back at school. He grew up in the Bilbao and spends his summers here, so when he came over last week during UMW's spring break he offered to meet up and hang out for a bit. He showed us around to a few new places we had not been to yet, including a favorite local spot where you can get pintxos morunos (moorish tapas or seasoned skewers of pork). The skewers were grilled right in front of us and were served with hot bread. SO good! Santi and I shared a second! Definitely going back soon. It was really good to catch up with him, but I think everyone was so exhausted from the night before that we all just called it a night when we got home.