Bilbao (in photos)

So for the October 12th holiday (Day of Americanism/Day of the Race, depending upon whom you ask) which was a four day weekend, I decided to head up to Bilbao.  I'd never been in the northern part of Spain, besides Barcelona, so I was really excited for the trip.  Moreover, I was also excited to take my very first, grown-up-person solo vacation.  And I had a really, really good time.  I was very tired when I left, due to lots of walking around, but there was just so much to see and do.  I loved Bilbao and very highly recommend it... it doesn't deserve the reputation it has of being a dirty industrial town.  It's not the biggest town, and the buildings aren't necessarily the most beautiful, but almost everything has some small unique gesture that just serves to make it special.  It's gorgeous, the people are great fun, and the food is just fantastic.

I headed up Saturday morning on the bus.  We went over the mountains on our way up to the coast, and it was gorgeous.  They were all big, craggy, and dotted with little grazing sheep.  So I was already excited before even arriving in the city.

I stayed with my friend Eva, who lived on top of a hill.  Luckily, there was a little baby funicular to take you up the hill, for free.

The main square, where we ate pinxos (Basque tapas).  The palm trees in the cold weather were an exotic touch.

part of the old town

the cathedral

a little bit of street art

the front of the cathedral

old train station

This was a random little church that we wandered into, and inside it was all painted and gold-leafed.  What a pleasant surprise.

mail slots at the post office

a theater

The town convention's center was really cool, but unfortunately I couldn't take many pictures as they were holding part of the world chess masters there and flash wasn't allowed.  All the columns were different, and there were many different layers.  Coolest of all, though, there was a swimming pool on top, so that when you looked up at the sky light, you saw all the people swimming around up top.

The famous Basque pinxos, which totally lived up to their reputation.  The top one is lomo, simmered in garlic until it was so soft it was like a cream.  It's on carmelized onions, topped with a salty, spicy little sauce and a fried onion.  The one on the bottom is bacalao in pil-pil sauce atop a roasted red pepper.  Yum!  Later that night I also ate a gorgeous langostine wrapped in fresh herbs above a light ali-oli sauce later in the night.  Basque pinxos ¡para ganar!

That night we went out to a concert by the Mad Caddies, which was great fun.  It was a ska concert, and if you are wondering how Spanish people dance to ska, imagine the Elaine dance, but on speed.  Bouncing, kicking, and arm-waving was involved.  It was pretty much awesome, and I ended the night sweaty and tired yet exhilarated, perhaps feeling a bit loopy from the smoke floating through the air in the club.  A great first day, over all!

The next day we took an excursion up into the mountains east of Bilbao, to visit the painted forest.  Waking up to a gray, rainy day, we decided to brave the elements and do it anyway.

a little sea monster for kids to climb on

This picture was taken in Guernica, the spiritual capital of the Basque country.  There is the stump of an old tree where they still meet to make all their decisions.  It was rainy.

Slug!  This guy is about the size of my hand.  There were also bunnies that would come right up to you.

The mountains were gorgeous.

Painted trees... some were just bright colors, others were designed that if you looked at them from one angle, they formed one picture, many trees working together; from another angle they made a different picture.  Quite cool overall.

wet but happy

Is something watching me?

Basque sheepies... everywhere!

So after many hours of hiking through the forest and over the mountains, we arrived to a small town.  We wandered around, looking for a place to sit and eat our picnic lunch.  Noticing our predicament, one old man invited us into his house for lunch.  After we insisted that we would get his house wet and did have food, and didn't want to be any trouble, he set up a table for us in his shed and lit a little fire to keep us warm.  We were also served hot coffee.  Yes, folks, people are good.  Trust.  It's the only thing consistently true about every place I go... the people are the best and most beautiful thing.

 

Eva with a cow

The next day Eva had things to do, so I was on my own.  I decided to head out to the Guggenheim, which I was very excited about, and also up to the northern part of the city, otherwise known as the sea.

cool building

Pretty pink flowers with little raindrops... Bilbao is like the Ireland of Spain.  Wet and green.

So cool!

Check out this awesome boat-looking museum.  It was so pretty.  I didn't love the inside that much (there isn't actually that much interior space so there were only a few exhibits) but the outside just cannot be beat.  The inside exhibits were cool... a lot of pop art, a giant room filled with giant steel waves and spirals that you could squeeze into and walk around in, and one man who made all these really awesome things with wax and color.  There was some really surprising art inside... and also a random top floor filled with Dutch still-lifes.  Hmm.

self-portrait, naturally

self-portrait with Puppy, a statue that is covered with real flowers

after visiting the museum

small

After lunch, I headed up to the coast.  A river runs through Bilbao to the sea, and rather than having a traditional draw bridge, they solved the problem another way... by building a giant suspension bridge with a little cable car hanging from it by meters and meters of steel cable.  The little car fills up with people on the side, cars drive onto the center part, and it whips over to the other side of the river with rather alarming speed.  Very, very cool.

I, however, was greedy for the views and paid to go up to the top of the bridge and walk over.  I was the only person up there, and spent a lot of time running back and forth, taking tons of pictures of the town, cape, and sea... and many self-portraits as well.  There were lots of little plaques with the history of the bridge and such, as well as old tools and bits of machinery.  For example, I learned that they only started using radar like ten years ago, and before that just had a dude sit up top and watch for boats. 

The views were great.

It was windy, and I was happy.

town

Giant statue at the cape... the sea was a little bit dirty so I didn't take a picture.  I did spend several minutes sitting with an old man who was feeding pigeons, talking to him a little bit about the USA, Hungary, and Madrid, and listening to him a lot about the Basque country and his life.  He was very old, and it was a very moving experience to hear him talk about his experiences.  Plus, about 10 pigeons landed on my outstretched arms at a time.

That night I hung out with Eva a bit, and made her dinner (stuffed peppers).  The next day I had to catch the bus around lunch time, so I woke up early to check out the nearby Begoña church, which was celebrating its feast day.

The whole church is on a hill, but the foundation, unusually, does not compensate for this.  So when you walk into the church, you have to walk uphill to the altar.

sleepy

I am very proud of this particular photo... the blue flowers with the blue accents of the church were gorgeous, and maybe this does it a bit of justice.

And of course I found the local cemetery.

I finished my trip with the beautiful thing... flaky, light, and delicious.