Hola Amigos!

Unfortunately I am a bit late in updating this post but I took my second trip out of Belgium to... *drum roll please*... SPAIN!

It was warmer, there were palm trees, there were tapas... it was Heaven. Or at least seemed like it compared to the cold, rain, and snow I've been living in the past few months :)
I traveled smart this time and brought my Spanish-speaking friend Yonseili with me. (Ok, ok.. I actually tagged along on her trip to visit Hugo. whatever.) This was a huge benefit because we had quite a fiasco with the trip from Santander to Bilbao. Our scheduled 8:30PM bus didn't show up until 40 or so minutes later and when it did it did not have the correct destination on it. Fortunately, Yon came to the rescue and figured it out for us.

We were greeted at the station by 2 girls and Hugo was nowhere to be seen. They said he was at a party and would catch up later, needless to say, Yonseili's face was priceless and my main objective became damage control. Fortunately, Hugo had set up this lovely prank and showed up right before Yonseili freaked on everyone. We were treated to rice, shrimp, and salad when we arrived at Hugo's.

Stairs from the Metro, whoa!

Note: Yonseili and I felt like champions for navigating our way through 3 bus station and an airport in just a few short hours, so we thought we could easily tackle these stairs. It was an experience in and of itself, and I'll leave it at that :)

So Saturday, Yonseili forced me out of bed around 8AM with a panini and chocolate milk compliments of Hugo. We started the day with a small hike to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, the most refreshing view I have seen in a while.Then we ventured back into Bilbao and started the days site-seeing excursion. Hugo was a great guide and showed us his campus, the new and modern parts of Bilbao, as well as the old city with the brick streets and tiny allies. We ate lunch at an incredibly trendy Spanish buffet offering 30 salad options, made-to-order meat and delicious desserts. We were also lucky to be in Bilbao the night that Carnaval started. SUCH a fun experience, everyone was dressed in crazy costumes and just marched through the streets of the old city singing, dancing, and throwing confetti. Of course, Yonseili and I indulged in the fair food with the largest cotton candy I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. 

Then we kept walking! We walked to the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao's largest claim-to-fame and reason for the huge tourist boom in recent years). And then we went home and passed out! Sunday we got up, Hugo's roommate Julie took us shopping a bit and then we packed up and headed to the airport. 

The Guggenheim

It was a quick vacation, but I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing yet another culture. It gave me a huge appreciation for Central and South America that I have never had much interest in, to be frank. And little did I know that I would actually understand more Spanish than the French I studied all through school and have been diligently working on for 2 months. I felt really comfortable and almost at home in Spain and would love to come back for a visit to Madrid or Barcelona. Maybe in the future :)