New Years Eve was a long day as it included a day trip, eating way too much, drinking champagne, stuffing raisins in my mouth and dressing up as a unicorn. But we'll get to that later.
Let's start with Bilbao.
As pronounced in the title, Bilbao is a small city about two hours away from Pamplona.
A purse filled with snacks for the 2 hour bus ride.
Candy, Jamón flavored Ruffles (which are actually really good) and Pan de Angel.
The necessities for a trip.
My sister, her boyfriend and I took a bus at 10AM and arrived at Bilbao at around 12PM and started our tour.
Train Station to get to our destination
Look another clock!
Now one of the main attractions in Bilbao is the hanging bridge that has been hanging around Bilbao for many years. People can walk on the bridge or if afraid of heights go on the cart under the bridge and under it. And if you have a car, you are in luck because that crate full of people who are afraid of heights can place their cars on the cart and get their car carried to the other side of the city.
Pretty nifty huh?
I remember the first time I came to the hanging bridge was 3 years ago when it was just my sister and I.
Our aunt took us to Bilbao to show us and right as we were about to take the elevator up to the bridge a little boy came up to us and said (in Spanish)
"Someone died up there!" (points to the bridge)
Thanks Spanish kid. Thanks.
I think the kid was lying (I hope the kid was lying) because my aunt had no information on such said person dying and was positive that we weren't going to die.
Good, because at that time I was not ready to die at 17 years old and not live to see my high school graduation.
(Off topic, is it weird that the last time I was in Spain I was a teenager in high school? Is it weird that I feel old looking at that? Am I supposed to feel old? Is that what the 20s are about, feeling old as a teenager despite the fact that I was a teenager a year ago...Jesus where did the time go.....)
Fast forward to 3 years later and I'm alive and there was no kid to tell me that I was going to die.
I was going to be ok, guys, I was going to be ok.
This is not the hanging bridge, obviously,
It's another clock!
This is the walkway on the hanging bridge
As you see it says Puente Vizcaya (Vizcaya Bridge) and as some of you know my mother's maiden name is Vizcay.
(This has no affiliation with the Vizcay part of my mother's name nor the Vizcay side of my family, it's just a coincidence, like that one time I was eating lox while writing about seafood..that kind of coincidence)
You can't see it very well, but this sign says to not jump on the bridge as the part I was one was wobbly and could cause the bridge to shake.
Like a 5 year old, when someone told me not to do something, I did it.
I did not jump.
I guess I'm mature now.
This is my new boyfriend.
He's quite stiff as you can see he is quite stiff.
But I don't blame him, I think he was off guard
Note: Credit to my friend Kacey who came up with the last said joke.
Good one.
View from down the bridge.
Luckily in the picture with my boyfriend you can't tell that it was extremely windy on the bridge.
Like my hair was flying all over the place and it got really really cold, and plus we were waiting 10 minutes for the elevator to take us down.
It wasn't fun.
After walking on the bridge we walked down Bilbao some more and then stopped for some pintxos for lunch before heading off to another part.
These are the never ending stairs that we found these two boys at.
I have no idea where it leads to but they are probably useful in the summertime when everyone is in bathing suits and swimming in the water.
Not winter time when you are layered in thick pants and the water is freezing cold.
We found an outdoor exercise place!
This is the restaurant where we got our Pintxos, and of course like in Spain we ate around 2pm and it was crowded, so we were lucky to find ourselves a tiny table for the three of us.
(Translation of the Menu: The best medicine is good food. Amen restaurante. Amen)
Picture from left to right .
Left: Croquetas de Roquefort
Right: Bread
Middle: Patatas Bravas
Inside of the Croqueta de Roquefort (which I think was garlic, cheese and something else I forgot. BUT IT WAS SOOOO GOOD)
This is a chicken skewer that we saw everyone in the restaurant eating, so naturally we wanted to see what the big deal was, so we got some ourselves.
We understood what the big deal was, it was good.
This is an Viennese coffee in that it consists of cream, strong coffee and cinnamon.
It was delicious.
Another clock!
Another major attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim museum. Filled with modern art and the above dog statue, this museum is famous.
Confession: I've only been inside the Guggenheim once and remember it as being really white with paintings that I don't remember.
This time it had a special exhibit of bathroom installments, like toilets and sinks.
And in the words of my Uncle Peio (in Spanish translated to English): "Well if that's modern art now then we have our own art exhibition in our own home!"
He's totally right though. No offense to modern art, I love it but if I wanted to see a toilet I could have gone to my bathroom and not paid a couple Euros to see one.
But every time we go to Bilbao we always make a pit stop at the Guggenheim to take a picture in front of the dog. It's like a Bilbao tradition.
The wavy looking building is the actual Guggenheim museum and if you look closely on the bottom under the green bars you can see a huge spider statue.
As a person who has arachnaphobia, I refused to go near the statue.
Thanks but no thanks.
This is the University of Bilbao that resides near the Guggenheim museum.
After crossing the bridge we walked more into Bilbao and caught the last train at 7:30PM to await our New Years festivities.
Now mind you that in the next post it's still the same day, just a different activity.
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