Playa Larrabasterra

So, one weekend we're skiing and the next we're at the beach. Since Cade hasn't posted in a while, we decided we'd split this entry up into halves, so I'll do the first part and he'll do the second.

So, for my part:

The last couple have days have been absolutely beautiful, no-cloud-in-the-sky weather. On Friday, we decided not to waste the day and took a subway excursion to Larrabasterra, which is a huge surfer hot spot and a beautiful beach along the Bay of Biscay. It only took about 45 minutes and 1 euro to get there, which is why I love the transportation system here because anything that's connected to Bilbao along the subway system is easily accessed and very cheap.

We started out the afternoon with a few people from Ireland and a girl from Tennessee, and spent a few hours in the sun on the beach. The two boys decided they'd be extra adventurous and went for a swim. Now, keep in mind that this is FEBRUARY, and it was definitely jacket weather. But that didn't stop the Texan and the Irishman, who surged into the water wearing nothing but shorts. I think they were the only ones on the beach who did so, because most everyone else was in a bodysuit for surfing. While they had their fun, the ladies stayed on the beach and watched the craziness, which is all documented in our photo album.

After the boys got out and warmed up, we took a hike up the mountain to some breathtaking scenic views that overlooked the water. Beaches don't look like that in Texas, at least not any I've ever seen. We stayed up there for a while, watched the sun start to set, and then hiked back down the mountain to meet up with our other friends on the other side of the beach. Now, it's Cade's turn.

-Bana :)


Well, like she said, we went down off the mountain to the other side of the beach to meet what's quickly becoming the Crew. These are the ERASMUS people that we've been spending most of our time hanging out with.

The beach on the other side was nice, but had a lot of debris scattered on the beach that washes up with the night tide. I guess you could say it was more of a natural beach than the other side (if you didn't get that I'm not explaining it to you). Needless to say, neither us, nor the rest of the Crew, were expecting just how natural that beach was. Anyway, on the way out we found this giant sand bar and thus commenced being 4 year old children playing and jumping around in the sand. Definitely check out the pictures of this. There are some really good ones.

After that we headed back to Bilbao for a much sought after Telepizza (kind of like Pizza Hut).

Overall it was a very good Friday afternoon trip to the beach.

-Cade

El Curioso Caso de Benjamin Button

So, Monday night was our first time to watch cinema en español, and it was amazing! We went with some friends and watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which I STILL hadn´t gotten to see yet and was dying to go) and I was so amazed that I understood about 97% of the movie - without subtitles. I think that's an obvious sign that our Spanish is definitely improving. If we can watch a full-length feature film in a foreign language and understand it completely, that's got to be a good sign! I just wish that they had a Blockbuster-type rental store here so we could watch more movies in Spanish without spending money to buy them.

Skiing at Luz Ardiden, in the French Pyrenees

Wow. What a GREAT weekend. So great, in fact, that it's taken me a few days to recuperate from the greatness and get back to normal Bilbao life and school and blogging. On Friday night, a group of six friends - myself and Cade (the Texans), Stephanie (another Texan who goes to UT), Dane (from Boston), Francois (the Belgian), and Lina (from Sweden), all set out with our ski jackets and bags for the French Pyreness. It was about a 4 hour bus ride from Bilbao, but it couldn't have been a more perfect weekend. And I actually went skiing without falling on my ass (well, not too many times...)

We took a tour-bus-type thing with a bunch of Spaniards up and back. When we got there late Friday night, we checked into our cute little 6-person apartment. It was so tiny, but it was so cozy! Cade and I slept in the bedroom, Dane and Francois slept on the futon in the living room and Lina and Stephanie slept in the other bedroom. We had our own kitchen, our own bathroom and our own balcony which overlooked a breathtaking view of the snow-capped French Pyrenees mountains. It was so picturesque!

The next morning, we woke up early and headed out to ski! The only thing was, as expected, the three Texans were the only ones who didn't bring ski pants. I thought they'd rent them like in the States, but apparently not. So we had to go buy ski pants that morning (59 euro!) and then we all went to rent our ski equipment. After that, we left for the slopes.

I've never seen a better ski resort than this one. The mountains were gorgeous, and even though I'm not advanced enough to do any deathly slopes, the routes I went down were incredible. The six of us skied pretty much all day (at times the girls separating from the ambitious boys who wanted to go do the blacks - my boyfriend included...). We had packed food for sandwiches the night before so we didn't have to spend money there for food, so that was definitely an added plus. When the ski resort closed at 5, we took our bus back to the apartment, where we nurtured our achey sunburned faces the best we could. None of us thought to bring sunscreen, and by the time we got back to the apartment after a day's worth of skiing in a beautiful-no-cloud-in-the-sky-day, our poor faces were scorched. But we had so much fun that night - we all walked the French grocery store, bought dinner (spaghetti, meat sauce and cucumbers) and breakfast (cereal bars, fruit and croissants), and walked back home to make our delicious supper.
However, I think Cade had too much sun that day, because when we were out buying groceries, he had this migraine and kept saying his head was pounding. He wasn't saying his sentences clearly, and didn't seem to understand what was going on around him. He seemed drunk without drinking anything. It scared me to death because I've never seen him like that before, but he just went to sleep and stayed asleep when we got home. The next morning, he seemed fine.

That next morning, we went skiing for our second day, and had a blast. We took PLENTY of pictures, but just know that some of the pictures on the website aren't mine and I took them from Lina and Stephanie off Facebook because they had some great group shots. Also, the crazy-awesome group shot of all six of us on the slopes was done by Dane, whose self-timing skills on the camera still amaze me. He actually set the timer and made it back in the picture before it shot it - all on his skis! That's probably why it seems that everybody in the picture is laughing so hard - we were laughing because Dane had just made it into the group when the camera flashed. Great stuff!

But anyway, as the guys went on to the blacks (the hardest slopes), the girls stayed together and did the greens and blues. We left at 3pm, returned all our equipment and headed back home to Bilbao. We got back around 8, and were so exhausted and sore that all we could do was sleep once we got back to our apartment.

We had SO MUCH FUN this weekend! I hope y'all did too. :)

-Bana

P.S. We just wanted to say THANK YOU for everyone who has been posting on this blog. We absolutely love to see your comments, and it's so nice to hear from all of you back home. Please keep it up. :)

Paris and Disneyland Paris

So, late Sunday night we arrived back in Bilbao after our much-anticipated weekend getaway to Paris. The trip, overall, was fun. However, I’d just be following suit with the normal cliché if I said that Paris was absolutely an unforgettable and romantic place. That’s what everybody says about Paris and I just didn’t get that vibe while we were there. We came back to Spain grateful to be back in a place where a) they spoke a language we knew, and b) it wasn’t absolute chaos, which we quickly found Paris to be. I’m a little scared that I’m going to sound a little unappreciative in the following paragraphs, and I hope it doesn’t come off as too negative. I’m just trying to describe our most accurate first impression of Paris.

Our mode of transportation to and from Paris was Europe’s high speed train, and it’s quite an understatement to say this thing is fast. No, this thing is FAST. We saw southern French countryside (much like northern Spanish countryside where we live – beautiful) fly by, but after the first hour or so, it really got boring. The trip timed in at around 5 hours, which is a lot when you’re just sitting there trying to entertain yourself with a deck of cards and Lonely Planet’s French phrase dictionary (highly recommended, if I do say so myself).

Paris, or what we saw of it, was pretty, but I’d say it was more of the clichè you-have-to-see-it-at-least-once kind of pretty. Aside from the occasional graffiti (quite the European norm, at least from what I’ve seen so far), Paris mostly seemed like everything the movies made it out to be. Nothing more, nothing less. Nevertheless, we took some really good pictures.

The Eiffel Tower was enormous, and very beautiful apart from the annoying vultures trying to sell you the same crappy light-up Eiffel Tower. Their little toy that they try to throw on you is a little toy Eiffel Tower that blinks and changes colors, which is a deception at its best, as the tower doesn’t even ever turn into those colors. They try to get 1 or 2 euro for the pieces of crap, but basically will take anything for them if you’ve got the spare change. One guy even came up to Cade, held out the little toy and said “You buy bling bling?” We almost died laughing. Beware of them, and the infamous thieves with the roses. These men stalk lovestruck couples around the tower, trying to shove a rose into an unsuspecting girl’s face. A noob to the Parisian world, I naively took the rose. And, when he started tapping Cade’s shoulder, expecting some money for the rose he gave to me, we put the rose back in his hand, waved and left. I wonder how many people fall for that scam. All in all, the tower is a remarkable piece of architectural art that I think should be appreciated, but it’s sincerely hard when scammers infiltrate the place.

Next – Paris is MASSIVE! Bilbao is one of the three largest cities in Spain, but it’s still walkable in about an hour’s time. We mistakenly applied this logic to Paris and failed miserably. After checking into our hostel Thursday night after we arrived, we decided to take a stroll through the center of town and catch all the sites – Eiffel Tower, ND Cathedral, Louvre – all in one night on foot. We spent an hour just walking to the Eiffel Tower, and after we reveled in all its beauty (fighting off the vultures left and right, mind you), we were so exhausted that we just took a metro back to the hostel. Paris is not something you can see on foot, much less on foot in one night. So, we didn’t get to see the Notre Dame Cathedral or the Louvre (or Moulin Rouge, but it’s not like we have the money to see that anyway), but hopefully someday.

The first hostel we stayed at was more like a house with individually locking rooms. So cute and homey! The only thing about it was that it was so far away from the sites (yes, an hour to the Tower), but it was cheap and our breakfast (French bread, jam and coffee) was free. Above all, they spoke English. In other parts of the city (the metros and grocery stores), not knowing French was a slight setback, but several people knew at least a small amount of English so it wasn’t so bad.

On Friday morning, we woke up early and went to Disneyland Paris, as my wonderful boyfriend bought us two-day passes for Friday and Saturday. The only thing about Disneyland Paris is that it’s not actually in Paris. It’s about an hour out of Paris in the suburbs, and you have to take an RER train to and from the city to the park, which takes about an hour. Before we left Paris, we bought two tickets for what we thought was a train ride from Paris to Disneyland, but we were apparently very very wrong. Once we got to Disneyland, we tried to swipe our tickets to get out of the train station, but the machines kept saying they were invalid. Then, an RER official came up and looked at our tickets. He said they weren’t valid – we had bought two tickets for only within the Paris “zone” and hadn’t bought the right tickets to get all the way to Disneyland – and said we had to pay a 25€ fee each to get out of the train station. So, because we didn’t have the right tickets (and because I didn’t know enough French to argue with him or tell the guy off like I would do without hesitation in the states), we were out 50€. But seriously, there were NO signs in any of the train stations indicating that a train ticket within Paris was different than a ticket to Disneyland. Paris’ transportation system is tricky, and it seems like it’s out to get tourists, especially poor college tourists. In that regard, Spanish transportation is a hell of a lot easier to understand than France’s public transportation, even if you don’t know Spanish.

Despite the ridiculous fine, Disneyland was by far the best part of the trip. When we got there on Friday morning, it was snowing and obviously had been all night as the entire park was blanketed in white. It was absolutely beautiful, especially to two Texans who don’t get to see that too often (and not even since we’ve been living in Spain...) We had so much fun! There are two parks – Disneyland Studios and the regular Disneyland Park – and two days was just enough time to get the most out of both of them. Not only did we catch some really fun shows (in French and English), but there were some really exciting coasters and more classic slower rides like the obligatory “It’s a Small World” and “Peter Pan”. Not knowing French wasn’t a problem, as the park caters to its British crowd, who apparently go to the park in masse for their “holiday”.

We also pretty much starved ourselves on this trip, surviving on pb&j sandwiches, and then, when we ran out of bread, pb&j crackers. We had set out to save money in the beginning, but the real reason we had to live on such small rations was the stupid 50€ fine. So, we didn’t eat out the whole trip and came home longing for a hot meal, or at least something with substance that wasn’t pb&j! That’s why, when we finally got back to Bilbao, we welcomed ourselves home with two big Whoppers from the Burger King close to our dorm (hey, it’s not Spanish food, but it was MEAT!).

All in all, we had lots of fun, but Paris was more of a “romantic clichè” and way expensive. If you want to see true beauty, I think Spain is twice as pretty and half as expensive. And even though we couldn’t afford to try French food, I’d venture to say that Spanish food is better, too. :) And Spain is more of a simple beauty – not the hyped-up publicized beauty that Paris is. But I may just say this because I’ve already been spoiled with a month’s worth of living in the beautiful backdrop of northern Spain. Already, I’ve developed a bias. But that could depend on your point of view. That’s not to discourage you from visiting Paris, but it should encourage you to visit Spain. :)

Either way, we had a blast with our pb and j crackers, and had so much fun sprawling them out on the bed each night and chowing down. And we had a blast freezing our toes and fingers off in the 20-30 degree weather. We may not have much money, but we know how to have fun. And besides, it’s a story we’ll never forget. :)

Visitors! Paris! Mexican food! Fun fact!

While supper hasn't even begun in the states, it's well past midnight here and even though I have unfinished homework due tomorrow, I'm up - trying to burn calories (well-spent on scrumptious Spanish food) through procrastination. It's an art, I must say, and I think I've just about perfected it. This blog is perfect practice.

We go to Paris in two days! And as if that weren't exciting enough, my parents are coming to visit us! They called and booked the flight during my brother's spring break, so I can't wait to see them. Lots of planning is in the works, but hopefully we'll all get to check out some unexplored European turf on their vacation. The next week, we've got some UT friends flying over from Austin for their spring break, so that should be a blast. And Cade's dad might come up to see us too! It's so nice to have everybody here!

My title promised a fun Spain fact, so here you go:
There are few "American restaurants" in Spain. And the few that exist generally just serve hamburgers, which I guess is the stereotypical American food. I had a "hamburger" the other day, which consisted of an unbunned patty with a fried egg on top...crazy. And Chinese restaurants are EVERYWHERE. And they're cheap. You can get a three-course meal with desert for around 6€. I've seen a few McDonalds and Burger Kings around (Seth would be upset to know there are no Taco Bells), and there's one Subway that I know of. And the flavors for the Ben and Jerry's here are all in English. What else?

Mexican - according to my professor, there are a few authentic Mexican restaurants here, but not many. And they're pricey. Veeerrry pricey, which is sad, because I miss Mexican (yes, TexMex too) tremendously. And honestly, I put this picture up mostly to console myself. Just looking at it makes my boca water. We would cook some here if it weren't 1€ a tortilla here. (And 3€ per can of refried beans).

Turkish food here is "comida rápida" (fast food), and the 1€ clearance mystery meat at the grocery store is disgusting. And cheap. But we're two broke college students nearly emptying our savings to live in Spain; ya can't complain.

Somehow, I almost always end up writing about food. But my post is taking a sweeping tangent which is a tell-tale sign that I need to get off and be academically productive. As for y'all, it's about time for supper. Enjoy your meals - and eat some steamy enchiladas for me.

I miss y'all like I miss Mexican food. :)

-Bana

Funicular Bilbao - Seeing the Sights - ERASMUS Party

Well, Thursday turned out to be a pretty busy day for us. Bana was in class from 10-2. After that, we decided we would take the Funicular Bilbao to the top of Mount Artxanda. From there we were able to look out over all of Bilbao and take some pretty amazing photos. You can even see the Bay of Biscay in one of the pictures, which is almost 15km (10mi.) away!

The mount is pretty tall, but the trip from Bilbao to the top only takes 3 min. It was pretty cool to see the view and not that expensive either (1.8€ up and back).

After that, we went over to a friend's and played cards before the first ERASMUS party. It was a lot of fun and made the afternoon and night pass really quickly.

Well, we're off to Paris on Thursday and I officially start classes this week so I'm sure we'll have a lot to post about.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can convince my professors to let me take my final exams early so that I can make it home to walk for graduation!

Feeling a little adventurous...

Well, yesterday we finally decided to hang out with some of the other European kids who are here studying at Deusto. Apparently they've been feeling a little adventurous lately, so they've been taking these short distance trains called cercanías to random stops and just walking around. Well, yesterday we decided to join, and even though there wasn't very much to Amurrio, Spain, we still had a pretty good time.

The trip started with everyone scrambling to buy a ticket about 2 minutes before the train left the station. It's quiet a sight to see when there's a group of about 10 exchange students rushing to buy tickets in a foreign language. But, needless to say, we all made it to the train. If you look at the pictures on our picture site, you'll be able to see a lot of really cool pictures of the nothern Spanish countryside.

Even though the city of Amurrio wasn't that much to look at, the company kept everyone entertained. Bana and I went with 2 kids from England, another girl from Texas, 1 guy from Boston, 1 guy from Belgium, and 1 other guy from Amsterdam. As you can see from the picture, one guy had a little too much fun at the playground.

Yet, probably the best part of the entire trip was the picnic that we had at the park. It's amazing the amount of food that you can get for 2€ a piece. Check out this picture of the picnic spread:

All of this food for under 2€ a piece. We had a miniature feast!

Well, that was our trip to Amurrio. Oh, and one more thing. We've had to wash all of our clothes in the bathtub and hang them up to dry because it costs so much to use the washing machines and dryers. That's an experience for sure! I know it doesn't beat walking to school for ten miles in the snow uphill both ways with holes in your shoes, but it still makes us feel colonial!

Salamanca, Spain

So this past weekend we took our first out-of-Bilbao trip to Salamanca, Spain - a small town a few hours southwest of here near the Portugal border. We took the Renfe train there, which was an interesting ride for our first time, even though it wasn't a high speed train (it took us five hours to get there). But, the ride was spacey yet cozy, and the scenery was unbelievably gorgeous on the way there as we rode past hours and hours of mountains and green Spanish countryside.

As for Salamanca - beautiful. The town itself is so clean, and in the old quarter at least, it was like walking through Spain centuries ago. Most of the area seems untouched by modernization, and walking through the old buildings made us wonder how they're so well preserved.

Even more, I think it's the first time we've experienced such a Spanish feel. Bilbao is beautiful, but it is a huge commerce town. Salamanca - not so much. Our first night there, we ate dinner at some really busy place in Plaza Mayor (one of the oldest plazas in Spain - that's what makes Salamanca so famous), drank wine with the locals at a bar not too far away from the plaza, and stood amazed at how beautiful the plaza looks at night with all the lights. Seriously, the plaza is absolutely beautiful during the day, but especially at night when every light is lit up and it seems the whole town is out for vino y tapas. We weren't the only ones taking pictures, which made me think that even in January this place draws tourists from all over the world. It makes me appreciate the fact that we could see it during a non-peak season, as opposed to sometime in summer when I'm sure it's packed with people on vacation.


Our little hotel straddled the old town and its outskirts, and it was maybe only a two-minute walk to Plaza Mayor. It was such a nice place, but extremely tiny. It seemed too nice for what we paid for it, but that may be just because it was in Salamanca. When we go to Paris in two weeks, we may not have such good luck. The only thing that was kind of irritating was the "double bed" which was really just two twins pushed together. But then again, maybe that's just a norm for Spanish or European hostels - I don't know. But despite that, it was a really nice and clean place with really nice staff.

The next day, we did some sightseeing around the old quarter, spending nearly half the day at the the two massive cathedrals - Catedral Vieja and Catedral Nueva - in the center of town. The cathedrals were indescribable. I don't think I've ever walked into anything so big. The gothic architecture was stunning, and it's hard to conceive how they could have constructed something with so much detail so long ago. There were lots of choir stalls and various religious statues inside, but it was the exterior architecture that really captivated me.


Salamanca is also a huge university town, with something like 1 in 3 residents of the town a student. The university, founded in 1218, has got to be one of the oldest universities still existing today. Also, the school is famous for its entrance facade, which Lonely Planet quite fittingly calls a "visual feast". In a massive and extremely detailed wall sculpture, there are all kinds of little figures chiseled into the facade - like skulls, angels, religious things and a bust of Fernando and Isabel - but there's also a tiny frog, which doesn't make any sense with the rest of the carvings. And there's just one. Apparently, they say that if you find the frog it'll bring you good luck, and students try to find the frog before a big exam so they'll do well. Cade and I tried and miserably failed, so we had to cheat and read where it was in our guidebook. A good thing, too - the frog is so eroded that it's hard to tell what it is anymore, but it's obviously still a frog. We zoomed in on said elusive frog and it's in the online album in the Salamanca folder.

To top everything off, as we were walking through the old quarter after sightseeing, there was some Spaniard who was just sitting on the side of the road playing soft Spanish music with his guitar. It was the most intense Spanish feel that I felt that weekend, and maybe since I've been here. I'd love to come back someday.

We took TONS of pictures, and they're all on our album.


We miss you all!!!

P.S. I just realized that since I still have my computer configured for Texas time, that it puts Texas time on all posts we make on Blogger. Therefore, it's not 5:45 here - it's almost 1 a.m., and I have class tomorrow morning at 9. Got to go!