Friday: We went to Pamplona and toured the city famous for hosting the Running of the Bulls, or El Encierro, during the festival of San Fermin during July. It was way too cold for walking around windy narrow streets but the city is nice. Poor Renner got sick that night and I took care of him in the hotel for the rest of the night after adventuring to the pharmacy to get him some Spanish mystery drugs. Well they worked! He was better the next morning!
Saturday: After Pamplona we drove into Logrono, a city in La Rioja- Spain's famous wine region. We toured one of Spain's biggest wineries and learned all about the process and types of wines. We finished the day with a wine tasting accompanied by delicious bread, cheese, and chorizo! Yum! I even bought some wine to bring home! I'm definitely going to need to buy another suitcase here... Next we stopped outside of two more modern wineries; one designed by Frank Gehry, architect of the Guggenheim, and the other by another architect who built a very unique bridge in Bilbao close to my homestay here.
.....weekdays are boring- I go to class, eat, and sleep.
This past weekend! Ms. Trapani came to visit and we went to Barcelona! As it was her first time in Bilbao I was excited to show her around the city but I got sick, similar to what Renner had last weekend, and she had to tour Bilbao all alone but luckily I was a healthy pup just in time to hop on the six hour train to Barcelona Saturday morning!
Saturday: We checked into the hotel after arriving around 2:00 in the afternoon. Lunchtime! I had my first "fideua"- a tipcal Catalonian dish similar to paella but with noodles instead of rice and slightly different spices. So good! Next we went to La Sagrada Familia- a basilica dedicated to the Holy family designed primarily by Gaudi, but the line was so long so we went into the giftshop where I bought a book about the basilica (to put on my future-teacher bookshelf) and I was able to study up before returning the next day! Well I read the whole thing and the stories behind La Sagrada Familia are incredible. So much thought went into designing that church, every little detail on it entails some sort of symbolism from the facades depicting the birth and death of Christ down to the snails and lizards climbing down the bell towers. The thing is, its been in construction since 1882 and still isn't finished! We then walked around the gothic quarter of the city and went to mass in the gothic cathedral. It was really interesting going to a Spanish mass: virtually everything was the same except for the language. I'm seeing more and more that although cultures, languages, geographic borders and ideas separate people, we all have more in common than we think: people are people no matter what. We ended the night with a dinner consisting of churros and chocolate at a small Basque restaurant where Ms. Trapani told me about her adventures during El Camino de Santiago.
Sunday: We woke up entirely too early to ensure that we could get back to La Sagrada Familia and not wait in the mile-long line. No lie. Its the most visited place in Barcelona! I was glad I read my book the night before because I understood and appreciated the design and meaning of the basilica much more than before. We went inside and then went down to the crypt which houses the tomb of Gaudi along with many altars to other saints. After our long visit to La Sagrada Familia we headed to Park Guell, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces. Although it is overrun with tourists, the park is beautiful, especially the mosaics. Gaudi's house lies within the park and after his death it was converted into a museum, so we went there too! After walking around the museum and the park for a bit we hopped on one of those double-decker super touristy busses but according to Ms. Trapani that was the best way to see a gigantic city like Barcelona. And she was right, of course. The bus took us all throughout the city and we saw the houses that Gaudi designed along with the Olympic stadium from the 1992 Olympics, the FC Barcelona soccer stadium and many other points of interest in Barcelona. We met up with a friend of Ms. Trapani's and had coffee and tea and then headed back to the hotel to get a full night's rest. This morning I got on the train at 7:30 and was back in Bilbao before 2:00 just in time for lunch! And class. So here it is, the week...boring...Saturday though, Renner and I are going to the Cuban ballet, I love having things to look forward to!
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