Day Number One
Morning
Arrival in Bilbao 9:55AM
Arrival to Colegio Mayor - Check In - 11:00AM
Afternoon
Lunch in the city
Walking tour of Bilbao
Coffee break
Grocery shopping
Evening
Dinner in the dorms
After dinner drink to see the city at night
A very full day. Bilbao is a beautiful city. Europe is so unique.... the buildings, the architecture, the scenery, the people. So cool to be in a place completely different from where I live. It was great to have Christie show me around a city she has come to know and like so much. Her new home.
We did a lot of walking that first day. Up stairs. Yes, up stairs. In a city. So many, many stairs. not. prepared. for. the. stairs. whew. dying. have to..catch... my breath.
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| Typical street in Bilbao |
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| stairs |
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| more stairs |
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| Window in my room |
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| amazing view from my window |
Ok, see the last item on the itinerary? After dinner drink. This elevated my already great day to a new height. Sorry, Dad, your cosmo has been replaced.
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| SANGRIA. My new love. |
Day Number Two
Morning
Breakfast in the dorms
Run along the river together
Afternoon
Shopping in Casco Viejo
Picnic lunch at top of Casco Viejo stairs
Coffee stop
Shopping on Gran Via
Evening
Split: Continue shopping or take a siesta while Christie volunteers, 4:45-6:00
Dinner (Pintxos) in Casco Viejo
I have a deficit in my brain. Specifically, the foreign language processing center in my brain. There is some vital synapse or collection of neurons or something that is completely missing. This is the only explanation I have for what happened on the morning of day number two.
The sum total of all the words I know in Spanish can fit on on the tip of a pencil. But I was determined to pick up a few phrases on this trip. I started to get the hang of saying "gracias" and "hola" and "buenas noches" without feeling totally geeky and self conscious and proceeded to add "perdon" after repeatedly bumping into strangers on the street (Spaniards do not move to accommodate oncoming people. They just keep right on walking. They will walk right into you. This is a fact. I learned it the hard way. Thus, the need to add perdon to my repertoire).
I was staying on the fourth floor of Christie's dorm. She was on the sixth floor. Each floor has a common room. The coffee maker was located in the common room on Christie's floor. Christie is well aware of my need for coffee first thing in the morning (bless this child) so she told me to just come up to her common room as soon as I woke up and put my coffee on...nobody would be in there. When I awoke I was a bit disoriented. Bleary-eyed, I grabbed my coffee and filter and headed out my door, down the dark hallway and towards the stairwell. I didn't notice her until I was practically right next to her. A cleaning woman. "Hola," she said to me. I can only blame the early hour and my faulty wiring for the words that proceeded to come out of my mouth. "Buenas noches," I replied and ran up the stairs.
I would like to say this was my only embarrassing language fiasco. It wasn't. To my blog readers, please refer to Christie's blog post "Series of Dreams" for further examples ......http://christieamrein.blogspot.com/
Day number two was jam packed with activities including shopping in both the old section of the city as well as shopping in the new section of the city. I, of course, loved it all.
The rain in Spain does not stay mainly in the plain. And thus, the next couple of days did not go strictly according to plan. However, the rain could not stop us from going to a futbol game on Sunday night, Bilbao v. Barcelona. Totally, totally cool. Great seats, a real live bicycle kick, an extremely close game (Barcelona scored in the last minute to tie the game) and a crowd like I have never experienced before made it a true highlight.
Day Number Four
Morning
Breakfast in dorm
Split: Go shopping at Gran Via while Christie in class
Afternoon
Reconvene for lunch in the dorms, Christie will not be eating in the cafeteria and will instead make lunch and eat with you, 2:30pm
Survey of Hispanic Literature Class, 4:10-5:30pm
Coffee break
Evening:
Dinner in the dorms
"Go shopping in Gran Via while Christie is in class." See where it says that there? Go shopping. By myself. In Spain. Where they speak Spanish. And I, well, you know all about my Spanish speaking abilities. As well as my sense of direction abilities. So the thought of finding the metro, getting on the metro, heading in the right direction, getting off at the right stop and finding Gran Via was all a bit overwhelming. But it was on the itinerary. I had to do it. I had to step out of my comfort zone. Oh, wait, step out of my comfort zone? Sounds familiar..... Like, maybe, when I decided to train for a triathlon? I GOT THIS. And I did. It was amazing. I rode the metro (in the right direction), found Gran Via, went shopping, bought a few things, paid in Euros, and made it back home a happier, more confident woman. Yay, me, Yay, itinerary.
Day Number Five
Morning
Breakfast in the dorms
Free time while Christie goes to her first class
Afternoon
Run together after Christie's last class, 12:00pm
Lunch in Gexto (beach town)
Walk around and shop in Gexto
Coffee stop
Evening
Dinner in dorms
Gexto is a beach town on the Bay of Biscay about 45 minutes outside of Bilbao. We walked around for a bit enjoying the town then got a little lost in our effort to find a cafe for our coffee stop. It seems a young man noticed our plight and decided to come to our rescue. "Sandy," (like the song from "Grease" he told us, doing his best John Travolta imitation) was a transplant from Cuba who took us on an hour long walking tour of Gexto, telling us about all the town, showing us different sights and leading us up to by far the most beautiful spot in the whole town with an amazing view that we never would have found on our own. (ok, I have to admit, I was a little freaked out at first and had no idea what this Sandy guy was all about and what the heck he was doing and how the heck we were ever going to get away from him and was he going to follow us back to Bilbao and stay with us forever but after a while I realized he was actually just a genuinely nice guy who wanted to show us the best part of the town. Sometimes, it's just that simple).
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| Beautiful day at the beach |
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| Stairs. There's a surprise. |
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| Sandy showed us a hidden cove |
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| Best views courtesy of Sandy |
Day Number Six
Morning
Breakfast in dorms
Run together
Split: Visit to the Guggenheim Museum
Afternoon
Reconvene for lunch in the dorms
Split: free time while Christie goes to her last class
Evening
Reconvene for visit to the Museo de Bellas Arstes
Dinner in the dorms
Early bedtime
"The Guggenheim Bilbao's collection spans from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, concentrating on post-war painting and sculpture in America and Europe. The collection includes key works by significant artists including Anselm Kiefer, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Richard Serra, whose workThe Matter of Time was created to be a permanent installation in Bilbao's largest gallery."
Ok, that didn't mean anything to me, either. I will confess I didn't think I was going to be that impressed by the Guggenheim, just because it's not really my cup of tea. But I was absolutely captivated by the exhibit "the Matter of Time," by Richard Serra. It was awesome.
"Mega-sculptor Richard Serra's mega-installation, A Matter of Time, opened June 8 at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. This huge permanent installation of eight bent steel sculptures is possibly the largest installation to ever be housed in a museum gallery. The work weighs about 1,200 tons, is over 430 feet in length and has taken up residence in a 32,000 square foot gallery. The eight pieces swirl and glide together, creating spaces while imposing upon the space they are in. Imposing as they may be, the sculptures invite the viewer to become participant: to explore around them, to find the spaces within, to play with sound, to stop and start at any point, to move at any speed. Because of its mazelike structure, this installation will leave different imprints on every person that passes though the experience." (look at it on you tube).
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| The Matter of Time. Blurry because the lady slapped my hand as I was taking the picture. Clear translation in any language: no pictures allowed. |
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| Why is there a ginormous dog sculpture outside of the Guggenheim? |
The people of Bilbao are beautiful. No, seriously. They are dressed to the nines at all times. You can scour the entire city and will not find one person in sweatpants or wearing Uggs. Young and old alike. The eighty year old woman sitting next to us in the restaurant looked effortlessly chic with her jewels, her blond bob and her black leather pants.
Siestas are wonderful.
Trips to the market for warm bread quickly become a necessary activity of daily living.
Looking strangers (particularly men) in the eye and smiling is strictly verboten. I learned this the second or third day I was in Bilbao. It is considered extremely forward. Well, I guess there are about 15 men (and probably about 12 woman) who are waiting for me to give them a call.
Time with my daughter in Europe....priceless.
And on the seventh day....we rested.
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
To be continued.......
To be continued.......
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