Apartamento!

So we've been living in our apartment for about a month now, and never put up any photos. Shame.

The Layout - Bedroom, Bathroom, Living Room, Kitchen

Moo

We fell in love with this place for its Spanish tile, the crown molding, friendly yellow walls, and especially the two balconies.



It's in Gracia, on a street that looks like it shouldn't be very busy but has a surprising amount of traffic. Why do the trash guys have to come three times during the night? Doesn't make sense to me.

Despite the city noises we love our little place (that's actually not so little as the size is pretty much equal to anything we've lived in before).

Vive le France! Part 1

September 19th was the beginning of our France adventure with the Foleys and we were not disappointed.

Along the river in the little pueblo we stayed at

After missing our exit because of a break out of Disney singing, thereby getting stuck on a toll road for an extra 30 minutes, we finally rolled up to our little bungalow around 11:30pm.

Unfortunately this turned out grainy, wish you could experience mysterious romantic feel

We topped the night off with some Port tasting, courtesy of our trip to Porto.



The next morning I (Stephanie) explored the little town to realize that there was not one store that sold anything resembling food. This place truly was away from it all. The others finally dragged themselves out of bed and we drove a couple miles to a huge grocery store. Now, I know what you are thinking: "You were in France and you hit up a megastore?!" Yes we did. And it was awesome. The sausages were cheap and delicious, 5 croissants for 1€ (that were also amazing), butter and pate galore, and the biggest garlic heads and most delicious tomatoes ever!

Biggest garlic clove ever!

First breakfast. Oh the cheese!!

Most delicious tomato ever.

Mimosas anyone?

Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!

 After treating ourselves to this amazing breakfast with Mimosas wrought from a 1,30€ bottle of champagne we explored our little village. Finding all manner of spices along the way (which went nicely with our duck dinner later on).

Drinking our homemade coffee a few steps away at the vineyard

The ubiquitous blue door picture

Vineyard right by our bungalow

Ivy covered buildings on the "main drag" of the pueblo

Beautiful church literally out our backdoor.

Crumbling vestige of the arch entrance to the little town

The boys smoking their Cubans

After our little jaunt we piled into the car and wound our way up into the mountain to see what there was to see. We stumbled upon another little mountain village that the Tour de France went through a number of years ago. Grabbed a cafe and wondered around only to discover that we had left our bag back at the cafe with the camera in it. Luckily things are rather lax here because when Micah ran back it was still at the table as the waiter hadn't yet cleared our ceramic remains from the table.

Nearby mountain town

Cemetery on the top of a hill

Tombs of the cemetery

It was surprisingly chilly up there.

After the slightly dizzying drive (thanks to Foley) we bought 4 duck breasts for a whopping 12€ and made the most delicious meal we've had since flying out to Europe.

Wines of the first day. Yes we drank 3 bottles a day. Don't judge

Duck breast with a date, wine reduction, green beans and fingerling potatoes sauteed in duck fat

Holy Cow

Basque Country - Bilbao Extravaganza!

Guggenheim Bilbao: The inspired architectural design of Frank Gehry

Bilbao has modernized, but still maintains some of its old beautiful architecture

After a whirlwind 1 day tour of Lisbon, we ventured to Spanish Basque country. Without much knowledge of Bilbao we had scheduled 2 1/2 days. There really isn't much to see in this little town, so it gave us a nice rest from the Lisbon craziness. We stayed in a really cool little apartment with an induction range, and close to the old city!

Our little Bilbao apartment

There's honestly not much to do in this city. But, of course, lots of beautiful buildings to saunter past, great pintxos to eat (pinxtos are kind of like tapas, but in Basque country they have them displayed on the bar), and a nice riverwalk - and a festival to be described later.

The back side of the Guggenheim

Bilbao's greatest claim to fame is the Guggenheim it hosts prominently on its riverbank. It is a truly beautiful building. Or at least, I think it is. Micah says that "Beautiful" isn't how he would describe it. "Impressive and memorable, but not beautiful. I attribute beauty to have more warmth. Like a sunset."  Well, I would beg to differ as the sun glances off the "cold steel" and illumines the entire structure.

Giant flower dog in front of the Guggenheim. Actually made of real flowers.

However, we were of the same opinion when viewing the art housed within: not the best. But then again, I don't think I have the capacity to appreciate modern art. I can appreciate the type of art housed in the Louvre or the Uffizi, but modern art just doesn't do it for me. I will admit that listening to the audio descriptions was helpful as it gave context to the pieces. I might think the work grotesque, but then again it's supposed to be. The artists of that period were being oppressed by the "moralist censors" and fought back with gusto. I can appreciate the history and background and thereby palate the art.

This work of art scrolled the same phrase up its digital spires

This was actually really cool: huge coils of metal intertwining in a mini labyrinth.

One thing we didn't realize about the week we decided to travel to Bilbao was that they were celebrating Semana Grande, their version of "independence day." Although Basque country is not independent, they are very nationalist and take a 9 day hiatus from work (well, many of them) to celebrate themselves (or so I gathered). It attracts over 100,000 people. There are fireworks pretty much every night and hoards of people in the streets of the old city.

In Xukela Bar rubbing elbows with locals

Line of pintxos in Xukela bar. SO good!

It got pretty crazy in the street with impromptu singing and parading with miniature Gondor horns. Street performers out en masse, and pop up bars lining the river walk.

Over packed Xukela. People wandered into the alley to drink their beer and wine!

After spending the night in the superb apartment we realized we'd somehow misbooked ourselves by one day. We had only one night left in the induction apartment but two more nights before training to Barcelona, leaving an extra day in Bilbao with no place to stay. We had to scramble for a place before we lost internet capability. We booked a hotel (unfortunately), but hey, we had a roof over our heads.

I did not choose this picture. Micah wanted it in.

Beautiful buildings lining the river

Just as it is in most European cities, the city is speckled with beautiful old churches.

The best part of this trip was wandering around, trying the pintxos and wine, reveling in the crazy festival fever, and seeing random vestiges of Basque culture.

These giant puppets were first used in 1509 and have since then been a traditional part of Basque festivals.

 
We felt like boring old people as the rest of the city was partying well into the morning. So on our final night we went out on the town and stayed out until...well only like 12, but it was more than can be said for the other nights. We started off the night with cocktails at Sir Winston Churchill's bar then hopped to 4 different pinxto bars across the city to culminate in a firework show.

Sir Winston Churchill Bar, right down the street from our hotel. Oxley Gin is awesome. And my glass is on fire!

Another pinxto bar

Streets teeming with Bilbaoans and tourists to watch the nightly festival fireworks

I think we should play I spy the waterbottle. It makes an appearance in almost all our photos.

The river walk

Guggenheim at night

Cool building...

The park we had our last breakfast in

Training back

Countryside on the way back to Barcelona. Doesn't this look like a painting?