Bilbao Baggins?

Next stop on the European itinerary is the beautiful, yet less visited, city of Bilbao in Pais Vasco (Basque Country, the northern region of Spain).  My friend Christina had taught in a city close to here and lived in the city 2 years ago so she served as our informative, charismatic tour guide (and we didn't even have to tip her, what uppp, friendships rock).  So we met up at the Madrid Metro pitch black and early at 6am to get to the airport by 6:45 and catch our flight.  I thought I would be able to make up some crucial zzz's on the flight but little did I know there would be such fascinating flight material to read on the plane!  As we sifted through the pages of our travel catalogs, we took turns choosing our next destination in the world.  Our choices varied from relatively realistic places (oh hi Barcelona) to more exotic endeavors to the far off Asian continent (sorry, not this trip Hong Kong).  Once landed I was relieved to find out that I hadn't left my bad travelling luck in Madrid as I noticed my phone slipped out of my pocket on the plane and it had most likely taken off to its next destination.  Lovely.  But our adventures were only bound to improve, and so they did, as we took the bus from the airport into the city center.

We decided to grab a bite to eat after checking into the hostel and the Cien Montaditos of Bilbao (a type of bomb diggity sandwich shop) and it did not disappoint.  Bodegon Mendia had a full display of over 20 types of delicious sandwiches (bocadillos) on the bar and our choice of beer or sangria to wash it down (is noon too early?)

Heaven between two slices of bread.

One of the first differences I noticed from Madrid and this new Basque province was how beautiful the countryside really is.  There isn't a place in Bilbao where you can't see the mountains and landscape which is really a difference from the sometimes claustrophobic city center of Madrid.  Don't believe me?  Check it out.

Now what can make this scenery deadly is when you are too distracted by its beauty that you don't realize there is a street lamp right in front of you.  Just ask my friend Sarah.  Or more specifically, the purple bump on her forehead.

After walking around the city for so long we naturally became hungry again, which was no problem, considering how UTTERLY MOUTHWATERING the food up in the north.  The pinchos and tapas (small portions of different types of food) were the best I've had in Spain yet so we made sure to stop by as many restaurants as possible.  We stopped here..

Casco Viejo barrio of Bilbao

and here....

Plaza Mayor of Casco Viejo

to grab some of these delicious tapas.  And truth be told, I could not resist in buying my first caramel frappuccino in Spain.  I was on a food rush and it was calling out to me with its creamy, caffeinated siren call.  Worth it.

We continued to walk around the city admiring the beautiful buildings and enjoying the lack of congestion so often confronted in Madrid.  

Cathedral, naturally.

Amphitheater at the riverside park.

Ice Cream Parlor Street.

Government Building.

No idea, but it looks really cool.

We stopped by an ice cream shop that we were told had every type of flavor you could imagine.  While it was definitely lacking in the unagi-sushi-doused-in-wasabi flavor department, it maintained the hype with bacalao (type of fish) flavored and cheese flavored ice cream.  A friend bought the cheese flavored ice cream and one by one let us try it.  We each had the opportunity to savor in its surprisingly warm, moist flavor, gently tickling our taste buds with a sour and potent punch of musty nausea.  Then it was the trash can's turn.

From there we stopped by the Arts Center where we enjoyed a rooftop drink while listening to the WORST music we had ever heard (think synthetic jazz meets Alanis Morissette), but still relaxing in the cool sunshine nonetheless.  And it even had a rooftop swimming pool!  With windows looking up into it!  Was it awkward?  It sure was!

Man in Speedo

rightfully thinking no one is watching him from below.

Directly after the bar we thought it was a great idea to try and check out the pool and ended up right in the middle of a silent library, which personally I believe is a great place for a group of half buzzed 20-something-year-olds.  What was interesting, however, is that the columns were all painted and decorated with art all over the world.

Follow that with several city shots...

And finally the Guggenheim Musem!  The world famous Art Museum that people dream of going to!  Did I go in?? Nope.  Modern art was not my thing that day, I much rather take pictures from the outside and walk around the city to get a feel for it.  Do I regret it?  Not in the least.

Don't bark up this tree!

No but seriously, I'd imagine there's a pretty hefty fine.

Fwwwwends.

Aragog making a cameo in Bilbao.
No post is complete without an HP reference.

The Goog in all its glory.

Totally Toledo

My next Spanish adventure brought me to the old capital of Spain, Toledo.  The city served as the main capital of Castile (and most of Spain at the time) until about 1516 before it was moved to Madrid.  Of course no morning bus ticket is complete without witnessing a minor skirmish-turned-heated-screaming-battle in line at the station.  A young girl tried to cut in line and the mom and elder Spanish woman had some choice Spanish words for each other.  The fun didn't stop until the bus finally left the station while the mom followed our group saying she was going to call the police.  Officially woken up at this point, my friend Christina and I watched the Spanish country side from the comfort of our bus window seats.  We arrived in this medieval city at the bottom of a mountainside that was exhausting to even look at.  There is a good viewpoint of the city across the river so after quickly trying to navigate through hilly streets that would put San Francisco to shame, we decided to split a cab. And we're glad we did because that trek would have taken hours and we got some great shots of the city!

Ugh. #imatourist

Toledo is known for its beautiful, narrow streets and alleys.  Sometimes it is almost dizzying how narrow some of the streets are, but for the most part they were all really beautiful.  Then of course you have the Cathedral which supposedly has an ornately decorated mosaic of sorts inside but we didn't see any of this because entrance to the church was 7 EUROS!  Say whaaaat?? We politely declined and chose instead to walk the streets and get lost a little.

So despite not paying exorbitant prices to enter a cathedral (which are so rare in Spain to begin with) we still got a good view of the exterior of it.

From here our stomachs guide us to what seemingly looks like a harmless Spanish place to eat.  Or so we thought..

The Fat Bell.  What could possibly go wrong?  Answer: everything.

We were ushered inside by a very polite Spanish hostess and were pleasantly satisfied with ourselves for having chosen such an authentic place to eat at.  Then the waiter came.  Correction, the insanely perturbed hombre with a receding hairline and apparently nothing to look forward to ever.  Now customer service in Spain is not exactly top notch to begin with (ahem non existent), but this guy decided to take that to a whole new level.  While browsing through the menu, Christina had happened to ask, completely in Spanish, what he would recommend as an entree.  After examining her in silence for about 15 seconds, he blurted out one of the dishes that was barely audible then proceeded to glare at us until we ordered.  That was the only word we heard from him the whole time.  After tossing silverware and throwing the pitcher of water on the table, we were only too happy to not have the luxury of his presence anymore.  Unfortunately after the lunch it was necessary to ask where the restroom was and, true to form, his response was a curt point of his finger to a random corner of the place.  He then spun right around and marched off.  All lack of courtesy on the server's part aside, the lunch itself proved to be another test on our lives.  We ordered the paella which is very similar to fried rice but with other meats and seafood inside as well.  This particular paella had lots of different kinds of meats and seafood, but the problem was it had too much of the meats and seafood.  Every bone in that chicken's body must have been poured into this rice because you could not take one bite from it without snagging your tooth on some foul's body part.  After spending nearly 30 minutes trying to separate the bones from our rice (and not choke) I was only all too ready to devour my salmon.  In my haste, I did not realize that yes fish have bones too and took a massive bite right out of the center of it.  It felt a little like sticking a small pine cone in your mouth.  Needless to say, after this ordeal we discovered a new translation for La Campana Gorda, the lunch of death.

"Are those bones??"

"Yes, yes they are."

As if this weren't enough to terrify us of the new city, as we walked out of the restaurant and down the street we began to hear dim music in one of the alleys.  As we investigated the source of this eerie blend of halloween music meets evil flute player, we found it emanating from a closed shop window right next to life-size Freddy Krueger and hunchback statues.  The hunchback was a cross between Igor, the servant helping to create Frankenstein, and that creepy old man who ferries you across a river in the 15th century.  So naturally we took a picture with them.

After this odd turn of events, we headed down to the Synagogue at the end of the city.  Toledo was and is known for having nicely blended Islam, Christianity and Judaism peacefully.  There are relics of each of the religions all around the city which make it fascinating to walk through.  This synagogue had awesome architecture on the inside and a mini art exhibit of Hebrew works of poems and paintings.  Each drawing had a ton of symbols that were a little difficult to understand through the Spanish/Hebrew explanations but most of them were very nice.

We ended up running into friends exploring the city too and had some coffee and walked around.  The city was especially great because besides having great architecture, cathedrals, culture, etc. it's on the side of a valley with a river running through it.  So we were able to take some nice shots of some landscape as well.

AND THEN, OF COURSE, why does anyone go Toledo?  For the swords.  Every other shop has "hand crafted" swords that are fully available for purchase.  The best/scariest thing about this is that it is a popular item for parents to buy their children.  The wood swords are suitable I suppose, but I just don't really see the utility of having your children run around wielding metal swords outside with their friends unsupervised.  However this does not deter me from REALLY WANTING one regardless.  I will have to make a return trip just to buy a sword.

And here are just some more random pictures we decided to take.  Until next time, Toledo.  When I finally buy my sword.

A house/church made out of Toledo's famous Mazapan candy substance. 

Now that's what I call a sweet crib, jajaja.