Before I begin telling you all about Pais Vasco and how great it is, I'll give you a quick geography lesson. Pais Vasco is one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities located in the north, in between the regions of Cantabria and Navarre. This region borders the Bay of Biscay.
And now, I'll begin with Day 1:
We visited a bodega (vineyard) called Portia. It was interesting to me because I'd never been to a winery/vineyard before. We got to see how the wine was made and then we tasted two different types of red wine. I preferred the first wine over the second because it was lighter and fruitier. The second one was more of your standard red wine: strong(er) and more bitter tasting. On our way out, Fati and I took pretty pictures in front of the vineyard with the colorful trees in the background.
Then we hopped back on the bus (becuase we were only half-way there) and drove to Bilbao. We only stayed one night in Bilbao. It's such a cute city, I really liked it! Once we'd checked into the hotel and gotten situated in our hotel room, Fati, Mary, Brent, and I went exploring during the free time we had before our group tour. Near our hotel, there is a really cool iron bridge and you can see the Guggenheim Museum. The bridge crosses over the "ría," not the "río" because it's not really a river. I forget the difference, but it's not really a river. Later, we met back up with the group and our professors, Saul and Nuria took us on a short walking tour of the old part of the city at night. They pointed out things like the ayuntamiento (city hall) building, and showed us a "rec center" of sorts where people can play this sport that is unique to Pais Vasco (it's a hand-ball kind of thing and it's very popular). Then we went to the Plaza Mayor where they pointed out a few good places to eat pinxos (pronounced: "peen-chos") which are like tapas. We split up and the group I went with went to 2 of the different pinxo places. I had a so/so one at the first place, but at the second place, I ordered the famous baby eel and another seafood one (Pais Vasco is known for their exquisite cuisine and seafood) along with a glass of Txacolí (pronounced: "cha-coh-lee"), a white wine special to Pais Vasco. Surprisingly, the baby eel was delicious! They usually make it kind of garlicy, and I LOVE garlic, and it had the consistency of a noodle. After our pinxos, we wandered around the city looking for ice cream and postcards. We stopped to eat (although I didn't get anything) at Cafe Brazil (hahaha). Pics of the bridge and the baby eel pinxo is the one on the left.
Day 2:
In the morning, we went to the Guggenheim Museum and did our own audio tours. It was pretty cool, I have to say. Then we left for Guernika, another small city, where we saw the important ayuntamiento (city hall) building. It's a pretty important building for them because it's where they all gather to make decisions. Then we ate a FABULOUS lunch. We had chorizo "soup" with some other meat (probably pork) and morcilla (blood sausage) and beans. It was pretty good! Although, we all wanted it to be spicier. Then we all had a seafood salad, which freaked me out when I first heard we were going to be eating it, because I'm not the biggest seafood aficionado. But this was DELISH! It even had the squid tentacles witht the little suction cup thingies and little teeny shrimp. It was SO good! The best and only seafood salad I've ever had. Next, I had bacalao--cod--which was AMAZING! I don't think I've ever eaten cod in my life, but this was pretty darn good! Finally, we had dessert. Oh goodness. It was sooooo goooooodddd!!!! I don't even know how to describe it: a delectable flakey "cake" filled with cream and fruit (berries, mango, etc.) with a scoop of fresh vanilla bean ice cream. It was to die for!!
After we'd stuffed ourselves, we hopped back on the bus to go to San Sebastián. The drive into the city was beautiful, as is the scenery in the rest of Pais Vasco. Fati and I shared a hotel room again, and we had a view of the ocean!!! Obviously, we weren't right on the water or anything, but it was so cool to be able to see the beach from our window! We decided we wanted to go out and explore and see the ocean before our group tour of San Sebastian's Old Downtown. In our tour, we were shown a popular fish market, the port, some new building that didn't match the rest of the architecture, and a point near the bridge where the river water and ocean water meet, but do not mix; the two bodies of water repel each other. When our mini tour was over, us girls went and got ice cream and postcards!
Day 3:
This day was so much fun! We first went to the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum in the small city of Guetaria, where the famous fashion designer was born. The museum was very new and had a lot of pretty dresses that he'd designed. Then we went to a small, family-owned Txacolí bodega. Our tour guide was an old man (the owner, perhaps?) who was too precious! He was cute and funny, unlike the frigid, mean tour guide at the Portia bodega, which also felt like a prison. I like Txacoli better anyways becuase it's a light, bubbly white wine. He had also prepared some tapas for us after our tour, along with some Txacoli to taste on a beautiful terrace overlooking the vineyard and the mountainside. It was like a scene out of a movie--that's how gorgeous it was! He even let us try the mosto, which is the grape juice before alcohol is added. It was so yummy!
After the bodega, we went to lunch at 2pm at a famous cooking school and had more amazing food: an "appetizer" of salmon puffy stuff in a shot class, a mushroom soup with egg (the yoke was runny), grilled chicked with a txacoli and tomato marmelade with "rustic" (mashed) potatos. The dessert was excellent as well! I ate mine and some of Fati's, haha. It was a "brownie," but it was more like a fluffy mousse with a bite of carmelized sugar and raspberry sorbet on the side. yuuuuuuuum. Then cafe con leche afterwards, of course. Even though I was STUFFED. We finally got back to the hotel and then Fati, Brent, Mary, Regi, and I walked up to a church near the ocean with pretty views. Then Reg and I went to take pictures of the beach. Afterwards, the three of us (Fati, Regi, and I) felt like watching a movie because it was cold out and wanted to stay in for a bit. I'd been wanting to watch "Love Actually" and the two of them hadn't seen it before so we HAD to watch it! We were about 35 mins. into watching it online until the internet died and we couldn't recover the movie online. Oh well. Later that night, Regi, Fati, Cassie, and I decided to go out because it was our last night in San Sebastian. We took the city bus downtown and ate at McDonald's because that was pretty much the only restaurant that was open. Then we wandered through the mostly empty streets--odd for a Thursday night--looking for a cool place to hang out. We met a nice Italian guy our age named Pasquale who was studying architecture in San Sebastian. After a little while, we decided to go on home because we had to wake up early.
Day 4:
On this day, we went to a playa (Playa de la concha?) and saw an area with rock sculptures. The strong waves break up against the wall and against the rocks and it's really cool to see the water spray up in the air. On the walkway, there are also holes (kind of like blow holes) where, on a really windy day when the waves are really strong, the water shoots through the blow holes. It wasn't that windy out when we went, though. Still, what we saw was pretty cool! I could've stayed there all day just watching the waves break. Then we took the fenicular (sp?), which is like a little tram car, up the mountain and had even better views of the beach and the little islands! I also saw the lighthouse. Fati and I took lots of pictures. I really liked it up there because it was so beautiful and peaceful. I'd love to go back in the summer! Finally, it was time to leave Pais Vasco and head back to Madrid. :(
