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.