NOMADIC REVERIES: Part II: "Spanish" + Irby do Pais Vasco

Off to Bilbao...

Okay so, Sunday morning after we chatted it up with tia Amalia some more, we got ourselves together and walked out to the front door of our hostel only to realize that the lovely umbrella I brought with us, that I asked my trusted my lovely friend to remember to take off of the bus...was still on the bus, or was keeping someone else dry. Lucky for us, tia Amalia loved us and gave us her busted up umbrella. (Something at that point was better than nothing.) We headed out in the pouring rain.

Good ol' tia told us that we should take the regional train, the Euskatren, to Bilbao because we'd drive along the beautiful coast, AND it was cheaper than the bus...3 HOURS and a sore pair of arses later, we made it back to Bilbao. It was like riding the metro for 3 hours. No bueno but she was right, it was pretty...SO green!

Here is a pic I took from the window of the train of one of the small towns we passed on the way. The architecture in these towns and the lay of the land was so different than other regions of Spain I've visited.

Below is a pic of some warning sign on the train that's in Euskera which is the language that is spoken in Basque Country. Basque is not AT ALL like Spanish or any other language I pretend to speak. It looks like Greek/Russian/German to me.

The first day + night were miserable because of the weather + lack of food. (Our train arrived right when lunch ends, and dinner doesn't start back up until at least 830pm) We were so eager to get out and see things but we were completely soaked and cold. We walked and walked until we reached our hotel. This place was really cute and modern. Not anything like tia Amalia's but we had a really cute, really nice concierge named Jon Lorenzo who was a great help. We got ourselves as dry as possible and headed of the the Guggenheim Museum!

(so excited to go to the Guggenheim --notice the umbrella I'm hold onto for dear life)

I've been in love with the Guggenheim since 2000, when my Spanish teacher had a poster of the monsterous museum on her door. It's something I've always wanted to see and the experience was worth the wait. I got a little camera happy (nothing new) but that's not a good thing when you're in a museum and you're not allowed to take pictures. Ooops! I definitely got my camera taken by one of the security people. She took it and put it in a bag with lots of tape so I couldn't re-open it. Before she did that though, I got these pictures...

The picture directly above this was one of the most exciting pieces of art that I experienced in the Guggenheim. It was this scrolling screen of art that was done by an American artist that was a poem about AIDS and the words came up in English, Spanish and Basque. I know it sounds weird to think that my favorite piece was about a disease that kills thousands daily but it was fascinating to me. We got free audioguides and sat and listened to the purpose of the art work. The words were intimate words used to describle AIDS, the process, the intimacy, the death, the pain, the love...so many things.

Dia 2: We decided to be brave after the first rainy crappy day and went out again...but we bought new umbrellas first and of course...it didn't rain again.

Here are some more pics of the city...

Our last night there we decided to go back to the Guggenheim and try to get better photos but we got there when it was dark so the photos didn't come out very well...You have to go to this museum if ever you find yourself in Pais Vasco. The architecture and the cool sculptures on the outside are the most exciting to me...

Check out Mr. Books 1990-2001 (those of you who don't know, Mr. Books was my West Highland Terrier) he was the cutest dog in the whole history of dogs and because everyone knows it...they made a statue in his honor out of flowers!!! It's so cool because it's a hanging garden in the shape of a Westie, which isn't at all unusual since I see Westie's here in Spain all the time (they know what's up)