Bilbao and San Sebastian
We were freezing our butts off in these two cities in the Basque country. After leaving Segovia and hanging out with the hostelers we’d met at the hostel, we went on the sleeper train to Bilbao. After staying at a hostel, we were quite impressed with the train. We had our own little room with a shower, sink, and a bunk bed. Of course, the shower was cold, so that proved pointless. The rooms were narrow – with our backpacks on, after we walked in, we had to back out because turning around was just impossible. It was probably more expensive to take the sleeper train, but we just had to try it once! The conductor was a friendly old guy, making sure that we knew when and where to get off the train.
When we arrived, it was really just a matter of collecting ourselves and figuring out what to do. We wanted to head up to San Sebastian right away and then leave exploring Bilbao for the next day. With my broken up Spanish, we managed to make it all the way to the bus station AND get some meds for Donna at the pharmacy. Her stomach was still bothering her at this point, and it was starting to cramp the traveling style. Haha. :p And it was a good thing too – after taking the meds, she got better pretty quickly and was able to eat that same night! WOOHOO.
We took a bus over to San Sebastian. I didn’t really reserve a hostel, but had some idea where to stay based on someone else’s recommendations. So we walked from the bus station to the general area, and with Donna’s supervision, we found the hostel. It was a little disappointing though because after checking in to the one hostel, they took us to a different building, which just wasn’t as nice. :( We wandered around the area a bit, checked out the old town, and did a little hiking. San Sebastian is a typical resort town, known for the beaches and surfing. But the first day that we were there, it was just butt freezing cold. :( We DID pack for the summer, so yeah – not prepared. It was like being in San Francisco! Donna was feeling better by the evening, so we found a great tapas place and basically pigged out. It was so wonderful. In the evening, we didn’t go out or even socialize with our hostel. It was just a bunch of people gathered in the kitchen talking about their experiences while drinking. WOOHOO. Yeah, not my thing, so we hid out and went to bed early. The girls in our room were pretty loud and inconsiderate, so we were glad it was only for one night.
The next morning (of course, just as we’re leaving), the sky had cleared up. It was gorgeous out, and we had to go! So sad… We took a couple of pictures, but then we were on our way back to Bilbao, which hadn’t yet cleared up. In Bilbao, we did a lot of walking and a little shopping too. The shopping was more for staying out of the cold. I picked up a Mango zip-up hoodie – it’s been quite useful throughout the trip. Checked out a museum… Went to this one restaurant where we ordered a ton of stuff, but it wasn’t exactly delicious – only okay and edible. Some things were waaaay too salty. A little disappointed, but it kept us out of the cold for an hour or so. And some time during our trek through Bilbao, we witnessed some guy sitting by the river basically shooting up into his already bleeding arm. Ick.
Before heading to the airport, we found ourselves sitting on the top floor of Corte Ingles, a Spanish department store, sipping on cafe con leche. Next stop – Barcelona.
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[1] The Bilbao train station. When we first got there, we didn’t really have a clue what to do with ourselves. So first, we asked someone in the train station about perhaps putting our bags into lockers. Funny bit was that when he goes to open up a locker to let us put our things in, he finds someone else’s bags already in the locker – UNLOCKED. So he’s going ahead and calling security, and we wander off for breakfast and end up carrying our luggage all the way to San Sebastian.
[2] La Mejillonera – The Mussel. It was where we pigged out on tapas in San Sebastian!
[3] Footprints in the sand.
[4] The sky was so blue the second day. Such a difference from the first day. If we weren’t rushing back to check out Bilbao before our flight to Barcelona, we would have stayed a little longer.
[5] Bilbao is the current home of the Robert Indiana exhibit. There are numbers from 0 to 9 and then various versions of “love.” Yup, I’m lame. I went and took a photo of each one.
[6] through [8] The Guggenheim!
[9] Donna doing some crazy ass jump in front of the hanging bridge.
[10] The #6 was next to a weird patch of grass. Lumpy!
More photos: Bilbao – May 2007 and San Sebastian – May 2007
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