Sunday, July 5, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Dr. Dalai and his family in come to Bilbao
I had a VERY busy week. Dr. Dalai and his family arrived Monday morning after spending a week in Italy and a couple days in Barcelona. We all spent the rest of the week seeing Bilbao and some of the surrounding coast. On Monday, I took them to Getxo to see Puente Colgante, enjoy some of the beaches, and have some delicious ice cream from the new port. Tuesday was spent at the University where Dr. Dalai gave a presentation and got to know the lab, faculty, and Eva who may be his future visiting student. After the university, we went to the Guggenheim and enjoyed the new exhibit by Cai Guo-Qiang who does all of his art with gun powder, and was responsible for the amazing opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It was really quite interesting, especially for modern art. We saw everything in Bilbao from Gran Via, to El Corte Ingles, to the ribera, to Casco Viejo and made a day trip to Mundaka to enjoy some of the coast and a typical Basque village. They also got to see my flat and meet my roomies over dinner at Bilbao's only Indian restaurant. It was Jon and Ibai's first experience with Indian food. Dr. Dalai and his family seemed to enjoy their stay in Bilbao quite a bit. Also, after translating for an entire family for a week, I think I can officially say that I speak Spanish. My communication skills seem to have improved a lot.
Being a tourist in Bilbao again was interesting. The city has changed a lot now that it's summer. In the slideshow below, I included the first picture I took of 'Puppy' by the Guggenheim, and you can see how much he's changed in the four months I've been here.
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The perfect day
Yesterday (and part of today) was a perfect day! By day, I literally mean 24 hours, where 22 of those hours elapsed from the time I left the flat shortly after 8am Saturday morning until I returned to the flat shortly after 6am Sunday morning. It was a day that was packed full of adventures and fun! After I left the flat on Saturday morning, I headed to the metro for the commute to Plentzia to meet up with 11 other people from the lab. Once we were all together, we rented some kayaks for the morning. The adventure company provided us with everything we needed and made us look very professional, then, drove us close to Butron Castle in what we thought were Jurassic Park vehicles. I only got a glimpse of Butron Castle but what I did see was breath taking and I will go back there just to see the castle in the near future.
After a quick lesson, our guide got us all in the water and we headed down the river back to the sea by Plentzia's beach where we started. Eva and I shared a boat, which was a bit of a gong show. Eva sat in the front and was terrible at looking out for rocks and sand bars, so we hit a few things and got stuck on two sandbars. I sat in the back and wasn't very good at maneuvering us through the harbour of boats that we had to go through. But we laughed the whole time and had a lot of fun, nonetheless.
When we had de-saltified after the kayaking, we made our way to Eva's to have a BBQ in her backyard. Koke and Rober BBQed all sorts of meats, sausages, and vegetables and it was all delicious! Then, Eva and I surprised Carolina with cake for her birthday and she got serenaded in three languages - Basque, Spanish, and English. After digesting the huge meal, some of us enjoyed the sun and the pool while others enjoyed a siesta on the lawn.
Eventually, Leire, Naiara, Jon, Ivan, and other friends started to show up, and some of the people from the lab went home. Eva, Sandra, and I ventured to make a large batch of Sangria despite that none of us knew how to, but it turned out to be delicious!! With plenty of beer and Sangria to enjoy, the pool party continued well into the night. Eva's backyard is on top of a hill over Sopelana in Urduliz, so we could hear the concerts from the Sopelana festival and at midnight we had an excellent view of the fireworks from the pool.
Around 2am we decided to pack up our large group of people and head to the festival down in Sopelana. Here the streets were packed with people, crazy-loud music, and SO many bars - outdoor bars, indoor bars, and a variety of bars that were both indoor and outdoor. It was the first official festival of the summer; San Juan starts it all, and then they continue in different places around the metropolitan all summer long! I love living in a place where there are fireworks at least 3 nights of the week, everyweek, all summer long!!
We finally decided to call it a night around 5am and managed to get back to Miribilla around 6am. Wow, was I TIRED!! What a day! We couldn't have asked for better weather and everything from kayaking to fireworks to great people really made the day absolutely perfect!
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
San Juan - June 23, 2009
Yesterday, June 23, 2009, was the longest day of the year a.k.a. San Juan and it was an excellent day! In the afternoon, Ibai picked me up from the university and we went to Sopelana to enjoy some sunbathing on the beach (not the nudist beach, thank goodness), some swimming in the salty water, some beers in our favorite bars, and supper in an Aussie-surfer restaurant (but the food was really quite Spanish as were the people working there... we weren't really sure why they claimed it was Australian). Then, the girls came to Sopelana for the festivities of San Juan!
San Juan is the celebration of the longest day of the year. Large bonfires are lit to represent the sun so that night never has to come, and you can enjoy light for the entire longest day of the year. As soon as the sun started to set, the sky started to fill with smoke. Every couple hundred meters, there was a bonfire from the coast to the center of Bilbao, and I'm sure much farther than that. By the end of the night, when we were taking the highway back home to Bilbao, the visibility was horribly reduced and the smell of bonfire wafted into the car through the vents. It was really quite remarkable. I imagine that the entire metropolis burning to the ground would have had a similar effect.
Now, I know what your thinking - if there are so many bonfires, how do you choose which one to go to? Well, that's a good question. It involves a lot of careful thought and a bit of strategy. I had stated that I wanted to enjoy my first San Juan bonfire along the coast, which was widely accepted amongst my friends, and then we discovered that one of the bonfires offered FREE hot chocolate! So, clearly our search for the perfect bonfire was over. I should note that hot chocolate in Spain is not some crappy powder mixed into hot water or milk. Oh no!! Here, hot chocolate means HOT chocolate. Real, delicious chocolate heated up until it's liquid. It truly is an inspiration for attending a bonfire. Not to mention I had forgotten my coat at home that morning, and only had my beach towel (conveniently a Canadian flag that allowed me to 'represent the homeland ') from the earlier beach going and was a little bit chilly before the fire really got going.
This is a tradition that I'm bringing home. Next year, San Juan in Saskatoon and you're all invited!!
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
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