The trip to País Vasco! (Basque Country)

Two weeks ago (Friday, March 22 to Sunday, March 24) I went on a trip to País Vasco (Basque 
Country) in the north of Spain with my Art History class, several other students from 
Contemporary Art, my Art History teacher, Sole, and Mr. Morse, the director of the school. This 
trip was mainly academic since we went to visit two different art museums, but at the same time 
we were able to visit a different part of Spain and see what it's like there. 

Map of País Vasco.

We left Zaragoza Friday afternoon at 4 pm. We took a bus to the city of Bilbao first, which took about three hours. Once we arrived we walked to the hotel and were given our rooms. Half an hour later we all gathered in the lobby to walk around the city before dinner. Mr. Morse led the way. Bilbao is very industrial, although it has a old section also. We walked through the old section that night, and after an hour, we headed towards the restaurant where we would have dinner. País Vasco is known for having the best food in all of Spain, and so we got to taste it for ourselves that night. The food was very good, and there was a ton of it! We ate like five different plates. First we had food like appetizers, then the main dish, which was beef, and finally dessert. And all through the meal we ate bread, lots of it. Everytime a basket became empty, a person came to replace it with another filled with more bread. The whole dinner lasted for about three hours. Long, right? But I enjoyed it because I got to know some of my classmates better. 

We left the restaurant close to midnight and walked back towards the hotel. I was so tired. My roommate and I turned on the TV and watched a movie that was playing called "The Sixth 
Sense." She had seen it many times before. It was my first time. It's a scary movie. It's about a 
young boy who can see ghosts. I think it's worth seeing. The ending is very good. When the 
movie ended we went to sleep. 

The next morning we woke up early and went down to eat breakfast. Afterwards we gathered in 
the lobby again and left the hotel together. It was sunny but cold and a little windy outside. First 
we visited a market. All the stalls were inside one giant building that was made out of glass and 
cement. It was very cool. The building was right next to the Nervión River, so we followed 
alongside it on a walkway. Our next destination was the Guggenheim Museum. I was very 
excited to see it because I had heard a lot about it and it's a well-known museum. The shape is 
very easy to remember because it's so different from any other building. Some people say it 
looks like a boat, others a flower that's opening its petals. I think it looks more like a boat, but I 
can picture the flower. Sole, my teacher, knew the Guggenheim well, so she was our tour guide, 
She took us around the first and third floors. The second floor was blocked off because they 
were setting up a new exhibit. We saw paintings, sculptures, and other works of art. In one room were minimalist sculptures that were very big. They were basically long pieces of wood that were curves or spirals that you could walk between. If the second floor had been opened, we would've been able to see these sculptures from above, which would've been cool I think. 

The market building.

All of us in front of the market! Sole is at the far left.

The Nervión River.

The Guggenheim Museum!

All of us in front of the museum.

 After the Guggenheim we had free time to wander around and eat lunch. I went with a group of 
three friends. We went to the mall for lunch since we knew we could find someplace cheap to 
eat. Once we finished we walked around the mall a bit and then around Bilbao. We all met at the bus mid-afternoon to go to our next city: San Sebastián. 

The bus ride was about an hour. San Sebastián is in the northwest of País Vasco. We stayed in 
a hostel, not a hotel, but the hostel seemed just like a hotel. It was pretty expensive for a hostel, 
so maybe that's why. We went through the same process as before. We were given our rooms 
and half an hour later we gathered together and left to explore the city a bit. We visited a church 
that was very pretty. All the churches in Spain have amazed me so far. They're so old but also 
very serene and peaceful. The architecture is impressive. 

The church.

San Sebastián is known as a beautiful city. It's right on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea and during the summer the beaches are packed. The city is also important because it's where the famous Spanish film festival takes place in the summer. People from all over Spain go there for that event. We passed by the building that night. 

While we were walking, a very strong wind blew. It was so cold! Finally it was time to head 
towards the restaurant where we would have have dinner. The room in which we sat was very 
fitting for our trip because on the walls hung many paintings by famous artists, O'Keefe and Dalí 
for example. Again we ate a huge meal that lasted for three hours. And all the food was 
delicious of course. After we finished we returned to the hotel, and I went to bed. 

The next day we visited another museum. It was called the San Telmo Museum. It had a large variety of art. Sole had never gone before so we had to get a guide. Next we went to the beach! We walked the whole length of it, and that's when things got interesting. On this trip only one boy came. He swims, and I guess he said out loud that he wanted to swim in the ocean there. So a girl said half jokingly, "I'll pay you 20 euros if you go swimming." With a little encouragement from Mr. Morse, he went! He took off all his clothes except for his boxers and jumped into the ocean twice! I can't imagine how cold the water was. I've never gone swimming in the ocean during the winter and I don't plan to. When he came out of the water he put his clothes back on. He wasn't phased at all. He said he was fine. He wasn't cold. That surprised me. I would've been freezing. 

The beach!

All of us in the beach. The boy who went swimming is
at the far right.

Mr. Morse told us that we were going to see some sculptures at the end of the beach, so we 
followed it. The sculptures were big metal rings called the Comb of the Wind because they stick 
out of the rocks and the wind goes through them. 

Me and Alex in front one of the sculptures.

Afterwards we had free time to walk around and eat lunch. I was with the same three friends as 
before. We ate in a small restaurant and then went somewhere else for dessert. Everyone met back at the bus at 4 pm and we returned to Zaragoza. I slept for most of the way.

I had a great time in Bilbao and San Sebastián. I would definitely go back and spend more time in both of those cities. Returning during the summer would be the best because that's when they really come alive. There's a lot more activity, a lot more people, and it's a lot warmer. But the cities during the winter are also very nice, and I don't regret going.