Saying goodbye to my Basque home is by no means easy, especially when a new adventure arises, reminding me that there is so much more to see and do in this amazing place. Experiences I will never be able to carve out the time for. The second of May will always be a dear memory in my heart. It was the day I traveled down the Basque coast by car with Unai, my local friend (always find a local friend, always). This particular trip took us from San Sebastián to Bilbao. So, we did
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I was very excited as I boarded the train because I knew this trip was going to be very different from the other travels I'd had during my study abroad. I was going to meet up with Dad and Barb and head to Granada. Traveling with parents is very different than traveling on your own or with friends. First of all, the standard of living is much better because, well, Dad has a steady income so we will be staying in a hotel, not hostels, and eating out at nice restaurants. Also,
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You don’t realize how cheaply you’ve been living until your dad and his girlfriend come for a visit and you don’t know what restaurants to recommend. Other likely scenarios: he frequently uses the words “pintxos” and “tapas” interchangeably and usually in the wrong regions of the country, he tries speaking Finnish with waitresses whose politeness masks her confusion, your heart is more full because you get to share a place that has grown very important to you with someone you
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Spring Break: City 6 of 6 Hostel Allison and I left Prague and met up with some of our group in Budapest. We stayed at Wombats hostel, which was pretty large scale and I believe it’s a chain. It had a kitchen and a bar with plenty of space to hang out. I think this is great for meeting people. The bedrooms can be kind of awkward because people are either sleeping or changing, this is why I love it when a hostel includes a space to be social. If I remember correctly, we got a
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Spring Break: City 5 of 6 Hostel After Berlin, Allison and I split off on our own to Prague while many of the others from our group went to Switzerland. We stayed at Hostel Santini, which I’m pretty sure used to be a hotel renovated into a hostel. It had a great location just down the hill from Prague Castle and close to the Charles Bridge. A great thing about this hostel was that even though we signed up for a room with about ten beds in it, the room was actually divided int
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Spring Break: City 4 of 6 Hostel In Berlin, we stayed at a hostel called the Cat’s Pajamas. It was a very hip hostel and well-priced. The rooms were very modern and clean. Each bed had an outlet and a light. Since we took an overnight bus, we arrived at the hostel before check-in, which kinda sucked because all I really wanted was a shower and a nap. The lobby of the hostel was nice though and Allison and I relaxed there for a while while we waited for the rest of our group t
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Spring Break: City 3 of 6 Hostel We took a bus to Amsterdam, which I will point out is my least favorite way of traveling. It is pretty uncomfortable especially if you are taking it overnight. The only way to make it more comfortable is if you snag the back seat and lay out across 3 seats. You can easily fit two people in this position comfortably. The downside to this is that if the bus starts to fill up, someone might wake you up for a seat. Put a sweatshirt over your face
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Spring Break: City 2 of 6 A Day in Belgium The second stop on our Spring break trip was in Bruges, a city that I have also been to before (which is why I knew we only needed a day here). We stayed at Hostel Lybeer, which was a nice hostel close to the town center. It had a small bar and a couch area. There was no elevator and the winding staircase was narrow and steep but we managed to haul our bags up to the top floor without falling all the way back down. The staff that wor
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Spring Break: City 1 of 6 A Day in Paris It’s 5:20am in San Sebastián and Allison and I approach a very concerned looking Stephanie and Hannah. Where is Anastasia? I think. The plan was to be on the 5:30 Euskotrain to Hendaye. Stephanie fills us in, letting us know that the trains don’t start until 6 and that they haven’t been able to get in contact with Anastasia. So this is how we begin the two-week-long Spring break, I think. The train, I figure, won’t be that big of an is
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It was a holiday weekend in Spain so, naturally, everyone packed their bags and headed off to different corners in Europe. I decided to join the group traveling to Dublin. We left Wednesday night (or I guess you could say Thursday morning) at midnight. We traveled in a very uncomfortable bus through the night, arriving in Barcelona between seven and eight AM. From Barcelona, we flew with Aer Lingus and arrived in Dublin in the early afternoon. Hostel The hostel we stayed at w
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This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to snowboard in the Pyrenees mountains with three cool guys from USAC. It was my idea to go to the snow but it was easy to get Jarryd and then eventually Peter and John to join in. Pretty sure the name of the town was Germ, France We found a group called Viajes Livingstone that provided transportation, accommodations, two-day lift tickets, and discounted rentals, all for a pretty good price. I borrowed the snow pants from Megan and t
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Last Saturday, I took a day trip with Allison, Kenna, and Rowan to Bilbao! The city is the capital of the province, Biscay, and is the largest city in the Basque country (5th largest in Spain). First, we went to the Guggenheim museum. There was a cool exhibition showing the art of Niki de Saint Phalle, who was well-known for her sculptures called “Nanas.” After that, we had lunch and kind of just wondered around the city for a bit. We climbed some cool stairs that had a nice
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The Basques can’t keep me away. I’ve already had the cider house experience twice and my time here isn’t even halfway done yet (well it almost is). This time I went to a different cider house and with only 5 other people. This cider house was much larger, and apparently it’s more well-known. At first, I thought that that would mean it’s more touristic, but I’m pretty sure we were the only group of foreigners. Apparently, it was obvious too. Every time we would walk past this
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This last weekend in Barcelona was one of the craziest weekends of my life. It was a roller coaster to say in the least. I don’t know how I’m going to capture it all in a post, but here it goes… We left after class on Friday and took a train to Barcelona. The adventure started with a guy in our group named Robert almost not getting on the train because of a ticket mixup. And another guy slept in too long and missed it. Oh well, at least I made it without any problems. The tra
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This weekend, Allison and I decided to explore our own city a little more. So, we hiked Monte Urgull to see the Jesus statue and the amazing views of San Sebastián. There are three mountains and Monte Urgull is in the middle. There’s not much else to say about this, other than we hiked up a hill and took pictures. So, here are those pictures… #culture #spain #basquecountry #photography #sansebastian #europe #studyabroad #usac #basque #donostia #monteurgull
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The day after the cider house visit, Allison and I decided to take a day trip to Hendaye, France. It’s only about 45 minutes by train and costs only 6 euros! The plan originally was to go there to see people practicing a march for Carnival. Traditionally, the Basques were Pagan, so a lot of their culture is centered around nature and the sun. Before modern knowledge about the seasons was established, Basque people thought that around winter time, the earth was dying. This was
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So, Friday the 6th of February was a very busy day for me because after the USAC excursion to Hondarribia and Zumbaia, most of the USAC group also took a trip to a Basque sidería. This trip wasn’t organized by USAC because they pretty much aren’t allowed to plan anything that involves drinking. This was planned through Mikel, a local guy who handles promoting the bars Molly Malone’s and Bataplan to all of the international students. He is also the intercambio of one of the tw
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Hondarribia Yay classes cancelled! This was the first USAC-planned excursion (not including the whole Madrid tour). I still had to be at school pretty early, a difficult task for those who had celebrated Pintxo-Pote the night before. Luckily, I am used to my early Friday mornings. First, we went to Hondarribia, a city near the coast of France. We explored the old part of town, which was enclosed in castle walls. Because of it’s proximity to France, Hondarribia experienced its
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For the weekend of January 30th, I attempted to travel on my own non-USAC-planned excursion. However, a lot of other study abroad students joined. We decided to go and visit La Rioja, the wine country of Spain. The adventure started with me waking up at 5:30 am and then walking to the bus station with Allison. It sounded easy enough, but it was confusing trying to figure out where we go to get on the bus. Allison and I decided to wait for other people in our group. We did sho
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