aventuras en Bilbao

AHH!!

So we've only just gotten back to Bilbao and settled in our hostel, but the proces was quite the ordeal.

We followed the direction to get to the hostel exactly as Celia had copied them down from the hostel world website, and we didn't exactly expect to have problems.

We literally ended up on an auto mile. Like the area was very very far from the center of town and industrial, and every single shop either sold cars, sold auto parts, or repaired cars. After walking up and down the street several times and not finding any hint of hostel or even street number, we tried the phone number. The phone didn't work. We began to panic; we were in a strange neighborhood in a strange city, contemplating the idea that we might have booked a room in a non-existent, possibly scam hostel, and might have to somehow find another place to sleep for the night. Basically, we were in a tight spot.

Desperate, we walked into the only building that wasn't an auto store; a labratory. We walked in and sheepishly asked the lab-coat wearing man at the front desk if there was a hostel nearby. 'This is a labratory,' he said.

However, he ended up being a lifesaver. He looked up the hostel on his computer, and after about 15 minutes of us holding our breath and him not really appearing to know how to do an internet search, we had a map and we were on our way!

Celia had apparently left out the key step; we were supposed to walk much farther down the street than we had expected, and given that the neighborhood was not where one would typically expect to find a hostel, its no wonder we freaked out. BUT all is well, we are here now! The receptionist was incredibly friendly, complimented us on our spanish (!) and gave us tea! We will soon have beds (they are cleaning our room for us), and we are feeling much better about Bilbao and life in general now that we are settled in our hostel that, as it turns out, is NOT located in an auto repair shop. Thank God!

More later,

Elena

San Sebastian

Okay, so when I went to Paris, I knew what to expect because I'd seen so many pictures and heard so many stories. Similarly, when I went to Amsterdam and Rome, I knew what to expect. When I went to Lisbon, I wasn't as sure what to expect but I wasn´t surprised by what I found; it made sense for Lisbon to be the way it was I guess. I am in San Sebastian now, and its much harder to pin down. At various points on the trip, Celia and I have commented that it looks like Barcelona, California, Martha´s Vineyard, the Caribbean, and China.

Santa Clara island, just off the main beach. Source: Sergio Ausejo

The effect is absolutely incredible! It is a quiet, decidedly European city with a rugged mountain backgroud, sharp cliffs to the ocean, soft sand beaches, and beautiful lush green landscape. Welcome to San Sebastian, the unexpectedly charming and heartbreakingly beautiful city!

We arrived last night, after spending the day in Bilbao at the Guggenheim (more about this later). We took an hour long bus ride to the sea-side city, located on Spain's north coast on the Atlantic Ocean. We checked into our hostel then left to explore the town.

Its so lovely, and the people here are so friendly! For dinner, we went to two different bars to get pinxos, which are like tapas and verry delicious! I got risotto and tortilla the first night, and Celia also got tortilla but her second dish was bacalau (cod).

Okay so this morning! We woke up and went immediately to get some coffee and pastries just outside a beautiful church by our hostel. We checked the schedule of services, and luckily enough there was one at 11 that was bilingual, so we went! It was one of the best church services I´ve ever seen, the music was lovely and everyone was friendly and the priest was hilarious (he sounded like a sports announcer!) and the church itself was more like a cathedral, it was incredibly gorgeous!

After church, we walked down to the coast with the intension of walking down San Sebastian's three beautiful beaches. We both realized that we missed the ocean sooo much! It is so much more raw than the Mediterranean, and even though it wasn't the Pacific ocean, something about the jagged cliffs reminded me of highway 1. I liked it, it made me a bit homesick but at the same time I felt so comfortable.

We walked along the beach, around a large hill (San Sebatian is very hilly) and down the whole beach till we reached a sculpture at the very end called Peine de los Vientos (comb of the winds), which I honestly wasn´t expected much from but fell in love with. The sculptures, three in total, were very abstract metal and joined to natural rocks and with the background of the crashing waves, the effect was very impresive!

Basilica de Santa Maria. Source: muguin.com

We stopped for some more pinxos, visited the beautiful Basilica de Santa Maria, then began a climb up one of San Sebastian's three mountains to reach a very large sculpture of Jesus. The walk was very peaceful, and we had plenty of time to just chat and take in the beautiful Pacific ocean and the panoramic view of San Sebastian. We walked down to find the waves huge and crashing on the cliffs, white and frothy like milk. We stopped for some Indian food and headed back to the hostel.

Crashing, stormy waves in San Sebastian. Source: El Pais

Its been a perfect day, our walk really was epic and we got to see almost all of San Sebastian. Its not a very big city but it made a huge impression on me. I really love the unexpected beauty of this city and will be sad to leave it in the morning.

Oh well, Bilbao should be awesome as well! I'll keep you updated!

Elena

desastre!

A word to the wise... don't EVER let an ATM eat your debit card while studying abroad in a foreign country, it could be six weeks and counting before you get another one. AND, if on top of that you were dumb and didn't follow your father's advice and get a credit card to have in case of emergencies, you will be poor and frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!

Grrr!!! Still waiting on my card.