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Ah. I apologize for the slight delay in my blog entries. I failed to have time to finish these before jetting to Paris for the weekend. I do hope you'll forgive me. If not- go away, you don't need to read this anyway ;)
Anyways, I do believe I left off with us getting ready to go out. We got ready and left the house around 12:30am to meet up with some of Nerea's friends. They were just hanging out in Bilbo, under an overpass (they do it classy here), and drinking. We sat there for awhile with them, but it was pretty cold, so we decided to go to FEVER, which is apparently the best club in Bilbo. It was a lot of fun. We stayed there until 7am, and took the metro home. We were in bed at 7:30, and had to wake up at 10!
After we woke up, we got up, had a delicious breakfast complete once again with fresh squeezed orange juice, and got ready for our road trip!
The first place we went to was Lekeitio. It is a beautiful coastal town. It was there that I had the best calamari of my entire life! (See picture below) It didn't need sauce or anything. It was absolutely delicious. Believe me, I've eaten a lot of calamari in my life, just ask my sister about our trip to San Francisco! ;) This was the best! After eating and walking around a bit, we headed back to the car to set off once more on our journey.
Next stop: Gernika. You may be wondering where you've heard this name before. Honestly, you most likely haven't! It's not very well known, EXCEPT for Picasso's famous painting : The Bombing of Gernika. Yep. That's about the extent to which people of the world know of Gernika, Spain. However, to the people of the Basque country, Gernika plays a very important part of history. It has a lot to do with meeting and making rules, and a tree. It's actually quite interesting, but unfortunately history is not my thing and I tend to forget it! Whoops!
Next: Mundaka. There was a surf competition going on here so we decided to stop and take a look. Apparently the waves here are usually quite amazing, however on this day, NOT SO MUCH. Therefore they moved the day's events to a different day that would hopefully have better waves. Meaning, I missed out on watching hot men in tight suits surf on waves. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. But turns out that it was ok, because the information desk gave us pretty posters and maps. Good thing I'm easily distracted and amused :)
Next: Bermeo
We stopped in Bermeo because they are famous for their fish Bonito del Norte. This is my new favorite fish. It's kinda like tuna, but 100 times better! It had a beautiful view of the coast. We sat and had coffee and just looked at the ocean. We weren't there for long, but I had a lot of fun.
Last stop: San Juan de Gaztelugaxi
This was by far the most exhausting part of the trip. This was a church that was basically at the the top of a rock that was in the middle of the water. The only way to it? Hike down a muddy trail and then climb a mountain of steps to the top. Think that stopped us? Nope. Even though it was raining and I was in white flats and had no jacket, we decided to go anyway. It was absolutely gorgeous. We hiked the trail (holding on for dear life the entire way) and then started the climb to the top of the rock. Nerea and I counted the steps to the top. The final number: 231 steps! It was such a good workout though. I loved it. We got to ring the church bell at the top and then we managed to watch the sunset over the ocean. Very very pretty. Totally worth it.
Well- That was it for day 2. After this we were exhausted so we went home, had dinner and passed out while watching tv. All in all, it was a fantastic day!
Okie. Dokie. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I had quite the busy weekend. We had a 3-day weekend, so I went home with my friend Nerea to her parent's house in Getxo ( pronounced Get-cho) There were really 3 different parts to the weekend, so it only seems fitting that there will be 3 different blog entries :) We took the 8pm bus on friday night to Bilbao (which is about a 2 hour bus ride). We got in around 10 and Nerea's dad picked us up. We drove to Getxo (about 15 mins away from Bilbao) and there her parents had dinner waiting for us on the table. Her parents were absolutely amazing all weekend. They wouldn't let us do a thing! Each night we had a nice home-cooked dinner, and each morning they made us breakfast complete with fresh-squeezed orange juice.
But anyway, sorry about my tangent.. - After dinner we got ready and her dad drove us to a bar that her friend Natxo ( pronounced Na-cho) manages. We met up with a few of her friends and just hung out, danced, and had a good time. We got home around 3, and crashed because we were so exhausted and we had a busy day ahead of us! Cute little sidenote, when we got home, her parents had pulled out our beds for us, and even folded the blanket back so it was ready to get in. So ADORABLE!
On Saturday morning, we woke up at 9, had delicious breakfast, and headed out. The plan for this day was the city of Bilbao. However it's super funny because in Basque ( which is the region of Spain that is very controversial because many Basque extremists don't want anything to do with Spain and want to secede from the rest of the country) the name of the city is Bilbo. Remind you of anything? Because it definitely reminds me of Lord of the Rings- Bilbo Baggins! bahahhahahaa.. I know. I crack myself up. Anyways- we went to this lookout at the top of a hill where you could see all of Bilbo. It was absolutely gorgeous. Then we took this tram-thingy that was almost like a roller coaster, only it didn't go fast, down the hill and we were in Bilbo!
The first item on the list was seeing a famous bridge. It was really a cool bridge. It's called el puente zubizuri. I have absolutely no idea why, but it's kind of a cool name :) Next stop? The GUGGENHEIM! Such a cool museum. The architecture was fantastic, and the exhibits were really cool. Honestly, I'm terrible with art, but it was really cool to see. Although, I must say that I think the museum hated me. I ripped my pants AND got yelled at for taking a picture. hahahahaha. Whoops! That's what I get for trying to be a rebel! I honestly thought I could get away with it, but then when I took the picture, a bell started ringing and next thing I know I had a woman coming over to me yelling, saying "no photos! No photos! I'm watching you!" This was in Spanish, which made it even more scary! Especially when she pointed her fingers at me and made the "I'm watching you!" motion!
After we left the Guggenheim, we just went and walked around the city. We stopped and had kebabs, and then we went and had ice cream! I had a scoop of coconut ice cream and a scoop of lavender ice cream. The lavender was fantastic! Also, as we were walking, the woman came up to us with a box, and was like, "you want to play a game?" Of course we wanted to play games! So - thinking it was something fun, we stick our hands in the box and pull out pieces of paper. We read what it says, thinking that we are going to find out what our prizes are. Only to find out, that we had all just contracted different STD's !hahahahhahaha.. Apparently it was an educational thing about having safe sex, not a GAME where you win fun prizes. hahaha.. The girl then gave us a spiel on safe sex and handed us condoms. Oh goodness, what a fun game!
We then took the metro home, and took a nap from 7:30-10. Had dinner at 11, and then we got ready. The rest of the night will be included in Blog #2 because most of it took place between 12am and 7am (which technically was Sunday's adventure) :) Ta Ta for now!
OH WAIT! haha.. Here are some photos from the day's adventure in Bilbo!
It's a good thing that I don't mind being the oddball in a crowd! haha. Last night I went to a Roman themed party. Of course, in true Yvonne fashion, I dressed up. So did other people, but none of these other people were GIRLS! I was dumbfounded. Some guys dressed up, but I was the ONLY girl in the bar dressed in theme. hahahaha It's ok because my outfit was amazing. I made it out of a pillowcase, silver string, and a silver scarf. Cost? Less than 5 euro. This is the life. When I come home, I don't think I'm going to know what to do without the lovely Chinese shops that have come to be my crutch in Spain whenever I need something! Also, when I come home expect me to want to theme everything! Including, classes, dinners, workouts, etc. I'm going to want everyone to dress up with me too! So get ready!
Let me just say, even though I was the ONLY girl in a Toga, it was awesome :) I don't understand why people don't wear them all the time? They're actually quite comfortable!
P.S. I will not be here this weekend, so I most likely won't have any updates on here until Monday night! Hope that's ok! XOXO
Sorry I haven't posted. I don't want to waste my time or your time by posting when I don't really have anything to say. ;)Anyways- 2 thing for today, aren't you lucky!Last night was a Hippie Party, and once again I wowed them Spaniard with my costume capabilities. haha. ok maybe I didn't wow them, but I wowed myself and that's all that matters. It was fun! They played good music ( a nice mix of club music and 60's music). I don't have class on Thursdays, so I stayed out late dancing and having a blast ;) Here are some pics!
Today, I took the bus with a couple of friends to Olite, which is one of 3 historic castles in the Kingdom of Navarra. King Carlos III lived here. It's a gorgeous piece of Gothic artwork, and it was very interesting to see. The town was small and didn't have much going on, so we weren't there for long, but I'm glad I went. Here are some pics :)This first one is a picture of the windows in the King's Chamber. It is taken from the outside, but you can see how absolutely gorgeous the Gothic windows are. The pointed arc is characteristic of architecture from that era, as is the long window. So pretty.
This is the Church of Santa Maria. It's quite gorgeous. It was closed, so we were unable to go inside. But the outside was gorgeous!
With my first few million....... 
Welcome to my Kingdom :)
This Mulberry tree was planted by King Carlos III himself over 500 years ago 
The Queen's Garden :)
Here is the bridge I was telling you about!
Honestly, I didn't break this bench. It was like that when I sat down!
