Bilbao!

This past weekend I went with Kelsey, Kayla and Matt (one of the guys in our group) to the city Bilbao. It was about a 10 hour bus ride away and was a very nice city.

The White leaning/not straight bridge that is near the Guggenheim museum. 

We left Cáceres Friday the 28th of October and spent Friday night in Valladolid and went out walking around and got to see the house of the famous spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Our hotel room was ridiculously big. We had a family suite and it had the main door and then 2 rooms with their own locking doors on either side of a small walk space through the first door. It was awesome! We definitely could have fit at least 8-10 people in this suite comfortably. lol.    

House of Miguel de Cervantes

View from our hotel room in Vallodolid. Didn't get any shots of the hotel rooms themselves.

I found a new pair of awesome boots while in Valladolid and they were super cheap!!  We left the hotel at about 10am the next morning because our bus left for Bilbao at 11am and we did not want to miss it. Once we got to the bus stop we went to the cafe and got some breakfast and took it to go so we could eat on the way to Bilbao. When we got to Bilbao the first thing we did was go to find our hostel. it was quite a ways away and we ended up walking through a street called San Francisco and it was apparently the "bad" street in Bilbao. we were glad we had walked through it during the daytime and not nighttime. 

The door to our Hostel which was on the 4th floor with no elevators. Good thing that we are young and able!

Our hostel was a good half hour walk from the bus station and by the time we got to it we were so glad to be able to sit down and relax for a few minutes. The hostel we stayed in this time had no Internet and was on the 4th floor of an apartment complex and had no elevator. It was good exercise to walk up and down but it definitely got a bit tiring after a while. The lady who showed up our room was very nice and helped us with some names of food places that she recommended and such. Our room had a newer TV in it and I think that was to make up for the no Internet aspect. lol.  it wasn’t too bad all together. I felt like we were in a hotel because they made our beds every day while we were out and about.

This is one way they sell books here in Spain. Kayla and I saw something similar to this while we were in Madrid at the beginning of the semester.

Just a very gorgeous building in Spain. There are so many old building here it is hard to believe just how old the country is until you really see the buildings!

Just a pretty Picture of Kayla, Kelsey and I on a bridge near our Hostel the first night while we just walked around a little bit here and there.

The first day we were there we just walked around and went to a grocery store where we got some wine and food to eat for the night because we were hungry and it was only about 5pm and most restaurants were not serving dinner yet because it was too early. We did get hungry around 11pm and so we went out to see if we could find somewhere to eat that wasn’t too expensive. We found a small place and sat down and the waitress told us we had to decide quickly because the kitchen was closing.  After about 15 minutes of trying to figure out how the menu worked and not being able to do what we wanted we just each ordered something different from the menu on the ala cart selection. I got duck leg with potatoes and it was sooooo yummy!!!  Definitely worth the money for me. It was by far the best meat I have had so far in Spain. We got charged for using silverware which we weren’t happy about but we dealt with it and then went back to the hostel to just hang out and we played card games and drank wine.

A dance called El Rine (not sure how it is actually spelled.. tried to google it and came up with nothing... lol) but it seemed to be a local thing that happened often outside the Cathedral of Santiago.

Matt and I decided to jump in and try to dance as well because it looked fun and we definitely tried and we had a few people show us how as we struggled a little to pick up the exact moves but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me and I loved it!

The music for the dancing was all live and it sounded as though it was something that was playing from a recording and was great music to dance too!

We caught the TV show Ninja Warrior on TV and decided to watch it and it was awesome. Ninja warrior is a show where all these Asian people compete through these obstacle courses and they only have about 70 seconds for it. There are a lot of wipe outs and just plain stupidity misses. It is the funniest show ever. Lol.  we went to bed around 2am and slept pretty well. At least I did.

didn't grab one of the orange things in time was out of the game. Kinda like musical chairs.

A day picture of the view from the bridge near our hostel. Bilbao was a for sure very beautiful city and I wouldn't mind going back again. Not much to do really but it was a pretty and calm city that was just nice to relax in.

Sunday we decided to go visit the museums and we went to the Guggenheim museum. I recognized the name but never really knew anything about it. It was pretty interesting I have to admit. We got a student discount and a little radio thingy that we could listen to all the information about the different exhibits by punching in the number at the exhibit. It was pretty cool.  We probably spent about 2.5 hours there alone and then we went to subway afterwards. It was pretty nice and although not as good as the subway back home in Iowa it was still something close to it.  We also went to the cathedral of San Santiago and looked through it and it was very pretty on the inside.  

The back side of the Guggenheim Museum.

Me in front of it looking all pretty like ;)

The big puppy statue made out of plants mostly flowers.

Big creepy spider statue supposed to represent the artists mother...

Some weird architecture artwork thingy that Matt and I got a picture with.

The 4 of us with the Guggenheim in the background.

The puppy again. see that small person in the red shirt there? that is me not realizing i was in the way of the picture.

Front of the Guggenheim. it was very shiny and pretty.

This is a picture of the four of us on the bridge that isn't straight.

The front of the Cathedral of Santiago. (also known as St. James)

Monday we went to the street Gran Via and shopped. It was pretty great although definitely tiring and I have a huge blister on my little toe which hurt like no other. I got a new shirt that is reallllyyy soft and some new leggings and I got a pair of tennis shoes and some work out clothes to start running in. it wasn’t too bad. Monday was also Halloween and I am sad that I missed it from back home. It is my favorite holiday and I’ll be glad to be home for it next year.  That night we also watched the movie Jason on TV in Spanish. It showed pretty much everything just as they do in Europe for the most part.

Playing games and getting awesome pictures.. lol

and I've no idea about this one...

or this one.. haha   but we were definitely having a great time!

We did a little of our own karaoke.. to glee music that Kayla had on her computer. it was great. I believe that this picture was a picture of me attempting to sing bass.... haha I was totally failing.

Matt and Kelsey Cheering in the background and apparently me in deep success mode or something.. idk but this is an awesomely timed pic because I'm quite sure i didn't pose like that for any pics haha

Cathedral of Santiago

Cathedral of Santiago prettiness..

Cathedral of Santiago again.

We found a giant baby head statue while shopping.. and Couldn't resist taking pictures of and with it haha it was interesting..

Just a cute little woman/girl statue that we found. there were 4 of them and so we each got a picture by a different one.

Tuesday we left Bilbao at 10am and this time it was a straight shot bus ride all the way back to Cáceres. But at least the bus was mostly empty the majority of the time and we were all able to have our own seats and stretch out and sleep a bit if we wanted.

Bilbao wasn’t the most interesting city ever and I’m not sure I would have chosen to go their if I had been on my own but I am very glad that we went and who went. It was a great trip with great company and I wouldn’t take it back for anything.

Until next time!!  J

Love Christine.

Cáceres Blues Festival

Hola!!  

I'm just opting for a quick post about this past saturday! We went to a blues festival that was happening in the older part of the city and although I chose not to go friday night so i could catch up on some papers I am very glad I went on Saturday night!!  It was pretty good and I enjoyed it a ton. :)

and a couple pictures of course! (Borrowed from my roommate of course)

The stage and background with people around it

A good view from a distance of the stage and the area that they usually hold concerts at here.

ok well i know this was rather short but I wanted to post a little something on it and some pretty pictures! enjoy :)

Lisbon, Portugal!

 LISBON!!! :)

Lisbon, Portugal. Definitely a city I can honestly say that I plan to return to again someday for sure. I dont know if it will be during my study abroad time while in spain again but I do know that I had the time of my life this weekend. It was by far the best weekend I've had in Europe in the 3 and a half weeks I've been here now. I went with Kayla and Kelsey and Ding( Chinese kid from the UK that we met through Erasmus program) it was so much fun. We stayed in Yes! Hotsel. It was the best hostel I've stayed in so far. At 11:30pm every night they do a free shot for everyone staying there and also give you the chance to sign up for homemade dinner evrynight and it only costs about 8€ and it is a full course meal.

A B-E-A-utiful site of Lisbon.

FREE SHOTS!  They were so Yummy!! :)

Ding and I on the Train as we left Cáceres at 2am

btw this was my first traveling train ride ever!

We left Cáceres at about 2am in the morning Thursday night and arrived in Lisbon at about 8am Friday morning. We went to the hostel and they let us lock our bags up and then we went to get coffee from a nearby Starbucks and took a 2 and a half hour city tour led by a home grown citizen of Lisbon and got to know a bit of the history of part of Lisbon. I was worried that it would be really boring and we were already tired and wanting to go to bed but it turned out to be very interesting and informative.

Starbucks!

The Statues on the arch behind us have a Man and a women on either side of the angel The woman stands for Strength and the man for Wisdom.

Right after starbucks waiting for the walking tour to begin.

In front of a pretty church. I don't remember the details of it.. lol

The inside of a church where the paint always peels because of how right outside of it the christians burned hundreds of people to death and now they only paint red in the church as a reminder of the deaths.

A pretty view of the sea next to the city.

Kayla, Kelsey and I next to a statue we thought was Pesoa but it wasn't lol

This is Pesoa, Famous writer in Lisbon

Palace and the arch without us  just a pretty picture i thought :)

A close up zoomed in picture of the man and woman and angel.

(btw I am on the train back to Cáceres  right now and as I am typing this up I am listening to star wars at the moment. lol it is very very stimulating lol)

Anyways, the tour turned out to be amazing and then we went back to the hostel and checked in fully and went up to our rooms and got settled and went to take a siesta and just kind of chilled a bit for about and hour or so the. When we got back up we decided to sign up for dinner that night it was called piri piri chicken. We went out and explored a little more and then came back and just kind of chilled a bit until dinner. We met a lot of Americans and a couple of Australians and some canadians. They were all very fun and nice to be around and the dinner was absolutely amazing and delicious. We first had pieces of toast with a spread that I almost didn't try because of the tuna in it but Kayla tried it and told me that if she could try it so could I and so I tried it and couldn't even taste the tuna in it. It was the most amazing spread I've ever had. And after that we got soup. The soup was made from spinach and carrots and something else and was very yummy! And after the soup we had the main course which was the piri piri chicken. It came with rice and salad. Both were yummy. The chicken was spicy which I loved (of course) and I went back for seconds and somebody asked me how I was able to eat all that I was eating. After that we hung around until they brought dessert out and then for the free shot. Kayla, Kelsey and Ding all went for a walk and I went upstairs to the room so I could Skype Ben. With dinner we all got 3 free drinks included and I got sangria and it was the most amazing ever! After a while I started singing something about donde años. It didn't make my sense and I have no idea where it came from but it was funny and some guy came up and was l like nice to hear someone singing around here and I was like you don't wanna hear me brake glass and the Guy thought that I had said brake ass...   Lol it was sooooo funny! Definitely kept me laughing all night. when Kayla and Kelsey finally came up for bed they were tipsy and were laughing it was a great night to start the weekend!!

Saturday. It was a great day as well. We Slept in until about 930am and then got up to go down to breakfast because they had a free breakfast every morning until 10am and it consisted of eggs, toast, rolls of some type and juice and it was amazing and yummy!!!  Then we went and took a tram to Belem which was a different part of the city and was pretty neat. They had an old tower and a monastery and a couple museums. The main thing that went to see was this pastry shop. It was famous for a pastry there that I cannot remember the name of at the moment but I took a picture of the name so no worries :) we went to the pastry shop right before we left and got the pastry where I accidentally thought that a pastry looking thing put in front of me was one of my 2 pastries that I ordered and took a bite and it was not at all what I was expecting.. It had meat inside..... It wasn't horrid just not what I wanted, lol. Then we realized that it was Ding's chicken pastry sandwich thingy. So that made me feel better and I got my famous pastry which ended up being very small but it was one of the best pastries I've ever had. I loved it so much. So that is another I plan to go back for. Then we went back and this whole time we had not paid for the tram like we were supposed to so halfway back to our stop on the tram the security people got on to check for tickets so we ditched the tram and walked back to our hostel which ended up still being a good 30-40min walk away. It was good exercise. After we got back we went and just relaxed again for siesta time. (this whole siesta time thing is ruining us.. lol) it was nice. Kelsey and I decided to share the dinner fee so we split the dinner because there was too much food the night before and we didn't want near as much food that night.  After dinner was completely over we did the free shot and then waited until it was time to go out for the pub crawl.

In Belem (kinda a suburb of Lisbon) by a giant anchor.

In front of a pretty fountain view with the monastery in the background.

At the Modern art museum.  Just thought it looked cool.

In front of one of the 3 towers that guarded the entrance to the harbor from enemies. 

Kayla trying to plank.. and not working lol  she slid down right away when she tried so she grabbed onto Ding to look better haha

Me and a painting of bread.. How fitting.  :P

Kelsey and I goofing around.

Honestly not sure what this was. lol  just was huge and looked neat.

Kayla, Kelsey and Ding at the pastry shop!

Ding's chicken pastry thing that I took a bite out of on accident thinking it was one of my sweet ones.. lol it wasn't very yummy to me!

These were my pastries. the smaller one is the famous one for this particular pasteria. the larger one was something I just decided i needed to try. and it was AMAZING!  I will have to go back just for these!!!

The name of the Pasteria! and the famous pastry has the same name as the place! (I took this picture so i could remember what the name was haha)

Taking a shot of a special drink only made in Lisbon Portugal called Gingjha or something like that and is made from sour cherries. I thought it wasnt bad when taking tiny sips. lol

Me getting ready to go out for the pub crawl!

kelsey waiting to go out! in her pretty blue dress and adorable belt!!

Kayla couldn't contain her excitment! haha

Hanging out with one of the Australians waiting for the pub crawl. I look so hot! :) yay!

It ended up being a very interesting funny night.. We had a very big group all together. Ad then the first bar we were at was a power hour... And that knocked Kelsey out of the pub crawl because she had way to much by the time that was over. Ad then I dropped 2 glasses and broke them... So note to everyone who reads this Christine does not need breakable glasses when drinking...lol then Ding took Kelsey home so I didn't have to worry about her being alone and I was able to stay and go to the second bar. We got 2 shots at the second bar. It was yummy. And there was a lot of dancing at the second one and they played songs I knew!!! It was exciting and fun!! I had had a decent amount to drink at this point and Kayla had had wayy to much and she needed to go home but didn't want to. At the first bar she had taken her shoes off and couldn't walk in them (they were high heels) I had switched from my high heels into flip flops and had Ding take my heels back to the hostel with him. So since I didn't want Kayla stepping in all the broken glass everywhere I gave her my flip flops and took her heels.. Bad idea because her heels were 2 sizes too big for me and I had had enough to drink where walking was already difficult and so a couple girls I had met and had been talking to were helping me walk around and get to the next bar which was a club that was our last stop. Someone had taken Kayla home and I hadn't noticed them leaving so when we got to the club I decided to go home and a ughh I had met at the hostel said he would walk me home so I didn't have to walk by myself which was good because I wouldn't have gone home if I had not had someone to go with me. Not in the heels that didn't fit while my feet already had bad blisters and in a dress that kept riding up my ass really bad. But I made it home. And when I got up to my room I found Kayla on her bed passed out with a half eaten bocadillo in her hand and still in her dress. So I took the sandwich and set it on the table along with her phone so she wouldn't lose it again and I locked her purse up in my locker so no one could go through it while we were sleeping. And then took the covers and covered her up and put her water by her face in her arms so she would have it right on hand. Then I changed and went to sleep and finally got to sleep right around 5am in the morning. It was a pretty great night and I'm proud to say I was the one who actually stayed out super late this time and I drank like I said I would and I had a great time and a lot of fun!

Dancing and hanging out during power hour at the first bar!

Another goofy picture of us! We were having a blast! :)

Me posing for the Camera!

Kayla, Me and Kelsey all dressed up and ready to go out for a night on the town! Sexy Chicas!

Sunday morning came way too soon for my liking and I woke up and was surprised to find that Kayla was actually already up and that my flip flops were once again gone... lol. She had apparently worn them downstairs to breakfast and she was still in her dress from the night before and make up and all. The showing of a great night. We all had breakfast and then went upstairs to continue napping and sleeping because we did not have to check out until noon. Then after we had checked out they let us store our luggage in the luggage room and decided on plans of action. Our train didn't leave until 1030pm that night so we had all day to finish. We went for coffee first and then on the way back decided what we wanted to do. Kelsey and I decided that we really wanted to go to the oceanarium in the modern part of Lisbon before we left and Kayla wanted to go to the beach. So Ding went to the beach to keep Kayla company so we would be in pairs. The oceanarium was amazing. Unfortunately my camera battery died and I only got a few pictures at the beginning but I am gonna google some pictures to put up of it so that I can share the amazingness of it with you all! :) I saw the biggest sea turtle ever and then we got to learn a lot and saw different exhibits for each of the oceans. It was really interesting and amazing. Totally worth it. Then we saw the most amazing mall ever and it was just so cool in design and so big and had lunch in it and wanted to go look through stores but we ran out of time and so we decided that we really needed to come back to Lisbon someday. It is another reason to go back. I loved it there so much.

First photo at the Oceanarium. Sea Turtle exhibit!!

Another of the sea turtles!

The last picture I was able to take before my camera completely died.... :(

We are on our way back to Cáceres now and I'm looking forward to being in my own bed again and i need band aides for my blisters. And for a shower and just good sleep and also for the siestas!! But this was overall a very very very successful and fin weekend. And I am so glad I decided to go. I was worried about the cost and spending the money to go but it was totally worth it more than anything. Ok well I'm gonna try and get some sleep now because I have class in the morning and we will arrive in cáceres around 5am and I'll only get about 3 more hours of sleep when I get home. But then again we have siesta time!!!  Yay!!  Okie dokie well I'll talk to you all later!!!!  :) goodnight!