Travels in the North: País Vasco
The second leg of my fall break journey took place in País Vasco (Basque Country in English). This northern autonomous community is different from the majority of the other regions in Spain, mainly because of País Vasco's strong sense of nationhood separate from the overall nation of Spain, its decades-long fight for autonomy and its specific language and customs. For example, the community has two official languages, Spanish and Euskera, the latter of which is one of the oldest European languages yet has no relation to any other language spoken in the area today. All signs had translations in both languages (and sometimes English and French as well), and Euskera definitely does not look easy to learn.
While in País Vasco, my friends and I stayed in Bilbao, the largest city in the region and home to the famed Guggenheim Museum. If you've ever seen a photo of Bilbao then you've probably seen this Frank Gehry building, which towers over the river in cluster of enormous metallic sheets resembling the Sydney Opera House. I don't consider myself an art connoisseur, but the modern art displayed here was pretty fascinating, and incredibly interactive. Unsurprisingly, the Guggenheim also seems to be the largest tourist draw in the city, so we joined tourists from all around the world as we perused the exhibits.
Besides the language, another one of País Vasco's defining characteristics is its pintxos culture. Pintxos (pronounced peenchos) are the Northern Spanish version of tapas, and are often consumed in a social setting and paired with a wine. Unlike the tapas in Granada, which are free with drinks and are usually involve some kind of potato, pintxos are immaculately styled and prepared, with tiny breads and olives and decorative vegetables and large skewers through the middle, and cost about 2 euros each. They're also incredibly popular; we spent about half an hour wandering through the Plaza Nueva in the center of Bilbao looking at the dozens of restaurant options and trying to figure out how to properly order (we came to the conclusion that you walk up to the crowded bar, order wine and then point to the pintxo you want, paying right up there at the counter. But it's possible that we were wrong and the bartenders just went along with it). When we finally sat down with our fancy hors d'oeuvres (which is basically what they are), we had snagged tiny ham sandwiches, pesto stuffed mushrooms and little tostadas with what I assume was a quail egg. You can't get more adorably fancy than that.
About an hour away from Bilbao is the beautiful oceanside city of San Sebastian, where we spent our last full day of the trip. This municipality is one of the most famous destinations in Spain, probably because it has one of the most breathtaking coastlines and beaches that I've ever seen (and that includes Nerja!). The majority of our time in the city was spent walking: walking along the road overlooking the water, walking through the streets, walking up the steep hill to the statue of Jesus. At the end of our trip we had logged about 50 miles of walking overall, with a large portion owed to that last day. Here are a bunch of pictures, all at once.
It's now been over a week since I got back (and I've definitely been lagging on writing these blog posts), in which I've started classes and extra-curriculars, so I expected that the next few months are going to fly by. I'm glad that I had the chance to visit this part of the country before everything kicked into high speed, and I'll be back soon to write about the more academic experiences that I'm having here.
P.S. I've kind of given up on fighting with Blogspot to make my photo layout look the way I want it to, so I apologize for the weird spacing in the post.
Besides the language, another one of País Vasco's defining characteristics is its pintxos culture. Pintxos (pronounced peenchos) are the Northern Spanish version of tapas, and are often consumed in a social setting and paired with a wine. Unlike the tapas in Granada, which are free with drinks and are usually involve some kind of potato, pintxos are immaculately styled and prepared, with tiny breads and olives and decorative vegetables and large skewers through the middle, and cost about 2 euros each. They're also incredibly popular; we spent about half an hour wandering through the Plaza Nueva in the center of Bilbao looking at the dozens of restaurant options and trying to figure out how to properly order (we came to the conclusion that you walk up to the crowded bar, order wine and then point to the pintxo you want, paying right up there at the counter. But it's possible that we were wrong and the bartenders just went along with it). When we finally sat down with our fancy hors d'oeuvres (which is basically what they are), we had snagged tiny ham sandwiches, pesto stuffed mushrooms and little tostadas with what I assume was a quail egg. You can't get more adorably fancy than that.
About an hour away from Bilbao is the beautiful oceanside city of San Sebastian, where we spent our last full day of the trip. This municipality is one of the most famous destinations in Spain, probably because it has one of the most breathtaking coastlines and beaches that I've ever seen (and that includes Nerja!). The majority of our time in the city was spent walking: walking along the road overlooking the water, walking through the streets, walking up the steep hill to the statue of Jesus. At the end of our trip we had logged about 50 miles of walking overall, with a large portion owed to that last day. Here are a bunch of pictures, all at once.
It's now been over a week since I got back (and I've definitely been lagging on writing these blog posts), in which I've started classes and extra-curriculars, so I expected that the next few months are going to fly by. I'm glad that I had the chance to visit this part of the country before everything kicked into high speed, and I'll be back soon to write about the more academic experiences that I'm having here.
P.S. I've kind of given up on fighting with Blogspot to make my photo layout look the way I want it to, so I apologize for the weird spacing in the post.
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