Last night we went to a flamenco show with the Spanish house. It was interesting to see, and the place we went to was pretty small so it was an intimate show. I had no idea there was so much tapping and stomping involved, but I guess I'm still learning. It was only about 30 minutes, which was long enough because we were standing in the back. It was fun though, and a good reason to leave the house!
This morning I woke up a little early to do the bibliography for Aaron and my project on Spanish food. I guess it's to show that we have been doing research, but I usually find that you do them after a project? Oh well. I grabbed a coffee and a yummy croissant thing at Fornet and then went to my field trip for Modernism at La Sagrada Familia!
It is pretty amazing, even though I'd been there before. It was interesting to see it from the inside again, as I've been past it many times since being in Barcelona. It was nice to have my teacher there, because she could answer at least some of the questions we all have about the building. We went down into the museum as well. She pointed out Gaudi's tomb, which I guess I missed last time I was there. They have it closed off behind a wall, and the camera they usually have to show it wasn't on today, but oh well. There were pictures. I went back to IES afterwards for Spanish class, and then home for lunch. Then of course back to IES for my last class of the day. After class I came home, made some dinner, and studied for my Gypsies midterm that I have tomorrow with John. Wish me luck!
So here goes: San Sebastian! We started off meeting at the airport at 8:30 am (not too bad) for our 10:30 am flight to Bilbao. The flight is only about 50 minutes, and most of us just passed out the whole time. We got to Bilbao, got situated, and took an hour long bus ride to San Sebastian. It was so beautiful---lots of green, lots of trees, lots of mountains. Very different from Barcelona.
We made it to the Hotel San Sebastian, our home for the next 2 nights. I was in a room with Christen and a girl named Kelsey. It was a bigger room because they needed to put Kelsey on a fold out couch. It was a pretty nice hotel, so we lucked out.
We had lunch in the hotel before starting our adventures. The first course was a "fish soup" that was an unfortunate brown color, but actually tasted pretty good. We also had bread and butter, which I think is the first time since I've been here that I've been served that combination of foods. Usually it's just olive oil. And bread plates! What an invention. The second course was, in my opinion, the Spanish version of TurDuckEn. It was beef wrapped around ham, that was breaded and fried, but also had a cheese sauce inside. Like a hot pocket but Spanish. Hmm. It came with potatoes, which were good too. Then we had some ice cream for dessert. Mmm.
After lunch we met with our tour guide, Ana, and started our journey around San Sebastian. At this point, the fog had rolled in, and it rolled deep. There is an island not too far into the bay that we were in, and we wouldn't have known it was there had we not been told. But we started walking along the beach towards the real part of the city.
This is one of the examples of the rich people houses along the roads to the beach. After Maria Cristina decided she loved it here, it became a popular vacation spot for wealthy families from Madrid. They built these really extravagant houses. This one looked like a castle.
Thick fog but that wasn't going to stop us! It was pretty cold though.
The palace of Maria Cristina and the Spanish Royal Family. Now this space can be rented out, and is also used sometimes by the University. Her interest in the area is what made San Sebastian a desirable place to go.
This is Queen Maria Cristina's bath house. Basically, it is a cabana. She used this to change into her bathing suit. Apparently, while on trips, they would do this thing where everyday for 3 days, they would go into the water for 3 waves and then get out. On the 4th day, they rested after all the strenuous activity. Seriously.
This white railing runs all the way along the beach. Our guide told us that if we were coming home from the Old City, all we had to do is put this railing on our right and follow it home. :-)
In the 1970s, along the waterfront, they tore down a lot of buildings (like the white one on the left) and replaced them (with buildings like the one on the right). Rather unfortunate.
The city of San Sebastian! The fog was SO dense, it was pretty ridiculous. But it was still gorgeous because it was on the beach!
This is one of the main squares in San Sebastian. They used to have bullfights here. You can kind of see here, but these are all apartments. Above each balcony is a number. This is because the government could rent out people's balconies to watch the bullfights. They needed a way to make it easier to count the people!
This is a gastronomy society located on Calle 31 de Agosto, where lots of gastronomic societies are located. This one is for men only. That big flagpole is supposed to be its symbol. Overcompensating much?
This is the main cathedral in the city dedicated to San Sebastian. It was very ornate and more intricate than this picture can truly show.
This is a Chillida sculpture of a cross. He gave it to the cathedral. It is very nice, but doesn't necessarily fit in with the rest of the decor.
You can see again how foggy it was. The walls at the top of the picture are the original city walls.
The best effing chocolate meringue of my life. SO GOOD.
Bethany, Christen, Emily, Stacey and Elizabeth, all smiling after a successful first attempt at finding pintxos for dinner.
This is a perfect example of pintxos. They are Bethany's (were, I guess). Some tortilla, some smoked salmon, some vino. Yum.
That means "Thank you!" in Basque. What a crazy language.
After pintxos we ended up in a place called Bar Tas Tas. This turned into us being surrounded by single, older Spanish men. We left pretty quickly and went to bed before our long day ahead.
Finally the fog had lifted! After a good breakfast we made our way to look out over the water and at the Chillida sculptures.
Me, Bethany, Elizabeth and Jill in front of the island of Santa Clara.
Me in front of the crashing waves of the Bay of Biscay!
These are the Chillida sculptures. He as an artist decided that after making lots of things for few people, he was going to make a few things for lots of people. This was accomplished through public statues like this one. I believe this installation is called "Calm from the Storm" or something along those lines. Pretty cool.
There were all these cool rock formations from thousands of years of being battered by waves.
Me with the rock formations.
After looking at the sculptures we went up to the top of Monte Urgello (or something like that), and we could see all of San Sebastian! Look at how beautiful! It's absolutely gorgeous.
Me, Stacey, Emily and Bethany overlooking San Sebastian.
You can see the side of San Sebastian as well as the island of Santa Clara in the middle there. After the lookout, we drove on to Hondarribia!
This was at a lookout point on top of the mountain between San Sebastian and Hondarribia. We had just driven up the mountain where the bike race La Clasica is held. In the foreground, before the river, is Spain. After the river, that's France. :-D
The beautiful little town of Hondarribia. It is a quaint little fishing village, and very colorful too. I loved it there.
This type of tree, called Mandarins, are ALL OVER the Basque country. At night Stacey said they looked like they were dancing. Can you see it?
This was an Basque Separatist protest. I tried to be discreet in taking this photograph, hence its awkward angle. But interesting nonetheless. I saw a lot of flags and banners supporting the Separatist movement all over the place, from San Sebastian to Bilbao.
Stacey and I on the boat to FRANCE! No big deal...
The cute little French village across the river from Hondarribia. So adorable. Instead of eating lunch, we ended up on the beach.
And look how beautiful it was! The beautiful Atlantic ocean.
Me with the ocean. ;-)After Hondarribia, Bethany, Jill, Elizabeth and I all went and sat on the beach in San Sebastian. It was absolutely beautiful and quite warm. There were dogs, surfers and lots of people. Afterwards we took naps and showers, then came down for dinner. We had a weird kind of vegetable tartlette that was "full of fat and butter" as the waitress told us, and then a fish dish, and then some cheese-mousse type of stuff. Not the best dinner, but oh well. We walked around a little afterwards and had a glass of wine, then came back to the hotel and went to bed. Christen and I ended up watching some of "Daddy Daycare" in Spanish. Hilarious.
We woke up the next morning, had breakfast, and checked out of our hotel. We drove off to Guernica!
This is a statue by Chillida built in honor of peace. The window is looking to the Oak Tree of Guernica (description to come). The whole city of Guernica is motivated to promote peace. They have events that bring together survivors of other tragedies such as Hiroshima or Auschwitz to celebrate peace.
This is a tile reproduction of Picasso's "Guernica." Next to the name you can see "Gernikara" which in Basque means "to Guernica." There is a movement to have the painting moved from El Prado in Madrid to Guernica. I think this makes sense, but according to Madrid, the painting was shown so many times after it was made, and the canvas was rolled, so now it is in danger of breaking if it was moved again. Hmm.
This is the inside of the Parliament of Guernica. It is also a chapel. It is used about once a month for meetings. It was very beautiful inside.
The Oak Tree of Guernica. Back in the day (as in the Middle Ages), all the surrounding town leaders would come meet around an oak tree in the forests of Guernica. This tree is the current tree, and it is the grandson or granddaughter of the original tree.
The Stained Glass room in the Gernika Parliament building. The entire ceiling of the room was made out of stained glass.
Around the bottom are groups of men representing the 3 livelihoods of the city: the ocean, the iron mines, and the farmers.
After we left Guernica we made our way down the coast to Bilbao. On the way we stopped to overlook the little town of Mundaca, a famous surfing spot. They hold big surfing competitions here (up there with places like the North Shore and Australia). It is famous because it has left-falling waves, which is apparently pretty unusual.
Bilbao! This seemed to be one of the main city squares/parks. The city isn't very pretty, at least not from above, but once we were down in it, it had a certain charm. We walked around and had some pintxos. I had a pan con tomate with ham, croquetas, and a funny little meatball thing. Delicious. Then I had a mango popsicle. YUM.
THE GUGGENHEIM! This was our first view of it from the bus. I can't believe I was actually there!
The balloons/tulip sculpture on the patio. This patio is on top of the fake river/ocean that the Guggenheim is on top of. At some points it gives the illusion of being on the river.
The Guggenheim up close! This is actually a vertical picture, so turn your head to the left. It is amazing what they are able to accomplish in architecture through the use of computers!
This is a picture of the green bridge that runs through the Guggenheim. Those two silver pillars that are part of the museum were included in an effort to incorporate the bridge into the museum. The red part is a piece of art that won a competition to be a permanent fixture on the bridge. Personally I think there is a little too much color going on here, but then again no one asked me before they did it. ;-) Afterwards we went through the museum with our guide Christian, where there was an exhibit of American Art! It covered the past 300 years, so basically from the Revolution to pop art. It was pretty cool but also kind of silly that we came to the Guggenheim and saw American art.
THE PUPPY. It is a beautiful topiary. They change the flowers 7 times a year, and right now they had the winter flowers in. Pretty beautiful!
Close up of the flowers.
Me with the back of the puppy. This was the last picture before my camera died! Goodbye Bilbao!So that was my weekend! Pretty spectacular, huh? I think so too. I have been wanting to go up to the Basque country for awhile now, and it lived up to my expectations. Loved it!
Besos
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