Aventuras en el Pais Vasco

So..I'm running a little behind on my blog posts, because I have been running around a lot lately, but I will try my best to make some updates now. Two weekends ago, I went on my much-anticipated trip to Bilbao with Ruth. We had lots of time for silly moments and roommate-bonding, we shared lots of laughs and certainly lots of great food! We arrived to Bilbao late Thursday night, and Ruth's parents came to pick us up at the airport. I finally got to meet them, after all this time living with their daughter, so that was really nice. They were extremely friendly and welcoming. We went back to her house where we had a late dinner (Spanish style), with her brother as well (by late, i'm talking midnight!). We then went to sleep, to prepare for the busy day ahead. Friday was jam-packed with activity. We met up with Garazi, Ruth's friend from college (who I had met in Madrid several times), who took us to the area, outside Bilbao, where she lives. The view from her apartment was absolutely breathtaking. She lived right on the water, just a short walk from the beach and beautiful views of the mountains. We wandered around the area for awhile, taking silly pictures while the strong winds blew our hair in every which direction. Then, we got out first pintxo of the day at a restaurant in a nearby town. Next, Christina arrived (she had taken an early morning bus from Madrid and decided to meet us in Bilbao and spend Friday with us). We went to the Puerto Viejo (Old Port) in Ruth's hometown, Algorta, which was another incredibley beautiful site. We saw all of the old boats by the water, and wandered through narrow, hilly streets full of small, quaint houses and lovely restaurants, filled with the aromas of amazing Basque food! We stopped at one the restaurants and sat outside, enjoying our second pintxo of the day (a small piece of bread with goat cheese, crispy onions, ham, and olive oil..yum!). Then we wandered around the area a bit more, and drove to another nearby town (lucky for us, Garazi has a car) and saw the Puente Colgante (Hanging bridge), another cool site. Next, we headed to Bilbao centro, to see the major sites of the city. We had a yummy menu del dia (lots of food), and then walked around some of the central streets. We went to the Guggenheim museum, which was a really awesome building with some really cool exhibits, and saw the Universidad de Deusto, which is right next door (where Ruth and Garazi went to school). It was cool to see where my friends had gone to University, and they were clearly proud of the beautiful building and the great location! Then, we walked over to the Casco Viejo (the old, central part of the city), and saw the Cathedral, the town hall, and other sites. For dinner, we found a bar with amazing, delicious pintxos, but not before we passed by an ice cream store that had bacalao (codfish) flavored ice cream!! Some of the other interesting flavors included: txipirones en su tinta (squid in their own ink!) and Kalimotxo (a drink made of cheap red wine and coca cola). Christina was brave enough to try the bacalao flavor (we thought the names were jokes!) and assured us that it was as disgusting as it sounded and that there were, indeed, chunks of fish in the ice cream! Needless to say, the bar where we went for dinner had much more appetizing food. After a long day, we were all exhausted, and we headed back to rest up for our next busy day. The next day, Christina left early to go to Santander and Garazi had plans with family, so Ruth and I spent the day just the two of us. We took a bus to San Sebastian, which is only about an hour away from Bilbao. We lucked out with teh weather (as Ruth loves to remind me, it is almost always raining in the Pais Vasco...hence the abundance of green!). Luckily though, we avoided the rain, for the most part, while we were there. San Sebastian is a very pretty, small city, located right on the beach. For me, it was really cool and rather unique to be walking around a city, and to be able to walk just 5 minutes to a boardwalk-lined, sandy beach! We wandered around the town and walked along the bach for awhile, taking our time and just enjoying the sites and the weather. It was a nice day, more relaxing then the busy day before, and we had a lot of time to chat and catch up on life :) We had some more wonderful pintxos (including real txipirones en su tinta!) and headed back to Bilbao in the early evening. We met up with Garazi and had some pizza at Ruth's house, deciding to stay in and just relax, since we were all tired from all the activity. On Sunday morning, Ruth and I went for a walk around her neighborhood and got another view of the water. Later, Ruth's family (parents, brother, grandma, aunt, uncle) came over in the afternoon to eat, chat, and celebrate Ruth's brother's bday. It was really nice to meet all of them! We had a relaxing afternoon and a LOT of great food. When I commented on HOW much food we had eaten that weekend, everyone kept joking that eating was what los vascos do best! In the evening, we met up with Garazi and drove to a bar located right along the water, and got yet another amazing, and different view of the mountains and the water. Needless to say, I ended the weekend with a ton of amazing pictures!! After that, Ruth and I headed to the airport and made our way back to Madrid, where we arrived very late (our flight was delayed and we didn't make it back to the apartment until about 1:15!) We were absolutely exhausted and disapointed that we had to wake up early and work the next day, but also very happy about the amazing weekend we had shared together!