Ok so while I was there I actually journaled each night b/c there was just so much that we did. You can just enjoy the photos (all are on facebook) but the entries are pretty much going to be novels b/c I wanted to remember ALL of it:
I had a night layover at London Stansted where I slept maybe 30 minutes but met a couple ready to do the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a five week trek that I WILL do in the future. Eneko even said he'll join me for it!
I was greeted at the airport by Eneko and a big hug and all was just great! Immediately we set off in his car and drove through beautiful, windy mountains to Bermeo, a typical Basque port town. Towns of boats were at the docks, salt in the air, Euskera (obviously) written everywhere, it was awesome! There I had my first pintxos (pronounced pinchos), similar to tapas. I enjoyed tortilla española, Eneko´s kind treat, pretty much like everything while I was there! We were going to take a coastal route to Guernika but the road was out. No matter, the road we took was still beautiful!
In Guernika we saw the árbol, famous tree that represents freedom and rights of the Basques and we explored a nearby park. Then we went back to Bilbao where we parked and walked ALL over the city! Oh I love walking, especially when exploring a new city! We had beautiful weather and enjoyed walking along the river, the Gran Vía, checking out the Guggenheim Museum from outside; I loved the two story floral dog. We walked to the old part of the city; those tended to be my favorite parts of cities.
We stopped at Oñati, where Eneko studied for a year and then we went into the mountains to check out the Santuario de Arantzazu, a beautiful church and monastery built into the side of the mountain in 1702. NO idea how they did it but it is beautiful, definitely a place where you can reflect and have spiritual experiences for sure!
Then we drove to Eneko´s city of Beasain, passing by his father on his bike along the way. They have a lovely home with the most perfect view of the city and the mountain that overlooks the city! I actually wound up with my own flat above theirs. His family is so nice and were so welcoming!!! We had a delicious dinner of chorrizo, bread, salad, fuit and to tell the truth, fruit addict that I am, I think I enjoyed the salad the most... I desperately need to detox from this experience abroad and can´t wait to eat salad every day!!! I love produce and should´ve just spent the money and bought salad ingredients this semester, would´ve saved me some trouble int he long run. We sat around the table for a long while, just talking, mostly about places to go and so forth.
Eneko and I had the fortune of catching Mélanie and Kevin on skype: one european and one american on each end! It was so fun... I learned about Eneko and Mélanie´s ¨baklava¨joke. I had a freaking awesome first day!
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