Since I already wrote about Christmas and New Year´s, then went back in time to Amsterdam, now I´ll fill you in on the rest of my winter break. One day, my Spanish friends and I packed into a van and took a day trip to a small town called Zahara de la Sierra. It is one of Andalucia´s many pueblos blancos which means white village. I´ll give you one guess why they´re called that. It was a warm sunny day, perfect for travelling and being outside. Zahara de la Sierra is a beautiful little white village stuck right in the side of a small mountain. It also has a really pretty lake down in the valley. We walked around took some pictures, and stopped at a restaurant to have lunch. Then everyone decided they wanted to go to Ronda, which is another pueblo blanco about a half hour away. I was really excited because Ronda is one of the places I really wanted to go in Spain. It´s hard to explain in words the way Ronda is layed out. It´s another mountain town, but the way it was constructed is unlike anything I´ve ever seen. So, instead of trying to explain it, I´ll just let you see for yourselves.
< View from la Zahara de la Sierra
Ronda
The last weekend of break, Alex, Mary, Mary´s sister, her sister´s boyfriend Nate, and I went to Bilbao, in the Basque Country of northern Spain. I wasn´t really sure what to expect from Bilbao because I had never been to northern Spain, but I was really excited. Nothing all that exciting happened
But it was definitely a great trip and worth seeing. One thing I noticed is that there is a very different culture in the north that the south. The Basque country has their own language called Euskera and the people there are very proud of their province. The style of clothes there is also very different, and people have pretty edgy hairstyles. Well, to be honest, edgy is putting it kindly. Lots of mullets, rat tails, dreadlocks, half shaved heads, and strangely cut bangs. The city itself though, is really beautiful. It is cut in half by a river – on one side, the old town where our hostel was, and on the other side the newer modern part of the city.
Our weekend was pretty much a typical weekend of seeing as much as we could by walking around the city, with a few stand out experiences. First, we went to the world famous Guggenheim museum, which is a really cool modern art museum. Even the building itself is considered a work of art. I´m not that really into art, and I certainly don´t pretend to know much about it, but the Guggenheim was really worth the visit.
On Saturday, we took a day trip to the beach town called San Sebastian, on the recommendations of just about everyone who knew we were going to Bilbao. It was a really beautiful, relatively small city. I felt like we were able to walk most of it in the short time we had there. We made our way through the narrow streets, passing the gorgeous, picturesque cathedral, and to the beach. It was a really nice city beach on the Bay of Biscay. I had read online that you can get a really great view of the beach and the city by hiking up a small mountain/hill. We decided to give it a go, and it really only took us about 15 minutes because the paths, while rocky and uneven, took you up to the top pretty efficiently. There was a neat old fort complete with cannons and a huge statue of Jesus at the top of the hill, and the view really was great. We had our obnoxious, disrespectful tourist moment by climbing all over the cannons and taking pictures. After we climbed down, we stopped at a café and got some coffee, well I drank water, and everyone else had coffee, and then we walked around some more.
After a while, we got something to eat and headed back to Bilbao. We had already decided Saturday night would be a disco night, so we came back to our hostel to rest and then get ready for the night. In case you´re wondering, disco here is not your typical seventies dance club, but what they call clubs here. We bought plenty of drinks to get our night started at the hostel, and left for the club at about 1. We hopped on the metro (we were pros at it by the end of the weekend) and followed the rest of the club goers to Fever. When we got there, it was kind of empty so we sat down and had a couple drinks. The place started to fill up some more and we were all feeling pretty “happy” so we decided to get up and dance. This was different from some of the other times we´ve gone to the clubs in Spain, mostly because Nate (Mary´s sister´s boyfriend). Usually if you go out with just girls, the Spanish guys are pretty creepy and aggressive. But since Nate was there dancing like a maniac…which made us all dance like maniacs, the Spaniards stayed away from us. I think it was a combination of them being totally weirded out by our dancing, and confusion as to why Nate had four girls with him. It was really, really fun to just let loose. I even got up on a stage and did a solo dance to “One way or another.” Unfortunately, some of that was caught on film, but that´s staying in the vault. We decided to head back home at around 4 or 4:30ish. The next morning was not too pleasant, but we all made it through enough to get some lunch, see a little bit more of the city, and head back to the airport. We had a lot of fun, and it was really good to meet Mary´s family. I think you get to know people a lot more when you meet their friends and family from home. It was also great to see more of this country that I love so much!
 |
| Cannon shot! |
 |
| San Sebastian beach shot |
The outside of the Guggenheim
Museum
The whole group in the hostel before our night out at the disco.
No comments:
Post a Comment