Bilbao

el 30 de septiembre de 2008

So last weekend Cory, Martin, and I went to Bilbao. The plan was to catch the 9:30 bus, and spend the morning/early afternoon at the Guggenheim Museum and then the rest of the day walking around the city, for sure checking out the Casco Viejo, which is the old part of the city.

A little after 9 I get a call from Martin. He's running late, but we should be able to make the 10am bus. Well, Cory and I get to the bus stop a little late and we miss the 10 o'clock. The 11 o'clock is sold out, so we opt for the noon bus. I was upset. I wasn't so much upset that we weren't going to keep to a schedule, so much as I was upset because we didn't have a schedule and I was looking forward to having a whole lot of time to just walk around and enjoy the city. In any case, with the two hours we now had on our hands we walked to a nearby coffee/tea shop called "Espressaté". I love this place. It's amazing, and they make all sorts of infusion coffee drinks that are delicious. We hung out and had coffee and nibbled on some food before taking the bus over. I was also happy because I was able to snap this shot while we were having coffee:

"Morning Coffee"

Anyways, the bus ride was fine. The countryside and views of the coast during the trip are really amazing. I was reading most of the way there. I had quickly approached the end of "Contact" and was eager to finish. We arrived around 1:30ish and headed right to the Guggenheim.

Firstly, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and it was warm out as well. T-shirt and jeans were just fine. It was great. So that really set the mood, and we enjoyed the afternoon walking around outside just taking it all in, snapping photos wherever we pleased. We were able to see the giant puppy statue made of flowers that sits out front of the museum. His name is "Puppy" but in Spanish, thanks to the lovely accent, his name has become "Poopy." Yea, we took our time enjoying that one. We signed up for the 4:30 guided tour (in English) and met our tour guide. She was a student at the Univ. of Bilbao and this was her first tour in English. We told her we spoke good enough Spanish in case she had trouble.

"Poopy"

So the Gug (as it is known) is all modern/contemporary art. We got a tour of the first floor, which was really interesting. There was this one exhibit called the "Matter of Time" which was amazing. The concept is that you walk through these huge undulating sheets of steel, and they completely throw off your balance and your idea of where you are just by walking through. The concept is that you are uncertain as to where you are in the peice, and you keep looking around the corner expecting to be at the center when you're not. It's very hard to describe, but it is truly amazing. Though I've never been through them myself, I imagine that it's very much like walking through slot canyons.

There was another exhibit called "Your World, Your City." The way it works is that the artist has created an interactive work of art. You enter the room which is full of blocks and rods, all silver colored, and it's like you are back in pre-school playing with blocks. You put on gloves (to protect the piece) and you can alter anything in the room. You can move blocks, stack them, unstack them, etc. It's amazing, and was really fun. Because we were on the tour we got to play in there. It was great.

That was the end of the tour, and we three headed to the third floor to look at some of the paintings there. The third floor was the "History of All Art" section. Most of it was older Renaissance-esq paintings. Some were very interesting, but the most interesting were on the second floor... which was closed because they are preparing a new exhibit. I was upset.

"The Gug"

After we left the Gug we headed for the Casco Viejo for some drinks and Pinchos. Pinchos are very much like "tapas" excpet normally they are a bit larger, more like a small sandwich or something of that sort. There was also a dance party in front of the Cathedral. It was amazing. I guess when the city gets bored on Saturday nights they all just head out. We were told that there was one section called "los Siete Calles" (The Seven Streets) which are 7 parallel streets in the Casco Viejo that turn into a massive street party at night on the weekends. We decided it was a good idea to investigate. And so we did. We enjoyed the cuisine and some drinks at 3 or 4 different bars before heading back to the bus station to catch the 11:30pm bus back to Santander.

All in all it was good day. I had a good time and got to see another city, which was great. I can't wait to start traveling more!

Tan luego,
Andrew
Santander, ESP