Bilbao - Day 2, San Sebastian

When I told people I was going to Bilbao, the next question was usually, "Are you going to San Sebastian?!?" The answer to that was, "Yes." A drive of approximately one hour from Bilbao, Sanse is apparently the 'pearl' of the area - Patri telling us it was full of beautiful people who are proud of being from Sanse, dressed in expensive clothes, and tourists. Oddly enough, that description reminded me of Sydney :P

Upon getting there and seeing the beach, it was nice but I wasn't particularly impressed.

Looking towards the cliffs

Posing along the seaside

Patri however noted that we were not in the area that she had intended us to look at. We started to climb a hill (I think, Monte Urgull) and took a nice look over the city. 

A nice, flat city.

Looking down the path. Hmmm, steep. 

The path took us through the back parts of the old town...

And then all of a sudden we were behind the Town Hall and had a view of the Bahia de la Concha (Bay of La Concha)! Gorgeous! 

The front of the Town Hall (formerly a cashino!)

Having gained our bearings, we decided we should venture into the Old Town to get pintxos for lunch.

Oh hell yes! Two types of fish ones, one with prawns (gambas), a croquette, one with jamon and goats cheese

Pintxos on the bar

Chillis at the bar. There was muchas muchas more pintxos but I was too busy eating to photograph. This was all washed down with white wine and then apple cidre that cost a...wait for it...€0.80/glass. HOLY BARGAIN!!!

After lunch, we walked along the promenade to the beach and then went down to exfoliate our feet. Alas, we didn't bring any swimming accoutrements because it was allegedly supposed to rain. Instead, it was a glorious 29C day. Boo.  

Looking back towards the Town Hall.

 

Looking over La Concha

Mmmm, blue...

Feeties

Happy smiles 

Looking down the promenade

kekekeke

After sitting and relaxing and looking at the beach, Patri asked us if we wanted to take the funicular up Monte Igueldo to get the classic tourist experience. Si!

Waiting for the funicular

On the ride up

Oooh, greenery

Once we were up there, we were treated to a really lovely view over the city. *sigh* This is slightly higher view than the panorama at the start of this entry.

Being tourists :D

I can't remember what this building is but it looks cool

We could also see into the Isla de Santa Klara in the middle of the bay. We think some of the people there may have been making mischief.

And the view out to the Bay of Biscay and Atlantic...

As lovely as the view was, there was another great surprise (for me) up there...

a cute old skool fun park, the Parque de atracciones Monte Igueldo! 

This way to La Casa del Terror!!! I kinda regret not demanding that we go on this :(

But I did demand that we eat churros! Quote "I need to eat churros so say I at real Spanish churros!" It was crispy, sugary goodness. Best churros I've ever eaten!

Patri opted for a chocolate covered churro. Here she is force-feeding Juliane

As we ate, we watched this guy offer pony rides. 

And here's some guy really enjoying the clear blue sky.

A great day and highly recommended place for everyone! 

Bilbao - Day 1

Many many moons ago when I made my first trip to Euroland, I planned to go to Spain but never did for reasons I won't explain (but mostly involving money). In the time since then, many people made the trip to the Iberian peninsula only to and tell me to go. As my mental love affair with Spain continued, I promised one day that I would go and that it would be EPIC. Well I have. And it was EPIC!!! 


Hailing from Bilbao in the Basque country, as Patri left Muenchen to return to the sunny shores of Espana, she extracted a promise that we would come visit her. It was no hardship to agree to this, and so this past weekend, I finally managed to fulfil a dream and visit a chum! As we wandered around the city, she filled us in on the (recent) history - Bilbao was previously a city dependent on shipping and the iron industry, resulting in a city that was not...shall we say, planned for aesthetics. The city underwent a crisis in the 80s due to changes in the economy, industry, and terrorism. Since, then the city has implemented a high level of urban renewal, largely fuelled by the opening of the Guggenheim Bilbao in 1997, such as developing parkland and pedestrian areas, and building a tram and underground metro system. Melbourne - ARE YOU READING THIS?!?!

 Anyway, after waking up early, she took us for a stroll around the newly revitalised areas as we headed to the restaurant she had booked for lunch. 

Posing with Juliane, I think that's a Richard Serra sculpture in the background.

Happy smiles along the Nervion River

Prior to our arrival, Patri had asked whether we preferred to have paella or pintxos (tapas) for lunch. Knowing that we were going to San Sebastian the next day, a place famous for its pintxos, and answer was a resounding PAELLA!!! 

So we ended up going to Larruzz Bilbao

Our shared entree - a giant slab of foie gras!!!

The paella! It took 25 minutes to make, was scrummy and yet so different others I've had - as you can see, it wasn't as yellow and not as sweet as the versions I'd had in Aus. Also, they were very liberal with the seafood *thumbs up* 

Good thing it was like the biggest paella pan I'd ever seen because I wanted MOAR!!!

After lunch, we did more strolling around the area.

Hold on, that's a very distinctive building in the background...

Oh! It's the Guggenheim! 

Some architectural features.

The building, designed by Frank Gehry, is also surrounded by a number of sculptures such as - 

Maman (the spider has a giant egg sac) by Louise Bourgeois

I can't remember what this is called but it's by Anish Kapoor

And then of course, you walk up to see...

Puppy by Jeff Koons!

Some of the renewed space near the museum.

After our wanderings, we decided to do some shopping. Therefore, there are not photos. We also went to a party at the Old Harbour (ummm, I think Casco Viejo) and met some of Patri's friends. But we were buggered and had to leave at the relatively early time of 1am to make sure we were ready for our full day in San Sebastian. 

Evil animals

Before I start my orgy of Bilbao-associated posts, I just want to post this (somewhat disturbing) video of baboons kidnapping feral puppies and raising them as part of the family. These dogs then become guard dogs for the baboon pack against other feral dogs. 

This is a really disturbing video - to see how the baboon acts and especially for people who would get distressed at watching the baboon drag the puppy away from it's mother and hearing the puppy whining and yelping. However, while I was watching this, I started feeling even more disturbed to realise this may have been how humans domesticated dogs :O!

Pre-Bilbao - Patri's Hat

One of the jokes about doing a PhD at UniMelbs is that we do it because Bachelor graduations are sans hat. It's totally a case of "What the hell? I don't get a hat for graduating? Then I'm going to get the biggest hat I can!" Well guess what - in Germs, people who graduate from their PhDs get NOTHING AT ALL. Okay, they get to be called Dr. and it's easier to be rented an apartment because of that (lucky for my flatmates!) but still...NO HAT!!! With that utter disgrace, Germans have developed a tradition of making mortarboard graduation caps covered in items that represent the graduating person and things they did during their studies.


We made one for Patri prior to our visit to Bilbao to her surprise - she didn't think we'd make it because she technically received her PhD in Spain. Sif we'd not do that!

 Jul does the presentation

Big smiles

Now she's a real doctor!

The things we put on it - a mouse = her experimental animal, a six-well plate simulating a retinal explant, Barbie clothes and accessories showing she was a lab fashionista, the flags of Germany, Spain, and Basque Country, and various photos of lab people. 

Movie review - Nothing to Declare/Rien à Déclarer/Nichts zu Verzollen

Because life here isn't tough enough for those who can nichts Deutsch verstehen, I decided to test out my imperfect ability to speak two languages by watching a French movie with German untertiteln. HAHAHAHAHAHA. However, as this movie demonstrated, some jokes are universal, even with imperfect comprehension.  


Set in a border town between France and Belgium (I can't remember the name), the movie is set just as France and Belgium decide to open their borders and therefore close the manned customs office (Bureau de Douane/das Zollamt) located there. The news produces great grief in Ruben Vandevoorde (Benoit Poelvooerde), a proud Wallonian (French-speaking Belgian). A noted Francophobe (whom he refers to as *camemberts*), he becomes overzealous in his pursuit of potential French smugglers - they're just going to his country to ruin it! His French counterpart Mathias Ducatel (writer-director Dany Boon) largely regards Ruben as an annoyance except for the fact that he's dating Ruben's sister (unknown to Ruben) until one day he waves through REAL drug smugglers who are only to be caught by the Belgians 5m down the road. To overcome the two men's enmity and explore ways that Customs Officers can be used to catch smugglers in the age without border controls, the two are forced to spend time together in a crappy car patrolling the border. Cue the odd couple and cultural jokes!


To be honest, there was nothing ground-breaking in this movie. The jokes mostly derive from  making fun of accents, national stereotypes, the arbitrary way in how people can be prejudiced against others despite sharing a common language and (largely) geographic location, and the slapstick attempts to smuggle and to catch the smugglers. But that's not to say it wasn't pleasant. Despite the difficulty in switching between two languages, one that I'm learning and one that I no longer know perfectly...I totally understood the jokes! My main criticism would probably be that despite being mostly a light-hearted comedy, there are moments of violence that seems so out of place in the context of all the other things happening in the movie. And of course, there is random nudity and sex - this wouldn't be a French movie without it. 


Anyway, Nothing to Declare/Rien à Déclarer/Nichts zu Verzollen was a very easy way to ease myself into both languages and I suppose something to recommend to people who might want to watch a French film with English subs. 
6.5/10

Parasol!

Upon my return from Amsters, I had a visit from Uncle Vandepoon who was in town for some work conference and to check out the city. Luckily the weather was quite nice so I was able to take him to The Hofbrauhaus for Schweinebraten und some dunkel bier, and then to the Chinesiches Turm on another night.

His arrival also heralded the delivery of some care items from Oz (thanks for the Tim Tams and the Twisties!) but also a gift that he'd hauled all the way from the Vandepoons - a PARASOL!!!

The one I received :D

(photo source)

And since the weather was so nice, I was able to wear a full skirted dress and carry it with me. I had quite a few people tell me it's *totally me*. Hehehehe I should have taken photos - I didn't, but I will! Thanks everyone!

Quote of the Day

"Are you colourblind?"

- from Stephan after seeing my outfit of a red shirt under a blue dress, paired with black and purple knee socks. He's lucky I thought that was funny. 

Amsterdam - Day 3

On our final (half) day in Amsterdam, we decided to do the really touristy things like visit museums. In this respect, we had a 3 hour window to cram in The Diamond Museum, The Van Gogh Museum, and the Rijksmuseum - entry to these are free when you purchase the I amsterdam card. 

Of these three, I'd probably say I enjoyed the Diamond Museum the best, which surprised me given my (alternative) past as an Art Historian! It follows diamonds from their creation billions of years ago in the Earth's core to being pushed to the surface in magma/lava flows, mining, use in society, jewellery, etc. It was REALLY interesting! There was a supercheesy thing at the end where you could make a photo with a famous diamond-encrusted crown onto your head and email it to a friend. I tried to put the Russian Imperial Crown on my head but we couldn't figure out how to do the emailing so here's a photoshop attempt :P

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Regarding the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseums, they are both quite good but I guess the AH background was what actually stopped me from enjoying them so much? As much as I enjoy looking at a Van Gogh, especially his later works with more colour, I can't help thinking that a lot of his popularity is not so much derived from the works themselves inasmuch as people regard him as the archetypal misunderstood genius. Cult of the celebrity if you will. I couldn't help thinking that his works are not really that technically proficient nor exhibit subject complexity. I'm probably being a snob here. But the colours are nice :D. The Rijksmuseum doesn't suffer from that analysis from me. It's packed full of excellent masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age, particularly Rembrandt and Vermeer. But...it was so small! It is being renovated though (since 2003, according to Wikipedia) so perhaps a substantial part of the collection is in storage or on loan.   


And so, that was nearly the end of our trip as we picked up our luggage from the B&B and headed back to Centraal Station to catch a train back to Schiphol. But hang on - there is one last thing you need to know! Much to Amandine's disgust, I managed to get a raw herring fillet and eat it in a bun with pickles and raw onions. 

Two views of the bun, also a demonstration of having the wrong settings for the camera on my phone. 

Despite it's somewhat haggard appearance, I thought it was pretty good! But then, I am a bit of a food viking...