An Amazing Semester

So, I've finally gotten around to making the DVD of all our pictures and videos from Bilbao and the rest of Europe. The DVD is actually close to 2 hours long, but I made a 2-minute remix of my favorite pictures and memories.

Enjoy! What an amazing semester.

Barcelona and Dad's Trip to Spain

Well, after relishing The Divine Victory of UT over A&M in Rome (and seeing many other amazing pieces of history), we flew back to Madrid in order to catch an overnight bus to Barcelona to meet Dad coming from the States.

A few quick words about overnight buses for those of you considering them:
1. The tickets for overnight buses cost the same as ones during the day, but the advantage comes from not having to pay for a night of hostel.
2. Bus seats are never comfortable enough to sleep well in unless you bring a pillow.
3. It is possible to sleep on the bus, but they stop every few hours, according to Spanish law.
4. Every time they stop they make an announcement and turn on all of the lights.
5. Despite all of this, it is possible to rest while on the bus. Just be prepared. Bring something to cover your eyes and a pillow (and pray that the guy or girl behind you doesn't snore).
6. The big thing to realize is that you will probably be tired the entire next day after the ride. How tired depends on your preparation. Hostels cost money, but walking around half asleep can cost you more in the long run.

All of that being said, we met Dad at the airport train station and basically went straight to sightseeing. About an hour into walking around, we realized that Barcelona is absolutely massive on a European scale.

We started on La Rambla, which is Barcelona's huge pedestrian street what leads directly from the Plaza Cataluña to the Port. From there, we went to the huge statue of Christopher Columbus "pointing toward the horizon in search of the New World" overlooking the Port. Strolling along the harbor, we cut back up into the Gothic Quarter and Dad got to see his first Spanish cathedral. From there we headed to the Plaza Cataluña and took a video panoramic from inside of the huge circular Plaza, complete with pigeons and plenty of young Spanish children running around playing with them.

About this time, we realized that there was no way that we could walk around and see everything we wanted to see, so we hopped onto a touristic bus from Plaza Cataluña to check out the sights. And sights there were.

The bus ran two lines, the East Route and the West Route. We started on the East Route.

The first place we stopped gave us the best view over Barcelona that we found. From the Mirador (viewpoint) your could see almost all of Barcelona stretching between the mountains and the sea. Honestly, it was one of the most breathtaking views I've seen in Europe. I'll post a picture of that scene as soon as I can get one from Dad (our camera was dead on the first day), but here's the link to everything else that we took.

Continuing on the bus tour, we rode past the 1992 Olympic Stadium, the Museu Nacional de Arte Cataluña, the Plaza de España, Avenida Diagonal, and finished back at Plaza Cataluña. At all of these places, you can get off, take pictures, tour the site, etc., but we decided to stay on since we hadn't had much sleep the night before. Dad had been on a plane for 15 hours and we were on a bus for 7 hours. We all were tired. We just didn't know how tired...

We got back to the hostel around 4PM, checked in and went to sleep...for a nap...or so we thought... We finally got up and out of bed the next morning around 7AM after having slept for 15 hours each. Needless to say, we all felt very refreshed.

The next day we took the other route on the Bus tour and saw the Olympic Village, Barceloneta (the beach), Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (a giant church), and pretty much all of the other sites that we missed the day before. We even spent and hour or so walking through Gaudi's famous Parc Guell where this picture of Dad and Bana was taken.

And later that night we ate at the Hard Rock cafe in Barcelona, where we were fortunate enough to get a Maragrita and a real american hamburger!

Barcelona was an absoultely amazing city except for all of the Catalan everywhere instead of spanish. The entire city was redone to host the 1992 Olympics, so everything along the port and the "touristy" areas are cleaned daily and in really good condition. Dad was saying that he couldn't get over how beautiful the city was despite what he originally thought was going to be an old and trashy place. Even as much as Bana and I enjoy the small places, Barcelona is definitely a must see while you're in Spain. Just be prepared to walk or pay the metro if you don't want to take the tour bus.

Anyway, on Tuesday morning after spending Sunday and Monday in Barcelona, Dad went with us back to Bilbao. Here he basically relaxed around for the rest of the week while Bana and I were in class. In quite a contrast to Barcelona, life in Bilbao takes on a much slower pace of life, and enjoying Bilbao is about enjoying relaxing around in the different sites around the city. We took him to the Funicular to get the panaorama of Bilbao. We ate pintxos (tapas) in several bars at night. We took him to an Erasmus Party, and of course to the Guggenheim Museum.

Overall, I think he enjoyed the trip, and of course it was good to see him after being away so long. Just like when Bana's parents came up in March, I didn't want to see him go back to the States. But, we've only got two short weeks left here in Bilbao then it's on to London, Dublin, and back home to Texas.

Until then,
Cade

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!

Dos Tejanos en Espana, Primera Semana

Hola, from our first week en España. I think we’re FINALLY starting to adjust to this strange place and language, but it’s still taking time. Today we went to the Guggenheim, which is absolutely amazing. It’s mostly architectural art, and there are a few exhibits that are really interesting and engaging and a few more modern that Cade and I are I guess too “uncultured” to realize their aesthetic beauty. :)

We got a call from the apartment office yesterday that said our rent was late and that we had to open up an account right away before 9:30 this morning. In the states, they’d give us a few days but in most cases not here. So we went to the bank today and tried to open una cuenta (an account), but they told us we needed some identification number for non-Spanish citizens to be able to open an account. Nobody told us that! So we went to the “hacienda” to get our NIFs (which we thought would be a same-day kind of thing) and filled out our forms and everything and the lady said it would take a few days before we got them. So we couldn’t get an account and were freaking out, scared that the apartment would kick us out or something. But when we went back to the apartment, they were completely cool about it and just let us pay our first rent in cash until we get our NIFs to open a new account. We pay our electricity and water each month along with our rent. Water is a flat fee of 8 euros per month, and electricity is 30 euros per month (but if we end up using less than that, they refund us the unused amount each month). They were really cool about it.

That’s something I’ve noticed about this place. Spaniards are really nice and eager to help you. Most people know English, but we don’t ask them to speak it so we can get more Spanish practice. Yesterday, there was a big group of us – maybe 5 or 6 people – who were obviously American and obviously lost, and there was some lady who just stopped on the street to help us find where we needed to go. It’s hard understanding them when they speak so fast, but if they tell you can’t understand, they slow down and speak more clearly so you can understand it.

But I like the Spanish spoken here much better – it’s so clear to understand what people are saying in surrounding conversations because the way they speak is so clear and crisp. They don’t slur their words and annunciate everything. I imagine it’s the same thing for someone trying to learn English. I’d guess trying to understand a British person would be much easier than someone trying to learn English from a Texan. We’re less annunciated, but I’m proud of where I come from. :)

That, in addition to their accent (the theta, which I’m inadvertently starting to adopt like in gra’th’ias or empe’th’ar) is something I’ve noticed about the places and people surrounding me. Some other things that separate this new place from back home:

*First, and maybe of higher or highest importance: beer and wine is dirt cheap here. You can buy a fair bottle for 1 euro, and a better bottle for 3 or 4 euro. In fact, we found a bottle that we paid $15 for at a Specs back in Austin for only 3 euro! Also, beer is dirt cheap. We found a can six-pack of Budweiser today for 92 cents! Of course, that’s 92 cents in euros, but that’s still cheap.

*Secondly, beef and ham are expensive. We went to the grocery store today to try to buy groceries for the next few days (we’re trying to cook mostly instead of going out to eat so that we can save money to travel more across Spain and Europe), and it costs 4 euro for 6 slices of ham! On the other hand, fish is fairly cheaper here (I guess since we’re so close to the coast).

*Everybody smokes here.

*Spaniards really care about the way they dress. They look really nice, but have their own style which is completely different than back in the states. Tennis shoes are discouraged, so it’s no wonder that everyone can automatically tag me as an American before I open my mouth.

*Everyone walks in Bilbao. Or they take the bus. There are a few cars around, but not nearly as many as there are people here. Public transportation up here is abundant.

*They play American music in the grocery store like all the time, and it’s weird. And there’s a lot more English than I thought there would be. The other day I bought some cereal that said “corn flakes” on the box.

*People here look really fit. There aren’t many overweight people here, and we think it’s because their food is healthier. Maybe it’s just the Basque area we’re in, but we haven’t found much fried food, which is good. And everyone walks everywhere, so that makes sense too.

*EVERYBODY closes for lunch. The entire city just shuts down. It’s the most important meal of the day, and it consists of two courses, a dessert and a glass of wine anywhere from 10-15 euros for a reasonable price. It’s not bad, but we’re trying to cook more because our priority is traveling. Today we cooked chicken spaghetti with red sauce and baguette bread (amazing and fresh for only 40 euro cents). MMM. The food here is buenísima.

*Everybody said it rains a lot here, but at least since we’ve been here, it’s been really pretty and sunny. It’s only really rained one day, but I hope I didn’t just jinx myself out of a semester of good weather.

*There’s a lingerie store here called “Woman’s Secret”. No joke. I wanted to take a picture of it but I haven’t had my camera handy yet.

If you have any questions about Bilbao, Spain or Europe in general, just ask us!

We’re learning everyday new and crazy things that are constantly surprising us!

We’ll write more when we can, and if you’d like a post card, please give us your address and we’ll try to send something. Parents – don’t worry; we already bought y’all a postcard so yours should arrive soon. We just have to figure out a) where a post office is, and b) how much it costs to send mail back to the United States.

Also, I have pictures, but I don’t know where to post them. I’ve never used Flickr, but I guess I’ll try to check that out since Facebook isn’t available to everyone (and most importantly our parents). We’ll let you know when we get that figured out.

Well, until next time! ¡Hasta luego!