came after a three-hour bus ride I then on Thursday evening on my last leg of my mini-tour of Spain - in Bilbao in beautiful Basque Country . I wondered if we in public life something of the ongoing effort for decades for independence of the Basque country and would thus note-related "freedom struggle" of the English underground organization ETA . But nothing, absolutely nothing - the people here are just as friendly as anywhere else in Spain too (if somewhat reserved and not quite as open, they prefer to remain "among themselves"). Even now that you would find a special patriotism here, I can not confirm (with my superficial view) - the public image is (as prescribed by law as in Catalonia), not even by an award of the signs or business in a language other "disturbed "; although Basque or" Euskara "- which is extremely interesting in the sense that it is unrelated to any other language - and there are also spoken.
enough talk - So after I got off the bus, I rode the Metro a good 15 minutes with my next one (again via Couchsurfing found) host agreed location, where he then waited even to me. And again I had scored a real hit. My next host was Gary, an Englishman from near Norwich , who now lives in a year in Bilbao. He works there as an English teacher and takes the opportunity to polish his English. It benefits him, that he is with two Argentines and a English woman (all around my age) shares an apartment - and what a! First is the booth huge with a wonderfully large kitchen and an even larger Living room (in addition, each roommate of course his own room), yet is also an attic. And the view - if one looks out the living room window, one can on a small harbor, beach and watch the ocean, of course - amazing! The whole cost him grad even half of what I pay here in Madrid ... the undisputed king of the WG is "Mono" (in German: monkey * haha *), a small, almost 1 year old dog that all WG keeps busy. I was then very often the early (just like against 10) abgeschlabbert first, because I in the living room where I slept on a (2 x 1.60 m) wide mattress, natural light "Prey" for him :-). Gary is the way a vegetarian, but not out of conviction because the animals do it so sorry, but it is more or less become a fad, now he has realized that he can get along quite well (or even better) without meat. But he makes every day but the effort and extensively with the finest ingredients to cook. The 3 days I was able to convince me of his cooking skills, we have almost always early (was also there's often something warm, and always fresh-squeezed orange juice) and eating dinner together.
The first "real" day in Bilbao, so on Friday, Gary had a day off, and made the proposal on its own, whether we wanted to not go together in his car to San Sebastián (where he himself was also never previously). Perfect, I was immediately there - I had it before my trip even considered, in which of the two Basque towns I drive (and me, despite the San Sebastián commonly referred to as the tourist attractive town is decided for Bilbao) - and now I could almost two birds with one stone. So we grabbed still mono, for the whole thing was of course a welcome adventure - and off we went, the 100 km from San Sebastián . There, we took a stroll through the old town, a piece went to the coast with very rough seas, and later along the beach and finally we went with a cable car up a hill where there is a small amusement park, and from which one the "best view of the world" how there can read up on a plate. In between we have let us taste of course some delicious tapas at two bars that were particularly tasty - not for nothing that enjoys the reputation of San Sebastián, that the best chefs and the best cuisine in Spain can be found. It was certainly a thoroughly successful trip, and accordingly broken We were also, as we got home.
The next day I explored it on your own Bilbao, as Gary gave lessons in the morning. I must say that I liked the city and the countryside Bilbao almost better than Barcelona - everything is green, very clean and well maintained. Bilbao is also superbly situated along a river, which flows to the north of Bilbao to the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by green mountains. For this it is not nearly as densely populated as a real city, so everything looks a little familiar, but not the village character. So a city in which I could easily imagine to live (apart of it that I slightly warmer areas with more sun but would be preferred). The Basque country is one of the wealthiest areas of the country and it shows. On the other hand, Bilbao is therefore not just a party stronghold, the people maintain their workers' Image and ;-) are, as already mentioned something reserved, what should be but it is not misunderstood as unfriendly. Main attraction (and rather then actually there's also much less), the Guggenheim Museum , which stands alone by his spectacular appearance in the eye. Since that Saturday was still rainy, I spent well over 4 hours in this museum and just looked me at all 3 levels with both permanent collections and current exhibitions with works of African artists. The latter in particular was quite interesting, while not really me, the permanent collections of stools down. Whatever the case, in the evening we met up again with Gary, to a show of young artists in a theater to watch (where among others took part in his English flat mate). The spectrum ranged from spectacular acrobatics juggling and magic tricks, and through the nearly 3-hour program was run by two clowns. Everything was only semi-professional, but somehow the whole thing went so well, and the mostly young audience (18 to 30 years old) acknowledged some performances with thunderous applause and enthusiastic interjections - a very successful event. Then we went with some other friends Gary's in a hall where the whole just experienced "artist" and a lot of met people more to the after-show party "and honed further tricks or just a couple of beers and other beverages were to be ;-).
And the next day was Sunday and even then so my first last "holiday" in which I, after the long night before sleeping off for now. After a last meal together, I said goodbye to Gary, and ran for 2 hours through the city before then in the early evening by bus back to Madrid was where I finally arrived at about 11 clock. It is time again to work two weeks before it goes for 1 week over Christmas in a well-deserved "vacation home" to Germany.
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