Guggenheim Museum, Bizkaia (Bilbao).

"You are not in Spain you are in Basque Country"

This is what the bartender told Mike as she poured him a calimoxo from the tap on our night in Bilbao.  Biblao is a big city and it is the capital of Pais Vasco which is in Spain but very different than Spain.  All the signs are in two languages and everyone in the city is multi-lingual.  The city is a lot bigger than Logrono and is home to the Guggenheim Museum.  We had a great time in Bilbao but I want to backtrack first to Thursday night.

Thursday night was Mike's last night in Logrono and Jared's first.  Jared's bus train, was supposed to arrive at 930 PM and we were to meet him there.  The bus from Madrid showed up at 9:30 and Jared was no where to be seen.  We waited a bit and then found out there were a couple more buses coming so we checked them and when Jared was not on the final bus of the night we started to worry.  Long story short, I had said bus and Jared thought train, while Jared had said train and I had thought bus.  Jared ended up spending the night in the train station and managed to contact some people back home in Portland who told us where he was at.  

Once the three of us were together we headed to the BUS station and caught the bus to Bilbao.  In Bilbao we met up with an old friend that we all three know from as far back as elementary school.  She lives and teaches in Bilbao and showed us the city at night.  We met up with Jessica's friends and went out for some pinxo's and drank calimoxo's in the street.  The streets were insane with people drinking and having a good time as normal for a Friday night in Spain.  The food was good and the calimoxo's flowed all night.  Jared said that the night in the train station may have been one of the worst nights of his life.  Followed by his proclamation that Friday night in Bilbao may have been one of the best nights of his life.  After pinxo's we headed to a club (around 3:30 am) with Jessica and our new friends.  The club was really great, it was an old-school theater that had been transformed into a club.  People dancing on the stage and multiple bars throughout.  This is where the bar tender decided to tell Mike he was not in Spain but in Basque Country, a common "separatist" mentality found in this region.  It was a very cool place and tons of fun.  By the time we got to the hostel it was time for mike to leave and catch his plane.  Me and Jared got some sleep and woke up to a rainy day, which was fine since we were headed to the Guggenheim.  

The Guggenheim Museum was very cool, inside and out.  The architecture of the building is definitely unlike anything else and the modern art inside ranges from fascinating to bazaar.  I was unable to take too many pictures because of the rain but I have a few for you. 

Jared will be here for another week so there should be some more adventures to come.

Work, friends and Spanish adventures.

I've been working a lot.  I got two really good freelance jobs that I have told most of you about.  One is for a food, wine and travel blog called wineandfoodtravel.com and the other is for a music website called SKATIC.  I do social networking for both sites and it has really been a blast.   For SKATIC I get to do interviews and blog as well.  I will be posting an interview that I am doing with an artists that Beyonce named hot new artists in Vogue magazine. I love that I am able to do something to help my career while traveling and teaching in Spain.

Anyway right now Mike is visiting and we've been having a really good time.  I'm super tired because of all the work while trying to make Mike's trip here memorable.  We have gone out a couple of nights, Pinxos, bars, wine etc.  All the normal stuff.  Things have been smooth with the roommates and he seems to get along with my friends here too.  Today was the only nice day since he has been here so we rushed to the bus as soon as I got home from school.  We took the bus to a random village called Nalda.  Nalda was even cooler than the last village I randomly wandered into.

Nalda was extremely small.  We went into the local bar as soon as we got there and had a cafe con leche and a glass of water before heading on our adventure.  We wandered around until we found a road that seemed to go into the mountains.  And let me tell you, it went into the mountains (this road went all the way to the top).  On the road we encountered one person, this person looked about 95 years old and was walking up the hill as slowly as you could imagine.  He had a walking stick and muttered a few inaudible words as we passed.  As we walked up passed a huge 3 story building that looked like development had been abandoned and then inhabited by people. There was a guard dog and goats wandering around amongst completely destroyed construction equipment. The road eventually lead all the way to the top of the highest mountain in the area. The road became so steep that it was difficult to climb. Near the very top of the mountain there was a sign that said no vehicles (the sign was like a city road sign) and was located far beyond where any car I have ever seen could possibly go. There were huge vultures flying overhead and we had not seen anyone for miles. The view was absolutely amazing. Just a great hike. Plenty of pictures below.

After the hike we went back to the village and wandered around. We were stared at by everyone in the village. It's like the whole place knew that we were there and people would talk to us, stare and laugh. Apparently this village is nearly 1000 years old. There were houses that I couldn't believe anyone could live in, similar to the previous village I have been to. It's just hard to put into words. Oh yeah... On the bus ride home we saw the same drunk guy on a donkey. Got a (bad) photo of him this time.

Anyway tomorrow Mike will be attending school with me, which will be interesting. In the evening Jared arrives and the three of us will be headed to Bilbao to see Mike off at the airport. We are going to see an old friend from middle school and check out the Guggenheim museum. Granted I will have another blost post before too long. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Spain: Beautiful Country and Great Food

Yesterday my roommate and I went to a nearby Pueblo (village).  We got off the bus and walked around a bit then decided we wanted to go up.  So we started to climb up the streets, which eventually became dirt paths and eventually no paths at all.  As we climbed we found many amazing and beautiful things.  In the very first picture below you can see a cliff/mountain in the background.  If you look very closely you can tell that someone lives in that mountain as their home or something.  We didn't try to get too close cause there was someone there who seemed to own it.  It looked like it had been hollowed out and turned into a home.  There is a chimney that you can see on the top and you can see the windows as well.  There were also tons of very tiny houses and cellars for wine dug into the mountain side as we walked down the street. One of them seemed abandoned and the door was a jar so I took some pictures.  It was really incredible.

As our walk progressed further into the country we ended up walking through vineyards and farms where you could see the beautiful mountains and houses etc. in the background.  There were horses, donkeys, dogs, and roosters as we walked up this mountain.  We came down the mountain a different way than we went up and we ended up in a little gypsy village or something.  There were shacks made out of metal, hay stones tarps etc. and dozens of dogs.  We got looked at very strange and all the dogs were barking at us.  I don't think its often that they see two white guys with cameras come waltzing through this area.  It was a bit uncomfortable so I wasn't able to take too many pictures but you can see a couple here.

When we were done wandering around aimlessly and decided to head back to Logrono we headed back to where we needed to catch the bus.  The bus stop was in the middle of the town at the Plaza Mayor (or the main square).  These plazas have such a Spanish feeling to them with the kids playing and the grandparents sitting and talking in the sun and the cafe's with people sipping coffee or beer.  As we boarded the bus I looked out the window and I see a guy stopped in the middle of the street on a donkey.    He was disheveled, had no shoes on and a huge drunken smile as he was clearly having trouble balancing on the donkey.   I wish he had showed up just a few minutes before the bus because I was not able to get a picture but it was one of the strangest/funniest sights I have seen in a long time.

Later that we had a dinner plan with a couple of local Spanish friends, Beatriz and Jesus.  Bea had invited a few of us over for a proper Spanish meal (which of course started at 11:00).  First course of puree of different sea foods that you dipped veggies, crackers and olives in.  They were all very good.  The next course was one vegetable dish,  spanish tortilla (an extremely popular dish here that is similar to an omelet), and MEAT!  The meat was three different dishes, pork, salchicha (a type of sausage) and blood sausage.  I had never had blood sausage before but I found it enjoyable.  And of course were drinking good Rioja wine that was grown in the fields I had been tromping through earlier that day (maybe not literally).  Dessert was a champagne drink that was mixed with homemade lemon sorbet, and a pastry dish that we had bought at a local bakery.

It was a great weekend and I can't wait to explore outside of the city again.
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