Though I was skeptical at first about the one-unit, seemingly too expensive, “Field Study Trip” to northern Spain to visit San Sebastian and Bilbao, I am SO happy I decided to go through with it. While we were technically still in Spain, the Spanish Basque Country looks nothing like the Spain that I’ve come to know. Green hills, cold weather, and quaint villages-type houses are nothing at all what I expected.
Our first stop was in San Sebastian, where we got our first taste of the “Euskadi” language (which is NOTHING like Spanish), tried traditional Basque foods at a Michelin-ranked restaurant (never eaten SO MUCH fish in my life…), and treked to the top of a hill to get a view of la Playa de La Concha, or Shell Beach:
Our next stop was the historically dismal (and recently “modernized”) city of Bilbao. The city has undergone massive projects by world renowned architects, so it’s a very strange mixture of over-the-top buildings with regular gray industrial sites. Of course, the world famous Guggenheim museum was the most spectacular of the architecture, though the art inside was nothing I’d go back for.
We also saw a giant flower dog that the locals call “Poopy” (Puppy….):
The perks of exploring the Basque Country with USAC included many unusual things in Bilbao:
A private tour of Bilbao’s Division One soccer team
A dinner at a private men’s club (our program director is a member) where we got a taste of Basque food, music, dancing, and walnut cracking (I can now break open a walnut with my fist in one try….not kidding).
And finally we were able to watch a demo of Pelota (a Basque sport that used to be in the Olympics! A long time ago) by a past World Champion….who also gave us one-on-one lessons after the match!
I’ve been across the world for almost two months now…and I must say, with my Cardinals in such an intense World Series, I’m getting a teeny bit homesick for the first time!! But, within the next four weeks, I’ll have set foot in 6 countries, so time is gonna fly!
brb america 
Leave a comment