Bilbao

The irony in staying busy is that it means I have less time to blog about all the things I'm doing. When I'm not doing much, I have plenty of time to write but not much to write about... But I'm happy that I don't see the latter happening much :)

I'm starting to develop a routine for Mondays: Class 9-11, 12-2, and 3-5. Soccer 6-8:30 and then dinner, blogging about the weekend, and finally bed.

This week we had Tuesday off school because of some sort of saint festival. As I don't have class on Wednesdays, I jumped at the opportunity to travel a bit. I convinced Brooke to skip her Wednesday class and we took a bus to check out the northern Basque city of Bilbao. Our friend Gaby joined us on Tuesday afternoon, as the bus ride is less than two hours long, but she didn't stay the night.

In Bilbao, we:

saw a to-scale model of el país vasco (Basque country) in the Basque museum

posed in front of a giant puppy made of flowers

visited the Guggenheim  

saw cool graffiti under a bridge

walked along the river 

walked on this iconic pedestrian bridge

walked along the river some more 

took a train the the top of a nearby hill

admired the Guggenheim and the river and the pedestrian bridges from above

aaaand rode the train back down

We also visited an archeology museum and another art museum. Bilbao didn't charm me the way some cities have, but it's always fun seeing new parts of Spain!

After class on Thursday I rushed back to my room, scrambling to finish my Daily Tar Heel column before going to hang out with a group of friends at Brooke's apartment. We all went to juevintxos together, which is a combination of the words "jueves" (Thursday) and "pintxos" (tapas). On Thursday nights, a bunch of bars in Casco Viejo (Old Town) offer deals where you can get one pintxo and a caña (tap beer) or copa de vino (glass of wine) for €2. The vegetarian options are limited, but I had one with scrambled egg and mushroom, and one with a huge pile of goat cheese. The base is always a slice of French bread.

Today is a designated chill day for me, as I need to write yet another article (this time for a campus magazine) and run some errands. The new camera charger I ordered in the mail arrived today, just in time for my day trip to Biarritz, France, tomorrow!