Allie in Spain (and Ireland): Basque Country: Where Hunger Goes to Die

Ok so I am definitely overdue for a blog (several, actually). I have been traveling every weekend in March so I have lot's of catching up to do since Portugal. I have not had the time since I got back from Julie's and Dan's wedding to blog...let alone do work for school...or anything else. Whoops.

So I'm going to start off with an exposition on the last trip that I took, which was to Basque Country. For those of you who have never heard of that, it's is one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities. It's in the north with a coast on the Atlantic and it borders France (don't worry, I didn't really know what it was either - it continues to amaze me how extensive of a knowledge Europeans have of American geography - I tell them I'm from Arizona and they actually know where it is!). Basque is a culture all it's own. If you're still drawing a blank, I can probably jump start your memory with the use of the term "ETA." The crazy terrorist group which was constantly in the news up until about a decade ago, was indeed a radical group with the mission of achieving Basque independence (ETA stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque Homeland and Freedom - yeah Basque language is crazy). Unfortunately, this is the reputation that Basque people get stuck with, even though this attitude represents only a small minority of people. Most Basque people, despite feeling culturally distinct from Spaniards (and French, as there is a Basque region of France as well), are perfectly content remaining a part of the Spanish nation. That's just how it is in Spain - state first, then country. Anyway, after visiting the infamous land of the Basques, I can say that this militant anti-Spanish attitude is definitely not the prevailing attitude. The thing I noticed the most if the beautiful landscape, the friendly people and the AMAZING FOOD!

So let's start from the beginning. My two friends who I traveled with, Shelagh and Natalie, and I managed to score some cheap tickets on Iberia to Bilbao. That's right, A REAL AIRLINE. Not crappy (although incomparably cheap) student airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet which charge you 40 euros for a bag, a printed boarding pass, or whatever else they feel like, have absurdly early departures and spend the whole flight trying to sell you crap that you don't want. It was quite nice. The flight was less than an hour and we got into Bilbao around 8:00 (I guess it was still an absurdly early departure time, but whatever). After arriving in Bilbao, we immediately left Bilbao (everyone knows that you only go there to see the Guggenheim - San Sebastian's where it's at). So we took the hour bus to San Sebastian (after Shelagh lost her ticket in a trash can and we had to dig it out - yuck - but the Spaniards (Basques?!?!) were very helpful!) and trekked for 40 minutes to the Old Part of town to find our hostel (spending money on public transport is not necessary). The hostel was bleh. When we got there, the women who runs the place wasn't even there. The beds were incredibly uncomfortable and the place was kind of dingy - but it's off tourist season, so what can you expect? It served for our purposes, which was sleeping for about 3 hours.

Our first step upon arriving, was to see the giant Jesus statue. Apparently this is a big thing. There aren't really many "sites" in San Sebastian, clearly. So we hiked up the giant hill to the big Jesus statue and got some awesome panoramic views of the beach - aptly named Concha Beach, because it is shaped like a shell. After that, we trekked around the shell shaped beach to head up Mount Igueldo on the other side. This time, we took the funicular, which was pretty awesome. The views from up there were even more amazing. Pictures really don't do it justice.
So after a fair share of mountain climbing and viewing, we headed down to the main attraction: eating. San Sebastian is famous for it's delicious food and tapas (or pintxos, as the Basque call them). It's a lot of sea food, ham products (we are still in Spain, after all), and cheese. It's pretty unique and just really rich and delicious. My favorite thing I had was probably black risotto, followed by beef cheeks in red wine sauce. That meal also included goat cheese with fig sauce. Sooo yummy. I also ate lots of squid, shrimp, and ham served in various fashions. Basque country is not lacking in the pastry department either. I had probably the best macaroon of my life and a specialty Basque pastry (Torta Vasco) which was like a buttery pastry with some sort of creamy almond filling. So good. My mouth is watering just describing all of this! After stuffing our faces, we just sort of wandered, got a little time on the beach and took a nap before dinner time. Lol, life is rough. That was the great thing about this vacation. It wasn't like going to a big, sight-filled city, where you're always in a hurry to see everything. We got to relax and take our time. With that in mind, we headed out that evening to check out the San Sebastian nightlife (there's not much) and we ended up hanging out on the beach. Yay for warm weather! Luckily, we were able to sleep in the next day.

Saturday had a pretty similar course of events. We ate, laid on the beach (yeah, I got sunburned), and then we headed to the aquarium, which was actually quite impressive. It had a nice mix of critters and naval displays to keep us entertained. It even had one of those cool tunnels that you can walk under the tank in and see all the fish (and sharks!). After this, it was time to head back to say goodbye to the beach and catch the bus to Bilbao.

Bilbao is a totally different story. It had a very industrial past and has just recently began cleaning itself up. We got in around 8pm and headed on the long trek to our hostel. We crossed the weirdest bridge ever, went through some kind of strange Disney themed carnival, and promptly discovered that our hostel was in the middle of nowhere (either that or some kind of industrial wasteland). I was seriously glad I wasn't alone. The hostel itself was actually pretty nice though (it even had sheets - major bonus). We were just glad to get to our beds and get some rest for Sunday.

We woke up the next morning, enjoyed our free hostel breakfast (aka stale toast, weird jam, and really bad coffee) and headed to the Guggenheim. Now, I was a little worried that the Guggenheim would be disappointing just because it's so famous, and sometimes those things get over-hyped. I had also heard that the art collection wasn't that great. However, I am happy to say that neither of those statements are true. It was awesome. Just as cool as I thought it would be. And the art collection was pretty impressive as well. The 2nd floor was closed (which was probably a good thing, otherwise we never would've left), but what we saw was a very nice mix of art based in and around the World Wars, and I really enjoyed it. I like looking at art from a historical perspective. And I don't even know how to describe the building. It's too cool for words. It has a fire sculpture in the pond outside. It's covered in aluminum which is in sheets thinner than tissue paper. Sooo cool. It's designed to be like part of the river and to blend as one as part of the city, so it's sort of fish like (Frank Gehry has a weird thing for carp - look it up). Anyway, I can't really explain it - I guess you'll have to go see for yourself!

After we were all museum-ed out, we headed down to old town for some lunch. The food here was really good as well. We had paella, grilled garlic shrimp and tortilla de bacaloa (cod omelet) and it was yummy. After that, we sort of wandered for a while until it was time to go. After a minor delay in the airport, I got back to Madrid around midnight. Not too shabby for a weekend. All in all, another great trip and a location I would also definitely recommend for future travels. Check out my friend Shelagh Mollohan's facebook for better pictures (it's not up yet, but hopefully will be soon).