Tuesday, November 27, 2007
I don't want to leave!
My friends Matt, from Seattle, John from San Diego and Nikki from Portland (who all go to USF with me)came over to try Conchi's amazing food and meet this mystery woman they hear me talk so much about. Mat and Nikki heard so much about her, he crazy songs she sings in the kitchen and he weird corks and they told me they started to think she did not exist. So after Tuesday night dinner with Conchi and friends I am so content and happy. We listening to all her stories, one about how she was at her niece boring wedding and got in front of everyone and had all the old and young people sing a kids song to liven them up, and to her telling us what a great life we have although I already knew it...traveling, taking siestas, learning, eating great food. Spain and especially Pais Vasco is known for their great food, stylish dress, wealth in culture, and lifestyle. I am so glad I came to Bilbao and it is so amazing to say that I have lived in Spain. I would love to come back. I could totally see myself living in Barcelona or another part of Spain like San Sebastian for a summer surrounded by the amazing Mediterranean lifestyle. I could take my dog and live in an apartment and visit all over Europe. Since John is pondering the idea of living in the Ukraine or back in Russia, maybe teaching English, writing and practicing his russian, we would be close...oh well it doesn't hurt to think about it!
typical food in Pais Vasco and with Conchi
Basque food is really great, it involved a lot of seafood, like cod fish and there is a really popular dish made in black ink from an octopus. They also use a lot of potatoes, I would say the main ingredient for many meals. Eggs are very popular and great quality I think. One of my favorite dishes is a tortilla de potata which is like a thick pancake with onions and potatoes inside an egg outside. I made it a couple times in spain after Conchi taught me how in her kitchen and it was a success, now it will be interesting to see if I can do it at home. Conchi made great soups, like garbanzo bean, bean, pumkin, and a good mixed vegetable soup. Now she is getting creative with macaroni pasta, she will put it with cream sauce or broccoli or cauliflower and tomato sauce. I think my favorite is her creesy sauce with pasta or the macaronis with tomato sauce. She buy it at the store but then adds onions adn olive oil to give it more flavor. Conchi made something called pan tostada for me that is a dessert but it is very similar to our french toast. She soaks break in milk then fries it in egg and put sugar and cinnimon (no matter how I spell that word it looks wrong) on it and it is sooo good!
Friday to Sunday the 25th
Nikki and I decided to make banana bread and do a little cooking. It was definitely an adventure to encounter baking soda and mushy bananas since I never really go to super markets cus Conchi takes care of cooking. So after a little while in Eroski and Ercocera we went back to my kitchen to cook since it is always clean and has all the necesities to cook and make anything! So that was fun and we smelled up the whole little apartment with the most amazing smell. Conchi loved our banana bread too, she was like it is bread with bananas and then decided it was not bread but a pastry or something to have for dessert since it was pretty sweet with all the sugar we put in it.
Friday Conchi invited me to her little pueblo near Burgos just southwest of Bilbao about an hour and half or so to attend her brother and sister in law's year memorial service. They died in a car accident. So Feli, her sister, Begona (a very common name because she is the patron saint of Bilbao) and about 70 other family and friends celebrated the lives of Conchi's brother who was a great politician, I was told. We arrived and it was the first day that I was really freezing in Spain, maybe about 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. So a few government officials and friends spoke about Costan Santidrian and then opened a curtain to reveal a plaque given to the family in his honor. It was a very nice ceremony and I really enjoyed talking to all the townspeople and hearing what they had to say about Conchi and her family. I am so honored that she wanted me to come and experience that with her. I remember her face when she asked me, it lit up with enthusiasm, "quieres venir?".
So then Conchi stayed the weekend and I returned with Feli, who also hosts students and is super present. She showed me around Burgos, where we had to go from the little town Nocedo where Conchi actually has her house. I saw the cathedral, huge and lot like la sagrada familia cathdral in Barcelona, and el camino de Cid, which was a famous path for travelers from Spain to the rest of Europe way back when. Feli (short for felicidad, an inordinary name)is great and talked my ear off, very enthusiastic and nice. When we walked it got worse, she tended to bang my arm or grab onto me to enforce what she was saying.
On Sunday I went to an Athletic Club game, and I went with a couple of friends, but ended up meeting pretty much everyone in our program inclusing our profesors there. Walking over the bridge to the stadium, since i live about ten minutes away, I was stuck behind a huge crowd singing athletic club songs and chants. We sat in the first section and so close to the players, we could almost touch them. Athletic colors are red and white (red is the oficial color the Basque country). Athletic club was winning the whole time, everyone was cheering so loud and had flags that were waving in the air in the stands the whole game, and then the other team scored a goal and then tied it two minutes before the end of the game, it was sooo disapointing. I really wanted athletic club to win. It was awesome to see the players and how they are in such great shape! Everyone went out together afterwards and when I got home from walking home in the freezing cold, I had a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my warm apartment and watched some spanish tv.
Friday Conchi invited me to her little pueblo near Burgos just southwest of Bilbao about an hour and half or so to attend her brother and sister in law's year memorial service. They died in a car accident. So Feli, her sister, Begona (a very common name because she is the patron saint of Bilbao) and about 70 other family and friends celebrated the lives of Conchi's brother who was a great politician, I was told. We arrived and it was the first day that I was really freezing in Spain, maybe about 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. So a few government officials and friends spoke about Costan Santidrian and then opened a curtain to reveal a plaque given to the family in his honor. It was a very nice ceremony and I really enjoyed talking to all the townspeople and hearing what they had to say about Conchi and her family. I am so honored that she wanted me to come and experience that with her. I remember her face when she asked me, it lit up with enthusiasm, "quieres venir?".
So then Conchi stayed the weekend and I returned with Feli, who also hosts students and is super present. She showed me around Burgos, where we had to go from the little town Nocedo where Conchi actually has her house. I saw the cathedral, huge and lot like la sagrada familia cathdral in Barcelona, and el camino de Cid, which was a famous path for travelers from Spain to the rest of Europe way back when. Feli (short for felicidad, an inordinary name)is great and talked my ear off, very enthusiastic and nice. When we walked it got worse, she tended to bang my arm or grab onto me to enforce what she was saying.
On Sunday I went to an Athletic Club game, and I went with a couple of friends, but ended up meeting pretty much everyone in our program inclusing our profesors there. Walking over the bridge to the stadium, since i live about ten minutes away, I was stuck behind a huge crowd singing athletic club songs and chants. We sat in the first section and so close to the players, we could almost touch them. Athletic colors are red and white (red is the oficial color the Basque country). Athletic club was winning the whole time, everyone was cheering so loud and had flags that were waving in the air in the stands the whole game, and then the other team scored a goal and then tied it two minutes before the end of the game, it was sooo disapointing. I really wanted athletic club to win. It was awesome to see the players and how they are in such great shape! Everyone went out together afterwards and when I got home from walking home in the freezing cold, I had a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my warm apartment and watched some spanish tv.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Christmas in Bilbao
The Christmas spirit has definitely kicked in. There are little train cars in the streets here with people cooking unas castanas- chestnuts for people to eat hot off the pot! There are lights with little figures like Christmas trees or little lit up houses high up on the streets. They have lit up tomatoes in the streets in Deusto, a part of Bilbao, because years ago Bilbainos were famous for cultivating the best tomatoes from the fertile land. The people here are nicknamed tomateros. There are names like that all over Spain, like the people in Burgos, where my host mom is from (just southwest of Bilbao), are called soperas- because they are famous for their soups. All the streets in Casco Viejo (the old quarter) are lit up with the figures at night hanging between the buildings and it is so nice. Then the river has lights all over at night that are very pretty as well.
Kids in El Pais Vasco celebrate Christmas twice as much as regular spanish kids. They have this basque man named "Olentzero" who comes down from the mountains every 26th of december to give kids presents. He is the papa noel of el Pais Vasco i suppose. He is told to have been a coal miner bringing eggs...a ver funny image no? Then they have Kings day where I guess kings bring them gifts as well.
Kids in El Pais Vasco celebrate Christmas twice as much as regular spanish kids. They have this basque man named "Olentzero" who comes down from the mountains every 26th of december to give kids presents. He is the papa noel of el Pais Vasco i suppose. He is told to have been a coal miner bringing eggs...a ver funny image no? Then they have Kings day where I guess kings bring them gifts as well.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Lisboa, Portugal
What an adventure! Friday morning Matt, Nikki, Ayra and I met at the San Mames bus station to hop on the bus to the airport. Matt and Ayra were definitely running for the bus and just made it... and this was the first morning it was really really cold in Bilbao. So we got on the flight and stopped over in Barcelona, where all the christmas decorations were up (unlike last time) and it was very pretty and cozy.
We ended up meeting this American our age named Steven who studies spanish near Bilbao in Santander, but he happened to be on our flight to Lisbon and we COULD NOT get rid of him! He talked non stop about anything random and his spanish accent...well that's another story.
So we got in to Lisbon and took the bus to the center of town, Baixo Chiado, where there is great shopping and an even better view of the ocean down the hill. A lot of people say it is like San Francisco because of the hills, wind, and big bridge connecting the two...wow I just lost my train of thought..I am watching Love Actually in spanish and it is the part where the portuguese cleaner woman has to jump in for the papers of a book that flew into the lake and then the man jumps in...I actually understood what she said it was awesome...I learned Obrigada- thank you and a lot of other vocab that is similar to spanish. It is amazing how much I understood and I would speak in spanish and someone could respond in portuguese..a great system!
So then from downtown we walked uphill with all our luggage through the busy streets with smell of cooked chesnuts on the street in little stands. We stayed at the Oasis Backpackers Manson Hostel, in this great old building down the hill from a beautiful lookout definitely equivalent to twin peaks in San Francisco or something similar. Oasis was like a San Franciscan apartment with many small floors and beautiful white walls and old windows, with a great new kitchen and a garden patio and window balconies in the rooms. I would love to live in a place like that! There was a great common room with comfy couches and free internet..the best hostel I have ever stayed in! There were also an uncommon amount of Australians staying there. They are everywhere! The staff at the front desk were amazing and all spoke english and spanish...very convenient. Rita was my favorite and she was telling me all about her best friend from San Francisco, CA, so I think she will have to come visit sometime!
So Friday we went out to walk around and ended up in this line for something that looked cool. Like an elevator that goes really high where you can see a great view of the city. So we went up an old elevator after giving our four euro to a grumpy old elevator operator. We went up in that stuffy box and what seemed like 40 minutes later with many bumps and jolts, we ended up at the top of this walkway/bridge with an amazing view of Lisboa. The sun was going down so we got to see all sorts of colors. At the top there was this little cafe with a man singing and playing the guitar in portuguese, so we jsut sat and took pictures and listened for a little while- it was so incredibly relaxing.
Then we walked around somemore and across different parts of town and came upon a residential section. All the streets were made of cobblestone and were so narrow. We were about to turn back when we came across a little hole in the wall restaurant. The mother hostess and cook and server loured us in by price and charm. It was around 8pm so we were the only ones in the 6 table place. It was very elegant and the cheese was maybe the best I have ever had. Cheese comes in small round form like you would imagine in the olden rural days.
Saturday we started early with toast and coffee in the kitchen and headed out to Sintra to see the palace and gardens. So we caught the metro to the train to the bus. All fun and easy with friends, especially Nikki who has studied portuguese.
We arrived and drove up this huge windy road to the top of the mountain where we then entered these gates and hiked up to the Palace. It was so beautiful and huge with a lot of moorish influence from the south. The colors on the outside of the building on the different levels were dark shades of yellos, red and orange like the surrounding trees. In the back of the building through a tunnel coridor place was a beautiful view of what seemed like all of Portugal. You could see all the red rooftops and the ocean.
After hiking around the grounds and seeing lakes, the Queen's stone chair with a view of her Palace and ston estructures and hours inside the palace, we walked back down to the little town to do some souvenier shopping. I guess Portugal is famous for their towels or something- like hand towels. So we saw a lot of those. Also, tiles are huge here on and in and around all the buildings. The Arab influence brought the tiles in the design and architecture.
After journeying back, we went to this little bar (seeking out a non toursity place) and had a refreshing drink, sat and talked and then headed to Bairro Alto, where a mass amount of bars are situated. With everyone in the street and everyone in the bars, so that was fun to experience.
The next day we ate amazing pastries called "Pasteles de Belem." They are like little pastries with flaky crusts and a sweet smooth inside like pumpkin pie but a hundred times better. I think it is the best pastry I have had yet! Belem, a little outside downtown, is a huge center for activities. It has a great monument of discoveries, museums and everything. Oh, I also stopped by a place called Jardin Zoologico, and me thinking it was a zoo or a park or something fun, it turned out to be a theme park for kids...hmm translating names can be decieving...but a nice trip overall!
We ended up meeting this American our age named Steven who studies spanish near Bilbao in Santander, but he happened to be on our flight to Lisbon and we COULD NOT get rid of him! He talked non stop about anything random and his spanish accent...well that's another story.
So we got in to Lisbon and took the bus to the center of town, Baixo Chiado, where there is great shopping and an even better view of the ocean down the hill. A lot of people say it is like San Francisco because of the hills, wind, and big bridge connecting the two...wow I just lost my train of thought..I am watching Love Actually in spanish and it is the part where the portuguese cleaner woman has to jump in for the papers of a book that flew into the lake and then the man jumps in...I actually understood what she said it was awesome...I learned Obrigada- thank you and a lot of other vocab that is similar to spanish. It is amazing how much I understood and I would speak in spanish and someone could respond in portuguese..a great system!
So then from downtown we walked uphill with all our luggage through the busy streets with smell of cooked chesnuts on the street in little stands. We stayed at the Oasis Backpackers Manson Hostel, in this great old building down the hill from a beautiful lookout definitely equivalent to twin peaks in San Francisco or something similar. Oasis was like a San Franciscan apartment with many small floors and beautiful white walls and old windows, with a great new kitchen and a garden patio and window balconies in the rooms. I would love to live in a place like that! There was a great common room with comfy couches and free internet..the best hostel I have ever stayed in! There were also an uncommon amount of Australians staying there. They are everywhere! The staff at the front desk were amazing and all spoke english and spanish...very convenient. Rita was my favorite and she was telling me all about her best friend from San Francisco, CA, so I think she will have to come visit sometime!
So Friday we went out to walk around and ended up in this line for something that looked cool. Like an elevator that goes really high where you can see a great view of the city. So we went up an old elevator after giving our four euro to a grumpy old elevator operator. We went up in that stuffy box and what seemed like 40 minutes later with many bumps and jolts, we ended up at the top of this walkway/bridge with an amazing view of Lisboa. The sun was going down so we got to see all sorts of colors. At the top there was this little cafe with a man singing and playing the guitar in portuguese, so we jsut sat and took pictures and listened for a little while- it was so incredibly relaxing.
Then we walked around somemore and across different parts of town and came upon a residential section. All the streets were made of cobblestone and were so narrow. We were about to turn back when we came across a little hole in the wall restaurant. The mother hostess and cook and server loured us in by price and charm. It was around 8pm so we were the only ones in the 6 table place. It was very elegant and the cheese was maybe the best I have ever had. Cheese comes in small round form like you would imagine in the olden rural days.
Saturday we started early with toast and coffee in the kitchen and headed out to Sintra to see the palace and gardens. So we caught the metro to the train to the bus. All fun and easy with friends, especially Nikki who has studied portuguese.
We arrived and drove up this huge windy road to the top of the mountain where we then entered these gates and hiked up to the Palace. It was so beautiful and huge with a lot of moorish influence from the south. The colors on the outside of the building on the different levels were dark shades of yellos, red and orange like the surrounding trees. In the back of the building through a tunnel coridor place was a beautiful view of what seemed like all of Portugal. You could see all the red rooftops and the ocean.
After hiking around the grounds and seeing lakes, the Queen's stone chair with a view of her Palace and ston estructures and hours inside the palace, we walked back down to the little town to do some souvenier shopping. I guess Portugal is famous for their towels or something- like hand towels. So we saw a lot of those. Also, tiles are huge here on and in and around all the buildings. The Arab influence brought the tiles in the design and architecture.
After journeying back, we went to this little bar (seeking out a non toursity place) and had a refreshing drink, sat and talked and then headed to Bairro Alto, where a mass amount of bars are situated. With everyone in the street and everyone in the bars, so that was fun to experience.
The next day we ate amazing pastries called "Pasteles de Belem." They are like little pastries with flaky crusts and a sweet smooth inside like pumpkin pie but a hundred times better. I think it is the best pastry I have had yet! Belem, a little outside downtown, is a huge center for activities. It has a great monument of discoveries, museums and everything. Oh, I also stopped by a place called Jardin Zoologico, and me thinking it was a zoo or a park or something fun, it turned out to be a theme park for kids...hmm translating names can be decieving...but a nice trip overall!
La Accion de Gracias en Bilbao
After class on Thursday everyone in my program met at school to walk down the river to eat Thanksgiving lunch at this nice hotel together! All our professors and people who work in the office we there eating and gossiping together. I was initially not super excited for lunch since I was not with family or eating turkey, but it was so much better than I could have imagined. When we arrived we came in from outside in the rain to a warm open room with a bunch of tables with Kas soda (a very popular drink in Spain) waiting for us and fancy settings. I sat with Matt and Nikki, my own little family here in Spain. Right away they served us our first dish- pumpkin soup. It was so amazing and tasty and warm! Although I must say the pumpkin puree that Conchi makes is a little better. Oh and we had a couple peices of warm bread, since bread is eaten with everything here. Then everyone started getting their turkey with practically built in cranberry sauce and stuffing. Just when I started drooling over the smell, I got a full bowl/plate full of vegetable lasagna smothered in cheese! I was in heaven. I couldn't wait to try it, so chewing and burning my tongue at the same time was the end result! But it was the most amazing lasagna I have ever had. It was a decent sized portion too, so I was very happy. A very fitting food for vegetarians on Thanksgiving. Jared, a guy in my program made a toast in spanish then finished by saying gracias for becoming my friends, since he didn't know how to say it in Spanish and we all laughed. Then he said something like may God turn this water we have into wine. So my professor Isabel thought that was funny so she brought him a glass of wine in front of everyone. Then I said "you know Jared, God shared." We had a good laugh. Then came the pumpkin pie and apple ice cream. Yummy!
After lunch, most of us students and professors headed to a bar called Crazy Horse. The theme is American music from the 70's and 80's. So there were posters and instruments all over of famous people like Janis Joplin, the Beatles and other bands. Themed discotecas and bars are all the rage here. Especially dark themes, like dungeons and dragons...weird, but entertaining. So some people got drinks, but I headed straight for the pool table. Steve, my friend from Chicago, and I decided to play against another team. Usually a new team plays the winner, and Steve and I won. So then we played our second and third game against Guillermo and a student. Guillermo works in the CIDE office and also teaches he is maybe 23 years old. His English is good, but he kept saying "I am going to win you this time!" Funny little dark haired Spanish guy. He was a little upset when I finally hit the 8 ball in. Three great games.
After lunch, most of us students and professors headed to a bar called Crazy Horse. The theme is American music from the 70's and 80's. So there were posters and instruments all over of famous people like Janis Joplin, the Beatles and other bands. Themed discotecas and bars are all the rage here. Especially dark themes, like dungeons and dragons...weird, but entertaining. So some people got drinks, but I headed straight for the pool table. Steve, my friend from Chicago, and I decided to play against another team. Usually a new team plays the winner, and Steve and I won. So then we played our second and third game against Guillermo and a student. Guillermo works in the CIDE office and also teaches he is maybe 23 years old. His English is good, but he kept saying "I am going to win you this time!" Funny little dark haired Spanish guy. He was a little upset when I finally hit the 8 ball in. Three great games.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Wine in La Rioja, Spain
Saturday November 10th
Four girls from my program and I decided to take a day trip an hour south of Bilbao inland to a famous area of Spain called Rioja. This area is comparable to Tuscany and very famous for their wines. We took the 10:30 bus to a town called Haro (in the middle of nothing) and somehow found a tourist office to find out more information about where to go wine tasting. Conveniently enough the woman there spoke English and new we were students, so she sent us to Bodega (wine cellar) Lopez de Heredia that had amazing wine called Viña Tondonia. They produce their wine the same way as the founder did 130 years ago. They don’t make their wine according to modern tastes, just in the traditional way whether it is good or bad. We tasted six wines- two white, three red and a vino rosado. We had a red wine from 1981- older than us by five or six years! The woman who gave us the wine to taste spoke great English as well and told us all about the history of the wines. I guess a hundred or so years ago, the upper class drank white wine and it was much more expensive than the red because of taxes for one thing. So wine producers would put something in the white wine to make it look red so it would not be taxed then fix it later to make it white again. But apparently the wine that is pinkish- the vino Rosado, is the product of that tradition. I have heard horror stories of people bringing back alcohol to the US from Europe. If you are under 21 I guess the US fines you more than a thousand dollars and if you don’t declare your items at the airport on the way home you are even more screwed, so I thought I had better not buy any wine to take home, although I wish I could have.
Then we took a 20 minute bus to Briones, a little further south, where there is this huge museum about Spanish wine. They has a magnificent entrance with Cyprus trees lining th road and red grape vines on each side with the distant outline of mountains in the distance- we could see for miles and miles! There were exhibits on corks, (who knew there were so many interesting corks from all over the world! They had some corks attached to walking sticks and weird objects) wine bottles / jars, ancient art dealing with wine, and all different videos of the old and modern processes of making wine barrels, making corks, blowing glass, and cutting down trees. A huge glass sliding door let up into this heavenly room with hundreds of barreled wine. The scent was unforgettable- so rich and sweet, but not stale or humid. I could live in a room like that! Then we got to taste their red wine and grape juice. The grape juice was so natural and pure, not like anything I have ever tasted! Upon our exit, and after buying postcards and silly trinkets, the sun was setting over the mountains- so beautiful! Then after an hour nap we were back in the city of Bilbao- always good to be home!
Four girls from my program and I decided to take a day trip an hour south of Bilbao inland to a famous area of Spain called Rioja. This area is comparable to Tuscany and very famous for their wines. We took the 10:30 bus to a town called Haro (in the middle of nothing) and somehow found a tourist office to find out more information about where to go wine tasting. Conveniently enough the woman there spoke English and new we were students, so she sent us to Bodega (wine cellar) Lopez de Heredia that had amazing wine called Viña Tondonia. They produce their wine the same way as the founder did 130 years ago. They don’t make their wine according to modern tastes, just in the traditional way whether it is good or bad. We tasted six wines- two white, three red and a vino rosado. We had a red wine from 1981- older than us by five or six years! The woman who gave us the wine to taste spoke great English as well and told us all about the history of the wines. I guess a hundred or so years ago, the upper class drank white wine and it was much more expensive than the red because of taxes for one thing. So wine producers would put something in the white wine to make it look red so it would not be taxed then fix it later to make it white again. But apparently the wine that is pinkish- the vino Rosado, is the product of that tradition. I have heard horror stories of people bringing back alcohol to the US from Europe. If you are under 21 I guess the US fines you more than a thousand dollars and if you don’t declare your items at the airport on the way home you are even more screwed, so I thought I had better not buy any wine to take home, although I wish I could have.
Then we took a 20 minute bus to Briones, a little further south, where there is this huge museum about Spanish wine. They has a magnificent entrance with Cyprus trees lining th road and red grape vines on each side with the distant outline of mountains in the distance- we could see for miles and miles! There were exhibits on corks, (who knew there were so many interesting corks from all over the world! They had some corks attached to walking sticks and weird objects) wine bottles / jars, ancient art dealing with wine, and all different videos of the old and modern processes of making wine barrels, making corks, blowing glass, and cutting down trees. A huge glass sliding door let up into this heavenly room with hundreds of barreled wine. The scent was unforgettable- so rich and sweet, but not stale or humid. I could live in a room like that! Then we got to taste their red wine and grape juice. The grape juice was so natural and pure, not like anything I have ever tasted! Upon our exit, and after buying postcards and silly trinkets, the sun was setting over the mountains- so beautiful! Then after an hour nap we were back in the city of Bilbao- always good to be home!
Sunday in Barcelona
We slept in a little and nikki and I were craving starbucks coffee, only because of the size, the coffee here is about the size of a shot, literally. So we sat and read and wrote in our journals for a little. Then we walked down the main street, las Ramblas to do a little shopping on our way to this great vegan juice bar we had passed the other day. We has great sandwiches and healthy food there and then met up with Matt, since he was with a spanaird chatting it up he met earlier. Not a lot is open in Spain on Sundays so we just walked around. The weather was fabulous, I was wearing sandals and it must have been about 17 degrees. It is wierd converting over to a different measuring system, but I am learning a lot and getting a hold of it. So then we wanted to go to this big indoor market but i had just closed so we headed to the Picasso Museum. There was a long line out the door of this great old building on a cobblestone narrow street. We entered through this small gate and then the building opened up to huge rooms with 3 stories, I never would have guessed that huge building was where it was based on what it looked like from the outside. I was thinking oh man, I don't want to wait, but it was sooo worth it because it was not only free (because it was the first sunday of the month) but it was amazing too. I love his earlier work, before his more famous works. The landscape where he lived in Spain was very influential to his work. He has beautiful sketches and paintings of the sea and normal everyday life way back when, when he was alive. I also got to see some of his vases and jars and there was this funny small room with drawings of people having sex. They were not very detailed but it was interesting is all I can say.
After a few hours in the museum, we wanted to take a bike ride around to see more and get a better feel for the city. So we rented these great old beach bikes which was so not fitting since we were in the middle of a big city with cobblestone streets. Then when we rode to the beach though it was great. The boardwalk was so nice, and by this time it was dark. And now I know what the mediterranean ocean feels like, like everyother ocean I have been in or seen! But it was beautiful.
Nikki and Matt were behind me the whole time since I have the best manuevering and navigating skills. I almost hit about five lazy slow walking pedestrians. (They tend to get lost! I hope they don't read this!) After only an hour of riding we were exhausted and wanted to see this light show on this famous fountain, but we just didn't have the energy to find it, so on our way to deciding not to go we ran into this little cafe restaurant called Milk. It was the perfect place that we happened to find. It is an Irish cafe with cute old decorations, with wall paper and a crystal chandalier- a great ambiance. We arrived just in time for happy hour so we tried their cocktails. I tried Cava, which is a famous champagne made in Catalunya, the region that Barcelona is in. Then Matt oddly enough ordered guiness stew. Nikki was leaving via train that night so we went back to the hostel and hung out a little then she left and at 5am Matt and I left. It was such a great trip and we made it back to our 9am class just in time! I think I am still catching up on sleep. I will definitely go back and if anyone needs a tour giude for any of the places I have been to, I would love to go back anytime!
After a few hours in the museum, we wanted to take a bike ride around to see more and get a better feel for the city. So we rented these great old beach bikes which was so not fitting since we were in the middle of a big city with cobblestone streets. Then when we rode to the beach though it was great. The boardwalk was so nice, and by this time it was dark. And now I know what the mediterranean ocean feels like, like everyother ocean I have been in or seen! But it was beautiful.
Nikki and Matt were behind me the whole time since I have the best manuevering and navigating skills. I almost hit about five lazy slow walking pedestrians. (They tend to get lost! I hope they don't read this!) After only an hour of riding we were exhausted and wanted to see this light show on this famous fountain, but we just didn't have the energy to find it, so on our way to deciding not to go we ran into this little cafe restaurant called Milk. It was the perfect place that we happened to find. It is an Irish cafe with cute old decorations, with wall paper and a crystal chandalier- a great ambiance. We arrived just in time for happy hour so we tried their cocktails. I tried Cava, which is a famous champagne made in Catalunya, the region that Barcelona is in. Then Matt oddly enough ordered guiness stew. Nikki was leaving via train that night so we went back to the hostel and hung out a little then she left and at 5am Matt and I left. It was such a great trip and we made it back to our 9am class just in time! I think I am still catching up on sleep. I will definitely go back and if anyone needs a tour giude for any of the places I have been to, I would love to go back anytime!
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