spring break in less than 24 hours!

In fifteen hours I'll be on a plane to Sevilla, Spain where I will begin my journey to Morocco! Then off to Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France for a euro-road-trip! I come home April 16th so if you don't hear from me before then don't panic!
By the looks of it my host mom thinks that I'm going to starve these nexts to weeks..I mean I am going to Africa but I'm going to get fed...on the table ready to be packed in my suitcase is: two boxes of granola bars, six chocolate bars (no joke), two packages of babybell cheese, a tupperware container of cheese, another of chorizo, five or six packages of sliced pork products (ham, chorizo, salchicon, lomo) and then she asked me if that was enough. Oh and she's packing a sandwich with a tortilla espanola in it....which will be put on an entire baguette and weighs about 5 pounds. We'll see if they let me through airport security...I might end up wearing lunchmeat for two weeks because I won't have any room to bring real clothes. At least I won't be hungry!
Anyway, I'm super excited for this trip I've been waiting all semester for spring break and I can't believe its here and then only one more month until I come home! Woah!
Bye for two weeks!

sharks

Since I've been in Spain I've tried every single dish put in front of me and have been eating things I never used to like. Red peppers, potatoes, red meat, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, squid...the list goes on. Today I ate shark. Well probably a shark. An entire shark. My host mom doesn't understand the concept of normal portion sizes and even when I say "bastante" (enough) she continues to fill my dish. So I ate a shark. And it was delicious, even my vegetarian roommate tried some. I tried to explain to my host mom and her daughter the concept of Discovery Channel's Shark Week series but they didn't really get it...things I miss about the US. Poor shark. That's all!

helllloooo

I haven't really had too much to say on here. Not much happens in Bilbao. Well it turns out I quit my internship...a while ago. Forget to mention that haha. I loved the kids but the program was just not what I wanted and the schedule was very incondusive to traveling...so thats that. 

St. Patty's day in Spain is nothing spectacular if anyone was planning on celebrating here one day...go to Ireland. They do have Irish bars here surprisingly, quite a few of them. But they are completely unauthentic. Spanish people work there and they don't play Irish music. The only authentic thing is the beer!

Yesterday we all went to Santander, a coastal city an hour and a half west of Bilbao. The only thing I knew about Santander was that that's where the airport is that I use to travel but it turns out theres more than that there. I wasn't too impressed by the city, just your everyday city, kind of a small version of Bilbao. But the coast was beautiful and there was so much green grass and prettiness and they had a seal/sea lion habitat and penguins too!

I leave for spring break in exactly a week! Off to Morocco for a week then to Milan, Austria, Munich, Stuttgart, Zurich, and Geneva! So excited! I'll be in the Austrian mountains for Easter, I hope the Easter bunny remembers to bring my Easter basket there! So since Spain is in a complete economic crisis and since the change of government a few months ago and all the labor reforms there is going to be a general strike on the 29th...essentially the entire country is not going to work. Horray! Its really unfortunate for some people though because since its the start of break, people scheduled flights for that night and they are only going to have about 1/3 of transportation available in the country. Good thing my flight is 2 days later! 

After break I'm only here for one more month! Time is flyin'! By then I'll definitely be ready to go home and live life like a normal person again. Until then though, carpe diem! 

Agur!

Happy St. Patty's day from Bilbao!

Santander lighthouse

Sailboats for the Ron

A seal friend

Santander

How to see Paris in 42 hours

Weekend trips are great, but limiting and when you have less than two days in a gigantic city your only thought is to see as much as you possibly can. So if you ever go to Paris and you only have 42 hours to spend there, here's what you do:

Arrive at nine at night. Pick a direction to walk and hope that its the way to the hotel. Walk. Peek down a street, see the Arc de triomphe, walk that way. Marvel at it and take pictures. Keep walking. The Eiffel Tower comes into view. Take a hundred pictures. Watch it sparkle. Walk. Make it to the hotel somehow without a map, basing your directions off of your boyfriend's account of a video game set in Paris. Sleep.

Wake up early. Get breakfast (at Starbucks, guiltily, because you miss their coffee). Get bread to pack sandwiches and bottles of water. Walk back to the Eiffel Tower. Take more pictures. Think about going to the top but reject the thought out of not wanting to wait in line. Go to gift shops instead. Buy souvenirs for friends and family. Cross the bridge over the river to get a better view, and picture. Get annoyed at all the men walking around jingling a ring of miniature Eiffel Tower figuirines trying to sell them to you for a euro. Walk down the river towards the Louvre. Stop in the park in front and watch a bunch of adorable pups play. Pick out the one you want and tell your boyfriend to get it for you some day. Decide to see Notre Dame before the museum. Walk more. Cross the bridge. Take pictures of the cathedral. Go inside. Say a prayer. Admire the gothic architecture. More souvenirs. Walk back over to the Louvre and have lunch sitting at a table looking at the huge glass pyramid. Realize you want something sweet. Go to a small cafe and order creme brulee and a crepe. Gorge yourself. Realize you love French culture. Walk back to the museum. Hesitate to buy tickets because its 4 and the museum closes at 5:30. Buy them. Get lost trying to find the Mona Lisa because the museum is massive. Push past the crowds to see the tiny painting. Walk around and look at the Italian art because the museum is about to close. Go to the gift shop. Figure out how to use the metro to get to the Sacred Heart Cathedral because you're too exhausted to walk. Arrive just in time for sunset. Walk into the cathedral while a bunch of nuns are singing. Watch the sunset and enjoy the beautiful views of the city. Walk around near the church and do some shopping. Eat at a small restaurant. Buy a bottle of champagne. Walk to the Moulin Rouge because you're obsessed with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Head back to the hotel. Sleep.

Wake up semi-early, already exhausted. Go to a little bakery and make some grunting noises and point to the things you want because you can't speak French. Eat the delicious treats and drink coffee. Make sandwiches at the hotel and pack up. Walk to the Museum d'Orsay. Look at the pretty art for a few hours and take frequent breaks because your feet hurt. Go into the gift shop. Eat lunch. Go into a bookstore. Do more shopping. Take the metro towards the bus station. Go into the mall across the street and gawk at the expensive jewelry and watches. Hop on the bus to the airport. Fly back.

And that's how we did it. We conquered Paris in 42 hours and had a great time. I wish we had more time there but I didn't think I would ever see Paris so I am more than a happy camper right now. Even better, there is going to be sunshine and upper 60 degree temperatures all week in Bilbao. Que suerte!

Hasta luego

Notre Dame

Wouldn't be France without crepes

Creme brulee

Louvre

What the Mona Lisa is all about.

Sacred Heart

ahhh!!!! Moulin Rouge!

Arc de triomphe

San Sebastian and Biarritz

I have to say I like San Sebastian a lot more than Bilbao. This city is great too but something about the small oceanfront Donostia (as they call San Sebastian in Basque) with old buildings and the scent of the salty sea filling the air just seems so much more inviting than Bilbao...perhaps I'm just longing for summer and warm beachy air but this weekend was a small dose of that. 

This being my third time in San Sebastian I wasn't very excited to tour the city I've already seen twice but the sun was out and it was almost 70 degrees so I had no complaints! We started the tour walking through a park where there were tons of peacocks and we made our way up to the old part of the city which lies right at the coast and the bay called La Concha because its shaped like a shell. We stopped for a pintxo (Basque tapa pronounced pincho...tapa=appetizer) and had lunch and a bit of free time to walk around. Then we walked the whole way from the start of the beach following the shell shaped coast up to Monte Igeldo, a mountain on the coast. We took the funicular (cable car thing) up to the top where surprisingly sits a small park with a few rides and carnival games. After this we went back to the hotel to rest before crossing the border to France the next day.

Since Renner and I are going to Paris this Wednesday it was nice to get a taste of French culture (literally; the chocolate is amazing), even if it was just barely across the border to the small city of Biarritz. Similarly to San Sebastian, Biarritz sits on the coast and is a summer home for many. We started the day at a chocolate museum where we learned about the process of making chocolate and got to sample some and obviously I bought a big dark chocolate bar. Next we headed towards the city and walked along the coast. After lunch we walked around the small city streets and went into a few stores. I'm so used to being able to communicate with everyone around me either in Spanish or English but when first being spoken to in French I felt so confused and lost that I for once didn't have the words to reply. Better study up on some phrases before Paris! Luckily the woman that worked at the waffle stand spoke Spanish and English and Renner and I could tell her we wanted the waffle with chocolate, ice cream and whipped cream which was absolutely amazing. The city was beautiful too and the sunshine made it even more enjoyable but all good things come to an end and we headed back to Bilbao at around 4:30 after stopping at the lighthouse for a few pictures. So here it is a rainy Sunday in Bilbao, good for blogging and reading though!

Peacocks!

Harbor in San Sebastian

San Sebastian from the top of the mountain...in a cloud

Biarritz

Lighthouse in Biarritz

Waffle! Sooo good!

Biarritz

Au revoir!