Castle, Guernica, Italy and France!

So, I told myself I wouldn't get this behind on the blog. Wrong. But when I look at the date of my last post, it seems I wouldn't have that much to catch up. Also wrong.

We've done so much in the past 10 days, so let me start chronologically:

Castillo de Butrón
March 6, 2009
Determined to find this well-hidden and enormous castle in País Vasco (which I swear my Lonely Planet Spain guide says is still open to the public) Cade, myself and the Swedish girl Lina set out through an interesting and crazy journey. We started out the rainy day by taking the subway from Bilbao to Larrabasterra, then walked half a mile to the bus stop where this tiny little bus came and picked us up and dropped us off in the middle of NOWHERE. Seriously, there wasn't a road sign, bus stop or anything. He just stopped, dropped us off, and told us the general direction of where we could find the castle. We then found the little pathway (with goats!) that led us to the moat of the castle (yes! a real moat!). When we got there, all the gates were shut and there was no one around - more than a little strange, since Lonely Planet really hypes this thing up as a beacon of "medieval fantasy". We went in the little general store than was close to the entrance, and asked how to tour the castle. Unfortunately, she said, it's been closed for three years now! Even though we didn't get to see our castle's interior, it was still remarkable, especially with the moat. Here are the pictures.

Guernica
March 7, 2009
I went here with the group of chicas (the Swedish girl Lina and five Brazilians). Guernica was heavily bombed during WWII in the Franco era's infancy. Not to crowd you with history, but the town really is a somber reminder of what intolerance can lead to, and I believe it's toured heavily, mostly because of its Museo de la Paz (Museum of Peace, which we also toured). It's an interesting day trip if you're in the area and interested in the subject. It's intensely quiet. Here are pictures.

Parents come to Bilbao (and an abortion rights parade!)
March 8, 2009
We were lucky enough to have my parents come visit us this past week, which was a blast to say the least. I think they might have gotten just as culture shocked as we were when we first came here, (especially with the food!), but I think they got used to everything being so different. We had a blast showing them around the town and it was so nice to be able to be with my family finally, after not seeing them since I left Texas in January. I missed them dearly, and loved that they came all the way here to see us. :) I realized how much I missed them when we were walking down the street on a sunny afternoon. That day, thousands of woman stormed the streets for abortion rights for women. Right now, a woman can only receive permission to abort in cases of rape, or when the mother's or child's life is in danger. It's really actually interesting to see Spain go through this transition for women's rights (especially now, with the ever-more-progressive president Zapatero whose sweeping social changes make me wish Obama could do the same without being chastised), and their campaign centralizes on "Mujeres en huelga" (woman on strike). BUT, even though I'm constantly enthralled in Spanish politics and could write about it FOREVER, I'll try to stay on topic. ANYWAY, the parade of abortion-rights activists were going down the street, and my mom got so excited and held my hand and walked in the middle of the street with them. So, yes, I've now "officially" participated in an abortion-rights protest for Spanish women and it feels good!

Pisa, Italy
March 11-12, 2009
We all flew out of Bilbao to Pisa, Italy on Wednesday, where we enjoyed rich Italian food (I hate to admit it, but much better than Spanish food), Italian people (also a little friendlier than Spaniards - no offense), and Italian culture (which I fell in love with). I think if I knew Italian I might want to live there. It was absolutely beautiful, and so clean. Of course, we saw the leaning tower and took the obligatory pictures for that, but what I really enjoyed was walking down the adorable cobblestone streets and admiring the Italian architecture - everything from the quaint little shops outside to the massive Cathedrals. See for yourself with our pictures.Tuscany is truly beautiful, and even though I haven't yet been to Rome (we're going next month), I'd venture to say it's even more breathtaking than there.

Volterra, Italy
March 12-13, 2009
After bidding farewell to Pisa, we crammed in our rental car for Volterra, where we all spent an amazing few days relishing unbeatable Tuscan scenery, food, ice cream and sunsets. If you've read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series (which I'm still working on), you'll know Volterra from the books. I think that's part of the reason why my mom wanted to visit this quaint walled city, which sits guarded atop a mountain overlooking a valley that stretches across the horizon. I'm so glad she did. It's classic Italy in its most literal meaning - the only evidence that the modern world has even remotely affected it is the occasional car you see pushing its way through the cobblestone streets and old buildings. What especially piqued my interest were the ancient ruins of the Roman theater (pictured here), where you can literally imagine the actors and audiences those many years ago. My camera doesn't even do it justice, but you can see the pictures here. You have to see this place, and what's more - you have to see this place at sunset. As the sun crept down below the mountains, not only did golden and yellow hues of light litter the purple sky, but you could see the Mediterranean and even two Italian islands off in the distance. Neither pictures, nor words, give it justice. But what's maybe most interesting about this walled city is it's nowhere in the Italy guidebook. So many people want to tour the big places like Rome, Venice and Sicily, without realizing that sometimes the most beautiful places are the least publicized ones. That's my favorite kind of beauty, and that's what makes me so grateful my parents were able to come here. They showed us a place (which has absolutely been my favorite so far, and more than likely Cade's too), where we probably otherwise would have never gone, and may have missed out on its beauty forever.

Paris
March 14, 2009
My mom got to celebrate her birthday in Paris, where we found ourselves at the end of our vacation because that's where they got on their flight back to Texas. Since our first experience with Paris wasn't what you would call ideal, we didn't have high expectations for our return trip - but with my parents, they can always find the most off-the-wall places to go! Like Volterra, the catacombs is rarely mentioned in any Paris guidebook, but it's well worth the visit and 4euro to check it out. Unlike the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame where flocks of tourists come daily, the catacombs is more low-key, but twice as intense. It's estimated that a nearly 6 million bodies are there to this day, which isn't a stretch on any imagination given the near-hour you spend walking through the tiny pathway - all the while just inches from skeletel remains of people who lived hundreds of years ago. Yes, a little morbid - but fascinating. No pictures of that, though, because they don't allow flash. Sadly, my parents took their subway back to their hotel near the CDG airport, as Cade and I stayed at a small 6-person hostel near the train station, where we took an early morning train the next day back home. I actually cried as they left - I didn't want the week to end - but I'm so happy they came and visited me and miss them already. You don't realized how much you miss seeing someone until you're away from them for months at a time. I hope they're reading this. :) If y'all are, I love you! After they left, Cade and I walked around town, checking out some things like Notre Dame (while mass was going on - really interesting...) that we missed the last time we were there. Here are those pictures.

Whew! I bet that was as tiring to read as it was to write, so I'll end here. Jason and Jenny are in town and are staying with us for this week, and we're all flying to Lisbon, Portugal tomorrow, so we'll report on that when we get back on Saturday. :) Hope everyone is doing well back home!
-Bana

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. :)