“In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it’s on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent.” - Roman Polanski

A view of Paris from the top of Notre Dame

Ok, now on to Paris!  My roommates Mary and Hayley and I decided to spend a weekend in Paris, France: the city of lights, the city of love, or the city of crepes, whatever you want to call it.  We had pretty much two full days to see as much as we can, and I think we made the best of it.  I arrived in the Paris airport by myself because I took a different flight than my roommates due to our different work schedules.  Mary gave me a heads up on how to get to the hostel so I wasn’t completely lost. I started my journey on the metro as per usual.   I have to admit, a metro is typically not the most appealing part of a city, but Paris ranks pretty far down the list.  It was pretty hideous and looked really old and dirty.  When I got off at my stop, I came across super long wind tunnels and police attending to a man with his head bashed in and bleeding. Whooo Paris!  But really, besides the less-than-savory first impression, Paris went uphill from there.  I made my way to the hostel, which was a few short blocks from the metro station, found my roommates, and went upstairs to check out our room.  I found out we were sharing our four-person room with a nice Serbian guy who just got a job in Paris and was staying at the hostel while he looked for a place to rent.  You never know who you’re going to meet in hostels.  It was pretty late by the time I got settled in, so we decided to hit the hay and get ready for a long two days ahead.  Let me tell you a little bit about the beds in our hostel.  Now, I usually don’t complain about hostels because, well, they’re hostels and you usually get what you pay for.  We’ve had great experiences so when there are little things wrong they don’t bother me.  However, these beds are worth writing about.  Not only were they among the least comfortable beds I’ve slept in, they were by far the noisiest – perhaps in the world.  This may sound like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not. You couldn’t even take a deep breath without the bed squeaking, so forget even thinking about rolling over or getting up to go the bathroom.  I found it difficult to sleep because I was concentrating so hard on trying not to make noise. My efforts, however, were futile.  What made the terrible beds somewhat easier to swallow was the fact that we woke up at around 8:30 to one of the best hostel breakfasts we’d had.  Fresh, buttery croissants and baguettes with cereal and juice.  Pretty standard as far as hostel breakfasts go, but everything was somehow better.    Ready for our Parisian adventure, we headed to the Museum D’Orsay, which I would say is the second most famous art museum after the Louvre.  I really liked this museum.  They had a lot of paintings that I actually recognized.  Now since, I’m not the biggest art aficionado, you know a painting has to be famous if I recognize it.  I’m talking big names Van Gogh, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Picasso – just to name a few.  Let’s just say I was really impressed.  Standing in front of paintings with such history and prestige is an inexplicable sensation. Another thing I liked about the Museum D’Orsay was that it was pretty easy to conquer.  It was really big, but still pretty accessible.  I didn’t feel overwhelmed or like it was impossible to see everything.  (Although this is completely cheating, I’m going to tell you all that this is what we like to call foreshadowing to a future rant about how awful the Louvre is).  After a full dose of culture we headed to the famous Notre Dame cathedral – look out, Quasimodo!  We had to wait about 45 minutes to climb to the top, but it was worth it.  It was a typical claustrophobic, windy, stone staircase that takes you up most famous European cathedrals.  Is it snobby that I’ve climbed enough cathedrals to be able to say that? Nah.  Anyways, the view from the top was really great, but my favorite part was all of the gargoyles.  Something about being amidst these creatures really takes you back in time.  And what surprised me most is that they were all different. This creepy guy over here was my favorite.  Something tells me that painter Francisco Goya got his inspiration for his "Saturn Devouring his Son" from this statue. (Look it up, it's super creepy.)  Next, you can climb up even further to explore the bell tower.  After we soaked in the view and took various silly pictures imitating gargoyles, we headed down the stairs to go inside the cathedral.

 

So like I just bragged about 10 sentences ago, I've been in a lot of super old churches, but Notre Dame really is impressive.  It is enormous and really beautiful.  There were also lots of separate little chapels honoring various saints.  Of course, I had to light a candle for and take a picture with Saint Denis! So we made our rounds through the crowds, took a few pictures and moved on to our next stop:  the Arc de Triomphe. Now, I expected Paris to be big, since it's a European capital and all, but everything just seemed so far from everything else.  In a lot of other cities you can hit a lot of the touristy things in a short amount of time.  Not in Paris.  Everything seemed to be at least a 40 minutes walk from one stop to the next.  But we forged ahead.  The walk to the Arc was pretty cool because we passed through the shopping district down one of the famous shopping streets, Avenue des Champs-Elysees. I was actually really glad we got to the Arc at the time we did because the sky was the perfect shade of blue.  Just an FYI (since I didn't know what it was for either) The Arc de Triomphe is engraved with names of generals who commanded French troops during Napoleon's regime.

 Our next and final stop for the night, and the most anticipated for me, was the Eiffel Tower.  We were able to see it in the daylight from afar, but I was really excited to see it at night.  So we walked, and we walked, and we walked.  Finally, through some thick trees, I spotted my first glimpse of the glistening tower. However, we still had a ways to go.  When we finally got there, I breathed a sigh of relief because I would have walked another hour to see what we saw, but I was sure glad I didn't have to.  The Eiffel Tower is everything I thought it would be and more. 

 

Let's get to the good stuff though, we weren't there just to stare at it, we were going to the top!  Every customer has two options: ride the elevator all the way to the top, or pay 5 euro less and climb the first 700+ steps and take the elevator the rest of the way.  Well being the super young, fit, and broke ladies we are, we chose option B.  After already climbing up and down the 400-something steps in Notre Dame, 700 more was not very appealing, but we did it anyway.  Believe it or not, it actually wasn't that bad.  Don't get me wrong, I was panting pretty hard at the top, but we made it nonetheless.  Next you take an elevator the rest of the way and you're let off into the top.  The view was, as you can imagine, breathtaking.  Everywhere you looked, there were beautiful sights freckled with streetlamps.  It was difficult to take pictures in the dark, but I guarantee I won't forget that.  After making a few rounds around the deck, we made the trek back down to go see the light show that they do every hour.  We went out onto the lawn, and picked a spot to sit down.  No more than a minute passed before we were approached by a couple of young French guys.  Not surprised.  I think European guys have a special radar for American girls.  They were clearly drunk and equally hilarious so we humored them by chatting for a few minutes, but their English was almost unintelligible, so that made communicating a little difficult.  As soon as we noticed the light show starting, we shooed them away, and I'm assuming they went to find some more American girls.  It's not a bad gig if you ask me.  Hang out on the lawn of one of the more beautiful structures in the world with your beverage of choice just waiting for young tourists - just like shootin fish a barrel. The light show was really cool. It basically just looks like the tower is sparkling for a few minutes. I'm going to post the video, even though I was not tech-savvy enough to figure out how to rotate it.  You'll get the idea.  Also, if the volume is up you can hear the French guys flirting.

Shortly after the sparkling fizzled out, we walked to the closest metro stop to make our way back to the hostel.  Sometimes I think hostels should charge you less if literally all you do is sleep there.  We were out and about from 9am to about 11:30pm.  Ridiculous. So back to the squeaky beds we went to try and get enough rest to do the same thing all over again the next day.  The plan:  Louvre, Sacre Cour, Moulin Rouge, back to the hostel.  We got pretty much the same start with the wake up time and the scrumptious breakfast and out the door. We'd heard stories about the daunting lines than can accumulate outside of the Louvre, so we wanted to get there early.  It paid off because we hardly had to wait at all.  Also, we got in for free for being students in the European Union - which I forgot to mention we got into almost everything for free the day before as well.  Next we grabbed some maps and tried to plan out how navigate this massive place.  Begin rant:  The layout of the Louvre seems efficient at first glance.  It is organized into three branches, and then those branches have branches and so and and so forth.  The problem is, when you go up a branch, you have no choice but to come down the same way before you can go up another one.  Why is this such a problem you may ask?  Well, if you ask me whoever designed/built the Louvre is probably still laughing about it.  It is so big that it is literally impossible to see everything in one visit.  I don't see the point of that.  It as if they thought, let's make some place so enormous and so jam-packed with art that no one can see it all, but we'll watch them scramble to try.  This is why the lay out annoyed me so much.  Now, I'm going to attribute some of my rage to the fact that my feet started hurting within the first hour from being on our feet for about 11 hours the day before, but still.  It if were possible to go up one branch and come down another, you could see twice as much in half the time.  But nooooo, instead you are forced to go up one way, and walked past everything you just saw again, and then you do that over and over and over.  It's infuriating!  On top of that, I was so preoccupied with my annoyance and the constant wondering if we were missing something, that I barely enjoyed what we actually did see. I was pretty much just dragging my feet and pouting around like that 5-year-old girl who's never going to get that pony for Christmas.  After about 5 hours of desperate wandering, we finally threw in the towel. I couldn't wait to get our of there.  I just  felt so defeated.  Ok, end rant.  Now the stuff that we did see was really really great, and I will try not to let my frustrations and permanent grudge against the Louvre overshadow the amazing pieces we got to see. The highlights for me were the Mona Lisa, the Ancient Egyptian collection, the Venus de Milo, and the Michelangelo sculptures.  Also, the ceilings were so beautiful.  Here are a few shots:

 

 

Ok so enough with the Louvre.  Next we went to the famous church called Sacre Cour.  You can see if from afar when you're in the center of Paris, and it's really easy to get to by metro.  As you walk up to the to the steps in front of the church, you can't help but be impressed.  The style of it resembles the Taj Mahal which is a refreshing change from the Gothic style cathedrals. We trekked up the steps, yes more stairs, to see a really great view of Paris.  It was also perfect timing because it had been cloudy most of our weekend and as we approached the church, the sun finally broke through.  

We wandered around a bit and took some pictures and started to make our way down the stairs.  About a third of the way down we noticed a guy starting to set up a guitar and microphone and speakers.  A bunch of people started gathering and sitting on the steps, so we figured we might as well check it out.  I'm really glad we did because this turned out to be one of my favorite parts of our whole trip.  We ended up sitting at watching this guy's whole set.  He was really good and sang a lot of songs in English as well as Spanish, French, and Italian.  It was really entertaining and the crowd was really into it.  There was this drunk guy that occasionally came up behind the guy singing did some pretty sweet dancing.   

The funniest part was in the background, there was a street performer doing soccer tricks the whole time.  At one point, the singer was getting all emotional to John Lennon's Imagine while this guy was at the top of a light pole juggling a soccer ball with his feet.  We could not stop laughing.  After jamming to some Adele and Backstreet Boys, the set was over and we headed back down the stairs to find Moulin Rouge.  We had no intentions of going inside, but we just wanted to see the outside. We knew we were going in the right direction when we looked around us and I had thought we were back in the red light district of Amsterdam.  Live sex shows, sex toy shops, and red lights everywhere.  Finally, we came up to the infamous glowing windmill.  We took our obligatory tourist photos and took the metro back to the hostel.  Once again another day of spending about 14 hours walking around, but in the end it is worth it.  

 

 Moulin Rouge!
















Now in black and white! I did a lot of experimenting with black and white photos in Paris because it was so cloudy.





Another thing, which I can't believe I haven't mentioned before, is that my roommates and I eat kebab wherever we go, and we judge cities accordingly.  Now kebab is not shish kabob.  It is similar to a gyro but usually with different kinds of bread.  The best thing about it, is that it's totally different everywhere we go.  So on our way home, we had to try the kebab in Paris.  We stopped at a to-go place on our way back to the hostel.  This kebab was decent, but it didn't measure up to my two favorites - Bilbao and Santiponce (both in Spain).  The best part about this place was the menu posted outside.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and guess this was short for assorted, but at any rate, we did not order the ass kebab.

Shortly after we finished our dinner, we went to sleep to prepare for our early morning flight the next day.  Well, it wasn't that early, but we did have to make sure we found our way to the bus that we had to take to the airport.  Our travel back went off without a hitch, and I would say we had a really successful trip.  We were extremely exhausted as usual but I had a lot of fun. So many people asked if us if we spoke French before we left, and none of us do.  And people said things like, well good luck because French people hate Americans and if you don't speak French, they won't talk to you and all this other fun stuff.  Even my roommate Hayley, who had been there before said that people were in general really rude to her.  My experience, however, was the complete opposite.  We did not encounter any rude people during our entire trip.  Everyone we talked to was nothing but nice to us and more than willing to speak English.  So, I got a really great impression of the city and the people. In case you were wondering, no I did not forget to indulge in a delicious French pastry before I left.  On our way to the airport bus, we stopped at a quaint bakery and I bought this piece of heaven.  It was a triple chocolate mousse cake with little chocolate chips and a gold shaving on top. It was amaaaaaaazing.  

To finish things up, here are a few other pictures from the trip.  Au revoir! 

Saint Denis signs everywhere!

In front of Notre Dame

The altar inside Notre Dame

One of my favorite statues from the Louvre. I can't help but think they're all standing around, looking down, and arguing over who has the biggest....feet, of course!  Get your minds out of the gutter people!

One of my favorite pictures I've taken so far. This bridge had tons of locks on it.  People actually do that here in Sevilla too. I used the cool color isolation feature on my camera to only show the red. Pretty cool!

“A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me. I'm afraid of widths.” Stephen Wright

Ok, I’ve ignored blogging long enough, and now I don’t have any excuse.  My parents brought back my own computer good as new.  So here goes:  Rewind to the end of February, 2012 .  Due to various national holidays in southern Spain, we had a long weekend.  After obsessing over where to go and biting our fingernails at the ever-changing flight prices, my roommate Hayley and I decided to go to Geneva, Switzerland.  It was completely random and wasn’t even on my radar, but we found a super cheap flight out of Madrid so we jumped on it.  After we had everything booked, I went into my crazy travel zone that I go to before all of our trips and start planning out every second of our time there - from how to get to and from the airport to where we are going to eat. There are few things more terrifying to me than showing up in a foreign country with no clue where to go or how to get there.  So, I take the initiative to find out all of those things ahead of time.  

The first leg of my journey was to get from school to the bus station, then from the bus station to the train station to meet Hayley and go to Madrid.  I spent a good portion of the train ride eavesdropping on a brother and sister, about 8 and 5 years old, who were switching back and forth from English to Spanish with incredible ease while they talked to each other.  It was the cutest thing!  I later found out by talking to the mom, that she was American and she met a Spanish guy and married him.  So now they have these adorable bilingual children living in Spain.  Awesome.  Ok so after a typical deer in headlights moment upon arriving in the train station.  We figured out how to take the metro (subway) to the airport.  Before we knew it we were flying our way to Geneva.  I had found out ahead of time that Geneva has free public transportation from the airport to the center of the city, so we found a ticket station, hopped on the train and made our way to the center.  Luckily, our hostel was only about a 10 minute walk from the main train station.  We checked in around 11:30pm, and the guy working the desk was really nice and helpful.  Since it was already really late, Hayley and I headed upstairs to our room to plan out the next three days.  After some back and forth and a lot of changes we decided to explore Geneva Saturday, take a day trip to Annecy, France on Sunday, and another day trip to Chamonix, France on Monday.  It sounds silly to spend two days in France during a trip to Switzerland, but it turned out to be a great choice.  Geneva was a cool city, but aside from a few cool sights, to me, it was just another big European city (that doesn’t sound snobby at all, right?)  One thing I like though, is that Geneva was the first and only place I’ve seen snow/ice since I’ve been abroad.  We were actually lucky and had nice weather while we were there, but there were some leftovers from previous storms.  Here’s some cool stuff I saw:

 

1. Me sitting on a railing that's covered in really think ice.  Cold butt!

2. In front of the United Nations.  We couldn't actually go inside because it was closed to the public for a convention.

3. Russian church

4. Me taking a super cool pic in front of the famous fountain called Jet d'Eau.

5. Awesome giant-sized chess park

6. Famous flower clock - it's a real functioning clock!

Keepin the pizza cold outside the window, haha

Later that night, instead of going out to eat we decided to head real quick to a convenience store and get a few things.  We bought two frozen pizzas and brought them back to the hostel.  Much to our dismay, we found the hostel kitchen to be locked for the night.  Whoops.  So no freezer.  Solution:  stick the pizza out on our window sill to keep it cold for the night.  We woke up the next morning thinking we could just pop the pizza in the oven and pack a lunch for our day trip.  Wrong again – no oven. Solution:  microwave the pizza until it seems somewhat cooked and then finish it off in a frying pan.  Believe it or not, it didn’t turn out so bad.  

During my many searches of things to do while you’re in Geneva, I came across the small, Medieval town Annecy, France many times.  I figured if that many people recommended it, it must be worth seeing.   So, Sunday morning we packed up our soggy pizza and hopped on a bus to check it out.  Various websites dubbed Annecy “the Venice of the Alps.”  So imagine our surprise when we got off the bus and saw no water. Not one measly canal.  Not even a puddle.  More than a little skeptical, we began walking in the direction of what we thought could be the right way. – we didn’t have a clue of course.  But a short ten minute walk later, we found ourselves in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  Besides the facts that the small, medieval town is etched by a small series of canals, it’s also right on a lake surrounded by impressive mountains.  Don’t ask me which mountains though… I’m pretty sure they weren’t the alps, but a smaller range nearby.  Honestly though, there is not much I can say in words that my pictures won’t show…so here ya go:

Try this:  google image search "Annecy, France"  and see if my pictures look familiar...

. 

Later that night, we returned to Geneva and for some reason I started to feel really sick.  We were going to go out to eat, but as soon as I sat on the sofa in the hostel common room, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.  See what happens is, when we take this weekend trips, we try and pack as much into the days as we can, as my Uncle Dan calls them, Ferris Bueller days.  This usually results in us spending anywhere from 9-12 hours on foot without eating or drinking very much.  Mostly because we just forget about it.  So I think I was really exhausted and on top of that caught some kind of flu bug.   I was really worried about this because we had our biggest day trip planned for the next day. We were going to the top of the highest mountain in all of the Alps. Ok, so we weren’t climbing it, but still. Big day.  I tried to take a shower and get a good night’s sleep thinking that would help.  But I tossed and turned all night so that was to no avail.  We woke up early the next morning to catch our bus, and I felt like death.  However, I put on my happy face because there was no way I was missing out on this once in a lifetime trip.  I tried to get some rest on the bus, but our cynical British tour guide talked the entire way.  In between giving us actual information about what we doing that day, he went off on tangents about how the whole world has gone to shit and that no one really has a job because it could be taken from you any day and blah blah blah universities are robbing students blah blah blah…Seriously, man, it’s ok if you believe all that, but don’t bring my tour down!  Anyways we finally arrive at our destination: Chamonix, France.  Picture Dumb and Dumber or that goofy Mary Kate and Ashley movie or pretty much any movie that takes place (at least partially) in a ski resort town.  Since I had never been skiing nor visited a ski town, this was uncharted territory for me.  It almost didn’t seem real.  We got off the bus right at the base of the cable car that we were going to ride to the summit of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps.  Now, I’m not particularly afraid of heights, but I do get pretty awful motion sickness.  So we get on this cable car packed like sardines with skiers and other tourists.  It was pretty smooth on the way up until we reached the couple dips that were in cables and the car swayed back and forth. Now combine that with the fact that I was already fighting back the urge to vomit all morning.  Somehow, though, I made it all the way up with the contents of my stomach (which really wasn’t much at that point) intact.  So here are some fun facts about the cable car.  It takes you up to almost the summit, and then you take an elevator the rest of the way.  The elevator is cool because it shows you the altitude as you ascend to the top.  When you step out of the elevator you step out onto a viewing deck that is just about as close to the peak as you could possible get at a stagger 15, 782ft, or just over 10 ½ Sears Towers –oh I’m sorry, Willis Towers.  Anyways, despite the cold and battling nausea and body aches, I wouldn’t have traded that view for anything in the world.  It took my breath away.  In every direction were jagged, snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see.  From what we were told, you can see the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps from the top of Mont Blanc. Now, I didn’t actually know which ones I was seeing at any given moment, but it was still really cool.  Here are some pictures of the view and then walking around the town once we got back down to earth:

As amazing as this trip was, my body was really relieved to be back on the bus on the way back to Geneva.  So we got back to our hostel pretty late, and it felt so good to plop down on the couch.  I had no appetite despite not actually eating anything that day, so we just hung out on the couch and watch a movie in the common room.  Technically we were already checked out because our original plan was to go to the airport really late at night to catch our 6:30am flight.  However, we did not know that the train to the airport stops running at 11pm. Whoops.  But, we lucked out because the guy at the hostel was really cool about it and just let us stay on the couched until we caught the first train that left at 5.  To sum up our journey home:  train from train station to airport, plane from Geneva to Madrid, 6 hour bus from Madrid to Sevilla, bus from airport to bus station, walk home from bus station, sleep the rest of the day and try and recover.  Overall, it was an absolutely amazing trip. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to enjoy it to the full extent, but I’m glad we saw everything that we did. 

The view from the plane on our way back to Madrid - amazing right??

This town ain't big enough for the both of us.

No, you're not mistaken. This guy is riding
 in a cart in a plastic lawn chair being pulled by a mini tractor.  Unfortunately you
can't see the beer in his hand.

Dirt road and horses and big fancy churches, oh my!  My roomies and I decided to take a day trip to a small town called El Rocio.  I really had no idea what to expect, just that I knew it was small and pretty because we passed it on our way to the beach back in October.  So we hopped on the bus and went to check it out. Stepping off that bus was like stepping into another world.  First off, this small town is famous all throughout Spain for its grand church with a giant ornate statue of the Virgin Mary, or La Virgen del Rocio.  Every year, 10 weeks after Easter, millions - yes millions - of people from all around Spain flock to this tiny town for the pilgrimage of El Rocio.  The only paved road was the main one that came into town.  Otherwise, the town is full of quaint dirt roads.  But before you notice the dirt roads, you can't help but be distracted by the horses - they're everywhere.  Kids on horses, adults on horses, carts being pulled by horses, everything from mini ponies to giant Clydesdale.  It was as if I stepped out of Spain and into a Clint Eastwood movie...not that I've actually seen any Clint Eastwood movies (sorry, Dad).  Anyways, we went into the church to see what all the fuss was about, and it really is quite impressive, inside and out.  There was a mass of some sort going on, so we stayed for a few minutes then left to explore the rest of the town.  The was a big lagoon type thing with flamingos in it and lots of cute ceramic shops.  Overall, a really pretty little town. It was actually kind of annoying that people were driving around in cars, because there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the flow of traffic, at least none that I could figure out. Horses really were the center of the culture though.  Everyone was dressed in super preppy horse-riding clothes and there were even bars with spots outside the were reserved for people on horses. The bars were raised so that people could set their food and drink down without ever having to get down from their horse.  I was really blown away, but I also felt really out of place.  I had enjoyed our few hour stay, but I have to admit, I couldn't wait to get back to Sevilla.

Me outside of the famous church.

The inside view of the church, and up front you can see La Virgen del Rocio in all her glory.  








Here we have some pretty equestrian aficionados enjoying a beer.

Little man, little cart, little pony.

“In Spain, the dead are more alive than the dead of any other country in the world.” - Federico Garcia Lorca

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.  

Cannon shot!

San Sebastian beach shot

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!

The outside of the Guggenheim 
Museum

The whole group in the hostel before our night out at the disco.