Spring Break in Bilbao & San Sebastian

I ended the last weekend of March with a trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian.  My roommate and I had decided long before that we would want our Spring Break to be a relaxing one, so instead of planning multiple trips to different cities we stuck with two where we could break up our vacation.

 The first place we went to was Bilbao, which we had to catch a 6am flight for.  It was our third early morning flight and you’d think from how much we hated the other ones I would have known better than to force us to take one but thankfully it was our last.  When we got to our hostel in Bilbao I passed out on a bean bag in the lounge while Kim read about meaningful things in the city. 

Once we were allowed to check in, we took time to explore the city a bit.  Bilbao is a smaller city with all the alleys and street ways squished together.  It was super green with all the trees and was surrounded by fields and the cloudy overcast made it feel a little like Seattle.  We discovered a little fruiteria by our hostel and made it our daily breakfast stop.  Fruit in Spain is ridiculously cheap and also tastes amazing, it made it hard to leave that fruit stand when the time came.

While in Bilbao we had the opportunity to experience a little bit of the Basque culture by visiting a local museum and reading about their traditional dances.  Later that night we got to see it first hand as the entire city of Bilbao got together to celebrate Semana Santa with a holy parade and music festival.  My roommate and I stumbled upon the music festival quite by accident as we turned left into a square to find tons of town folk prancing around happily in cirlces.  The music echoed off the walls and after a couple of dances I found myself being dragged by one of the locals into the dance.  

"It's easy, just follow me," she said.  Which it wasn't too hard and I caught on quick but as the rhythm of the music started to pick up I found myself lost.  My roommate chuckled when I came back after the dance and I laughed off my awful basque dancing.  We had both had our hand at a foreign dance now.

After the music festival we joined the crowds of people to watch everyone in the holy parade.  People were dressed up in suits similar to that of the KKK but with different colors and small patches on their chest.  It was startling to turn around and see one directly behind you but it wore off after awhile.  I left Bilbao feeling very cultured and content with the way things were kicking off.

We ended our break in San Sebastian where we were greeted with rain and friendly locals.  As we tried to figure out how to get to our hostel from the bus stop one of the locals over heard us and decided to guide us all the way to our hostel.  It was a welcoming start to the city.

We spent our time in San Sebastian climbing hills to see the view over the city and the beaches and made several visits to local gelatto stores (there were hundreds) to enjoy a nice chocolate waffle and some coffee.  My sweet tooth controlled my wallet that weekend as I ended up buying one or two chocolate waffles everyday!

It turned out to be a very laid back vacation which was very much needed.  We took a couple nights out to enjoy a casual beer with a tapa and get lost in the busy night life.  San Sebastian was crowed with people at all hours of the day and when we came back to our hostel one night we ran into a party in our room.  Four girls from Mexico had cans of Red Bull and bottles of Jager open everywhere.  Happy Easter to us.

They left a few hours later and weren't a bother after that and we ended our last day roaming around the city.  When it came time to leave I set my alarm early the next morning to catch my seven am bus, which I ended up missing.  I exited the hostel to pouring rain outside and a long line of drunk people waiting in line for a taxi.  I thought, no way will I be able to get a taxi in time, so I decided to run with a very large suitcase you could fit three small dogs in.  After running 2.5 kilometers in the pouring rain and pushing my suitcase on wheels, I arrived 15 minutes late and sopping wet.  I took the easy way out and bought a plane ticket back so I would get to school on time the next day.  It cost me an arm and a leg but I tried not to think twice about it.

It felt good when I finally made it back to Barcelona and I crashed on my bed the second I got home.  We had to wash 6 loads of laundry to clean the wet clothes that had gone through the marathon to the bus stop with me and Madre was not impressed but what can you do.  It was a crazy end to a crazy month and I ended March with enough memories, good and bad, to last a life time.