Exploring the Basque Country!

We were fortunate enough to be able to stay with Jackie while visiting Spain.  She moved into an apartment in Bilbao while we were there.  We loved having a space to make meals, including a homemade Paella recipe (from Sergio's mom).  We were appreciative to be able to invaded her and her roommates space for a few days!  While we were staying with her we explored Old Bilbao, the hanging bridge, the Guggenheim Museum and San Sebastian.  We stayed with Jackie for 4 days before traveling up to Paris.

When going to a Spain - ask your friend if she plans on moving while you're visiting!

What better friends could Jackie ask for but ones that fly 7+ hours to help her move!

While we were in Spain, Jackie moved from her familiar family in Haro to the city of Bilbao.  We took a bus for a few hours then a subway, much like the L in Chicago to reach her new home.  She was quite familiar to this new home as she lived in the same apartment in the same room nearly 5 years ealier when she studied abroad!

Bilbao was a great experience.  I was able to see how Jackie lived 5 years ago and know how her life has changed over the last few years to bring her back to the same place she spoke so fondly of.

We wasted no time getting in and aquainted with the public transportation and city itself.  While Jackie unpacked, Shorty napped (she loved the siesta!), Aubs and I went into downtown to look around (which I will feature in another post).


That afternoon we met up with Jackie's boyfriend, Sergio who graciously drove us North to the Bay of Biscay where we could hike to San Juan Gaztelugatxe.   If you have the opportunity to visit and hike this - DO IT!  Jackie was so inspired the first time she went, she decided it is where she'd like her ashes spread - so yes, when we're all old and wrinkled she wants us to do this hike and spread her ashes... hmmm?

Describing the hike just doesn't compare to the photos we took.

Above is the hiking path.  We parked high upon the hill because they only open the road to the base of the walkway when there is a special event going on, like a wedding.  So we hiked down the dirt path (in red) first to arrive at the road (in green) to eventually arrive at the stone walkway only to ascend 200+ steps to the church!  We picked a great time to hike - right at sunset!

Our initial descent.

 Smiling because we haven't really figured out how much further we still have.

 Finally to the stone walkway!

 We have a bit still to go...

 

Finally the church, if you look to the left of the photo under the awning, there is a white square.  Below is a bigger version of what it looks like.

I have been in school since being back from Europe, one of my classes is Digital Illustration where I used the church as my inspiration.  Below is my illustration.

We captured some spectacular sunset photos on our hike back - oh and remember we still had the reverse hike to do, down then back up.  I feel like I am mimicking a parent telling their child, "I had to walk to school up hill both ways!"  Well we really did go up hill BOTH ways!

Sunsets are my favorite!

And then because the sun was setting we had to watch out for these squishy suckers!

 

I still have the rest of Bilbao, San Sebatian, and Paris to deliver so, stay tuned!

Back to Europe

So after we enjoyed ourselves at the circus we spent the next few days in Haro. 

We had planned on leaving Tuesday for Bilboa but an unexpected flu and the Huelga, the country-wide-strike, kept us in Haro a few days longer than planned.

With those few more days we were able to get to know Jackie's family and explore the town including the vineyards that the area is so famous for.

 The Bull Fighting Ring 

- bull fights are mainly in the summer and go as a tour so there aren't multiple in a row in one town.

 One of many roundabouts in Haro depicting their export, wine grapes!

 Jackie's family - Ricardo's side

 Jackie's discipline backfiring! 

Haro's Catholic Church

 Part of the Horseshoe - Jackie talks about it in her blog.

 One of Haro's many plazas

 We walked through the vineyards at sunset!

 In the vineyards!

 This wild grass is EVERYWHERE!  It looks lavender in the sunset but the tops were cream color.

 SMILE!

Grapes, we could literally walk through them as opposed to those vineyards in the states.

When going to a CIRCO in Spain...

bring your camera!
If I hadn't brought mine, we wouldn't have these wonderful (possibly scary) memories!

While visiting Spain we had two major goals - see the country and see Jackie's Spanish life!

After Madrid, Segovia, and Vitoria we visited Haro and stayed with the family Jackie was an AuPair for.  They were so gracious to have us in their home!  It was a fantastic way to become familiar with the culture and the language.  The parents have two wonderful kids that Jackie took care of while she was there for nearly 6 months.

The second night we were in Haro we (4 American girls - Elana, the mom fondly referred to as) took Blanca, the 4-year-old daughter to the Circus (circo)!  It was quite the specticle!

It was about a 90 minute show that included some elaborate costumes, some very flexible ladies and creepy make up that didn't help the ODD factor!   The only animals were the costumes that people wore and a young tiger that you could take photos with during intermission!  I think I liked the 3-day-old popcorn the best while at the circus!

 The stage

When we returned home we were bombarded with little spunky kids that wanted to finally come play with us!  Samuel was a little shy before!

 

ahhh!

When in Spain you should be prepared for:

• Spending more on coffee than you ever thought possible because it tastes so much better there!  Even the coffee from a machine is better than most cups in The States!  
• Nothing is to go- so sit down and enjoy yourself!  
• Bring a packet of tissues where ever you go, TRUST ME!  
• Not everyone takes a siesta - apparently that's for the really young and really old!  
• Yet, when it is siesta time, the streets are quiet and it's a fantastic time to take a walk!

So we arrived at our hostel and by the looks of it I could survive on a collection of items from friends - they're so resourceful with their extra toothbrush, deodorant and soap!  :)

While the girls went to seek out some place to eat I had to take a nap - which may have been my demise but it felt so good!  Parisian blinds are the best for naps!  I slept for a few hours and then swapped with the other girls and took my turn running other errands with Jackie!  She had to get her suitcase from her friend's place that she stayed with the night before.  I met a few girls living in Spain that were from California, what a fun life I imagined them having.

Before you knew it, it was time to eat again and so we ate a little something and met Jackie's friends for a drink at one of the bars in their neighborhood.  The streets of Madrid were a fantastic adventure for me; I loved how they were so much different than Chicago's - but of course Chicago is most likely 1000 years younger than Madrid and had some great city planners on their side.  I love Europe's street name plates placed high on building corners and if they changed the street name the new one was just above the old one!  Our first night out was an experience - Spaniards keep their drink cost low by providing the bare essentials in their establishments.  No toilet seat, no bathroom tissue!  Hence my above mention of bringing tissues and while you're at it, hand sanitizer where ever you go!

The next morning - still luggage-less - we woke up and ate breakfast and made a few stern phone calls to the baggage claim.  They assured me my bag arrived last night but just NOT in time for the ONE guy who makes all the luggage deliveries!  If I thought I wasn't in Kansas then I was delusional!  Spaniards are a bunch of passionate but not-so-urgent people!  They weren't really concerned that I was about to embark upon day 3 of the same clothes!  So instead of waiting around for them to casually deliver my bags, I took it upon myself to head to the airport to fetch the bag - there it was all sorts of dirty and waiting with all my pretty things inside!  We had a busy day ahead of us so after getting my bag we headed straight to the train station to buy tickets to Segovia which by train is only a half hour north of Madrid and SO, SO, SO worth the day trip!

We arrived in the middle of no where and figured out we had to take a bus into town - a whopping euro got us into town - that is one of the things I most enjoyed about Europe, their public transportation is wonderful to use and so reasonable! 

We arrived to see the Roman aqueduct with far away glimpses of a castle tower - how fairytale-esque!

We took some photos, visited some shops, listened to some street performers, and eventually made it to a square to enjoy our first glass of SANGRIA!!!

 

This guy was fun to listen to and watch.

 

A beautiful church in Segovia, I promise even though the little girls looks like she's avoiding a UFO attack, there were no signs of martians!

 

We did a lot of this - sitting and enjoying the day!

Yumminess!

I don't know why some of my photos look grainy.  I promise they aren't!

Then after our drinks were drank we ventured to the castle to take a tour!   But first we happened to run into quite a few street performers!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching them work - especially this guy below pitching his photos!

This guy was playing a violin via his puppet?  and a little girls was enthralled with him!

We made it to the castle!

We walked through the castle then we trudged to the top of the tower - 150plus steps to the top!  Ugh!

 The sun dial in the courtyard.

Knight in shinning armor!

A very pretty garden

 

Gorgeous View - almost looks like a painting!

We made it to the top to see this view!  Segovia was magnificent!

Darn shadows...

Being totally appropriate with Carlos III!

We encountered this drum show with what looked to be high school aged kids performing in the streets with this fun leader making signs and signals to begin a new formation or dance.  

I believe this among other unusual sightings were a part of the Hay Festival (a festival of conversation, literature and world class music!) that was taking place the weekend we visited.

Walking back toward the aqueduct and on our way back to Madrid.

After spending our time in Madrid and visiting Segovia we ventured north into La Rioja - another providence of Spain.  We checked out Vitoria first before we made our way to Haro, where Jackie had been an AuPair for nearly 6 months!  

So excited to be on a 3 hour train ride!

What do you know - another festival.  We came upon Vitoria's Medieval Festival.

Scary dragon and its keeper! AHHH!

Their faire may be a little more accurate than American medieval fests with their foul and fur hanging for you to buy!

You know those cool 3D chalk paintings you see in your email every so often and think how cool they are - we saw one in Vitoria's square!  It was really neat in person!  The drawing was literally 75 feet long!

 Sergio did us the honor and took a couple of silly photos for us!

Finally we took a bus ride to Haro where we were able to meet Jackie's family and get well aquainted with her town!  We even took Blanca, the 4 year-old to the Circus!

You will just have to wait and see how the circus went - it was quite the experience!