It is the weekend of December 6th and we have another " puente" aka 3 day weekend. A few weeks earlier Guillermo, Maite and Lander, 3 of my closest friends from the residence, invited me to spend the weekend visiting their home provinces and towns. So yes, I am going on a real life ROADTRIP in Spain this weekend. The plan is to travel by car from Madrid to Bilbao on Friday, then proceed to Vitoria the capital of Pais Vasco where we will stay on Saturday night, and travel back on Sunday. In each city I will stay with a family from that town or province. How lucky can I be!!!
Here 's some background I learned from my good friends from the north region.
Pais Vasco (Basque Country) is an autonomous community in Northern Spain with its very own language. The language is called Euskara. Obviously, Vascos also speak Castellano as well. Unlike the other languages in Spain, however, Euskara is completely different from Castellano. It sounds nothing like Castellano/Spanish and it has very few words in common with Castellano/Spanish. The most interesting thing about Euskara is that it is considered a natural language which means that it does not have roots in any other language.
So early on Friday morning we all hopped into my friend’s rather small but cozy auto and headed for Bilbao! It was really awesome to drive through La Mancha ( the plains) toward Northern Spain by car! We passed through many quaint pueblos and different towns. We drove through sunny skies, fog, mist and even snow flurries. After about 5 hours of straight driving due north from Madrid, we arrived at my friend’s family’s piso or apartment in Bilbao. We dropped our stuff off in the apartment and ate a scrumptious lunch accompanied by my friend Lander’s family. The food was so delicious! It was nice to eat another home-cooked meal. Lander's family was so friendly.
Afterwards, we set out to explore Bilbao with our guide and friend Lander. We walked all the way to the olde part of the city crossing over the Biscay River. I absolutely fell in love with Bilbao the instant we reached the city center. As an engineer I love innovation and Bilbao's architecture is truly different from anything I have seen thus far. It is a true mix of old and new. There are historically old buildings constructed adjacent to new modern-styled buildings. Everything is all mixed together making the city absolutely beautiful in my eyes.
One of the most beautiful areas was around the Guggenheim, a famous modern and contemporary art museum. The sun was setting just as we visited the Guggenheim area making the sunset views difficult to describe with mere words. Amazing! This museum is an architectural masterpiece and considered a very important work on an international level.
We also walked across the Zubizuri, a pedestrian footbridge which is another architectural masterpiece in this wonderful and unique city.
Later on that night, my friends and I set out for a night at a Discoteca. It was the first time we got to take the metro in Bilbao and I have to admit, it is just as nice as the metro in Madrid, except the cars are even wider! We had an amazing fun night out filled with laughter, music, and the company of good friends mixed with some great food and drink. The following morning we all woke up early (hard to believe) to continue sightseeing. Since Bilbao borders the northern coast, we took a trip to the beach. I don’t recall the name of the pueblo we stopped at but the view of the beach was absolutely breathtaking. My friends basically had to carry me out because I did not want to leave. I can still recall the precipitous cliff overlooking a picture perfect bay beach. I just sat on top of a huge rock and looked out over the ocean....sheer majesty! This is by far my favorite place in all of Spain. No words will ever capture the beauty of this transfixing place or do it justice so I will let the following photos speak for themselves.
Later that afternoon we traveled to Vitoria, the capital of Pais Vasco. Vitoria is a lot smaller than Bilbao but it is beautiful in its own way. It has a very historic feel with a lot of white colored buildings. My favorite part about Vitoria were the Christmas decorations set up all throughout the city. There were Christmas trees with colorful lights, musica Navidena playing and well adorned little shops selling Christmas gifts. It kind of reminded me of Bryant Park in New York City during Christmas. The festive atmosphere put me in the Holiday Spirit! Because my friend Maite served as our fabulous tour guide, we were able to see almost all of Vitoria in one day. It was Saturday night and the city was bustling with activity. There were people everywhere embracing the holiday spirit and enjoying each others' company at the crowded local bars and village shops despite the insanely cold temperatures. Vitoria is well known for its pinxtos (like tapas) that are served at local bars. That night however we were too exhausted to go out and honestly too scared to brace the frigid weather. So we opted to stay at Maite's home and relax that evening. The following day we stopped at a local resturant and ate amazing bocadillos for lunch then it was time to hit the road again- destination Madrid!
Thank you Lander, Maite and Guillo for allowing me to visit your beautiful towns and sharing your families with me! This is a weekend I will never forget! If you ever find yourself in Spain, please visit Pais Vasco. It is a beautiful place full of extraordinary people, joyous culture and amazing architecture. Chao for now!
