i said no no no

The Gugg is incredible, and the current exhibits perfect for me.

http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/

It's now time for me to leave. Hasta luego mi Espana, te amo.

Blame it on the rain

I did not make it out to San Sebastian today, I had just missed the bus and the next one wouldn't be for another two hours, so I decided to save the 18 euros and put my Bilbao city guide to work. I took the metro out to Portugalete, to see El Transbordador de Vizcaya, and wandered through Portugalete down to the river, and paid the 0,30 euro to take the gonola over to Getxo and see the bridge in action. Man, what a marvel.

So the "Bridge" was built in 1893, and it has a gondola that hangs at road level from the top part, and ferries cars and people accross connecting Portugalete and Getxo. It's a working port at the mouth of the Nervion off Biscay, so big huge ships have to get through, and it's so incredible. Plus it's beautiful. The sky and weather was not, but the bridge still was. My book said its called the Eiffel Tower of Bilbao, with its weblike iron design. I love that these kind of architechtural stories are all over Spain. (Tomorrow I'm going to the Gugg to see Gehry's ingenuity that revived Bilbao, and also the Zubizuri footbridge, and Sat night I was in Barca, surrounded by Gaudi's wonders.)

I took the bridge across to Getxo, a supposedly awesome seaside town, that was a fishing village, but it was hard to feel that in the rain. I didn't go very far in --everywhere everything was closed today (in all three cities) being Monday, and especially the Monday after Easter, it's still a holiday-- just a few blocks in before giving up and heading back to a cafe on the waterfront. I rested and warmed and dried up with a cafe con leche, and then went back across the river via the transbordador and stopped in another cafe in Portugalete for a slice of tortilla and a glass of Calimotxo. The tortilla may have been the best I've ever had--amazing, and this was my first Calimotxo. --It's good, I could make it at home, it's more like a refresher than a wine or cocktail tho. I liked it enough to get it again in Bilbao later tho, novelty I'm sure. I chatted with the young bartender, a gal from Paraguay, about travelling, the US, (she did an exchange program in Kansas, but had wanted to be in California instead) Europe and South America. She practiced her english, and I my castellano, and we had a good time. She wants to go to Las Vegas, and is not the first person we have talked to who said that. Really, Vegas? Gross, of all the places in the US to visit, don't go to Vegas (and we tell them that).

I metroed back to Bilbao, and to Casco Viejo for the Ascensor de Begona, which was a severe dissppointment, but a pretty walk back down the steps and through Casco Viejo (old Bilbao) which is charming and I would think a lovely place to be on a sunny spring or summer afternoon. I stopped for churros con chocolate and calimotxo to get out of the rain and wind again, and then found myself at the Catedral de Santiago, a happy accident as it is amazingly beautiful with flying buttresses and high cathedral arched ceilings, gorgeous windows up top. It was late, getting dark and my umbrella broke this morning, so holding it together in the wind was getting challenging, and I came back to Sheila's. My face burns at now being warm, it's skin beaten all day.

Tomorrow is art in Bilbao, and I plan to spend more time indoors, in the Museo de Belles Artes and the Guggenheim, before I have to pack up and head out. My flight leaves at 8:25pm, and i have little desire to be on it. It takes me to BCN for the night, but I don't know if I will leave the airport. I'm worried about getting back in time, and right now, all I can think about is how cold and tired I will be. I might end up sleeping in the airport. My back and shoulders are so tight and knotted right now I feel like throwing up. Goodnight with sweet love from Bilbao.

my skinny jeans are stretched out and it makes me feel like i've lost weight, but that's a falsehood.

In: a cafe in Getxo, Spain.

On the table in front of me rests a cafe con leche treat. Throught the window is El Transbordador de Vizcaya, the river Nervion, and Portugalete. A few feet away sits an old man in a cranberry colored cordouroy suit, drinking a small glass of beer, and at the table next to him, a man sits smoking a ciggarette and drinking his own cafe con leche, ordered at the bar just before mine. The rain and harsh winds outside makes me want to stay here and order a second cup, but I will move on to another place, one in Portugalete, which is too charming for words, even in the gloom. I'm okay with not having gone to San Sebastian, this bridge is incredible. I'll save San Sebastian and Biarritz for another time, when I come in higher season and can fully enjoy their bounty. Rainy days are not for them. Rainy days are for cafe con leche inside looking out.

Buttercup is marrying Humperdink in little less than half an hour.

So we left Portugal behind, and I don't want to face that I have to head back to real life in two days.

I need to live in Europe. I long to live in Europe. I want to marry a European boy, with European style, European romance, and a European accent. I want to have a European life, with a value of culture, and where the streets are small, the buildings beautiful, the travel made easy, and adventures are like banks--around every corner. Please let me live here. I need to find a way. I will miss Mexican food, my people, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the American music scene, but I will have good wine, new people, and dancing all night.

::this is long, fair warning::

Thursday night took us out again, we found our new friends, and finally made it out to a disco, which was eh. The music was bad, and we were not drunk enough to make it work, but we danced and it was fun, a bit of a bust, but it ended with more wine and good conversation and a lively time until after dawn once again, complete with a little tipsy off-roading in the Jeep. Going to bed when you usually get up means you lose daylight, but we made it to the beach in time for some sun late Friday afternoon, an almost swim (just too cold to go past my thighs, even if it was my last chance to swim on that beautiful beach. Shi and I felt like spectacles for the day, like Sex and the City coming home, and then attempting to take jumping pics on the beach. You'd think that generation would know by now that ours is picture crazy, and we aren't about the portrait.
We had some errands to run in town, and decided to finally go to out to dinner in Albufeira, try and find something Portuguese, maybe a little peixes, and ate way too much of a delicious meal out. We came home to find that we'd missed the boys on their way home to Lisbon. They were so sweet, stopped by to say goodbye, and left us a cd of their favorite Portuguese singer Mariza--which Sheila and I listened to in the car on the way to the airport, and is beautiful, I recommend looking into it. Plus, from the album cover, she has cute hair and amazing cheekbones. --Those boys made our trip, I am glad to have new friends, and hope they will remain so and some time come visit us in the City.

Then we packed it up and said our goodbye to our Praia Oura with a bottle of red Portuguese wine and a clove out on our patio under the stars.

The thing about travelling, is that it's not always going to work out as planned, and not being the most flexible, it's good for me to get this practice. We had a 6am flight, and a 1/2 hr drive to Faro, so we left our hotel at 4:30am. THAT is an early hour, and one we had already been seeing the past few mornings. Our flight from Faro for some reason left a half hour ahead of schedule, I guess if everyone was there and on board, why not?? which got us to Lisbon early, but Lisbon was having some computer issues, and our flight was delayed boarding and on the runway for an hour and half, which caused us to miss our connection in Barcelona. I have done a ton of airport hopping this trip, man oh man. Well, there were no more flights to Bilbao, and TAP said there was no other option of getting to Bilbao, so they'd get me a hotel and I would fly out in the morning. I'LL TAKE IT!! Unfortunately, TAP took three and a half hours to do things, so I didn't get time in during daylight or buisness hours, but I saw Barca, ate and drank, made friends with the kindly young bartender at Cafe De L'Opera--who hopes to see me again, wink-- had a hot shower and a nice bed, and was put in Business Class on both the flight to Madrid and to Bilbao, it was quite okay. I'm sad Sheila missed the amenities --I even was given sipping chocolate from Spanair, and my Coke Light came in a real glass on Iberia-- but she went off to Rome directly from BCN, and had planned on skipping out on the last leg anyways. PS--snow all over Basque country, and it is raining and muy frio in Bilbao. Grr.
I found my way home to Sheila's with only a few hiccups, and releived some stress by cleaning her kitchen and cooking myself a little Easter dinner. I have done too much traveling in too little time, with too little sleep, and my body hurts all over. I have not made plans for tomorrows hopefull trip to the Bay of Biscay, whether I see it in Spain or France, and how and when to get there, but it has rained all afternoon and is not at all pleasant outside. I wonder if it will even be worth it.
At this point, I'm very uncertain what the next two days and my night in Barcelona will look like, pray for nice weather please! Cold could be okay, I brought warm things and while I brought a raincoat and umbrella, I have little desire to wander around in the rain too much.
Heres hoping for some deep sleep, pleasant dreams, and waking up refreshed at a decent but early hour.
With sweet love from Spain on a tired and lonely Easter.

that sweet city, she is a temptress too

In: a tapas bar in Barcelona, Spain.

Enchantress and temptress, her beauty lures me and I feel pressure to do things when I should just go to bed.
Sure, it's no wonder I'm feeling sick, as I haven't really slept in three days. PS, it is 7 degrees celcius here, and I'm wearing as much as i have to stay warm, but am freezing! I've fluffed my scarf up as much as possible, and bought some sore throat tablets from a farmacia, and am thinking it can't be all that cold, but I haven't been able to get warm. I don't really know how cold 7 degrees is, probably not even that cold, but it sure feels it. All combined with not sleeping, and being forced to be flexible--and reap the rewards--and also the consequences, has made my entire body ache and or hurt.
Um, PS, I feel a little bit like prey tonight, as I sit here at this Tapas bar, finally after much walking and seeing and being lost in the cold and wet. It's as if the whole wait staff is rooting for ONE of them to pick me up. I don't appreciate their forwardness, and it is almost midnight already, and I have a 7am wake up call. Since the bus comes only once every 30 minutes, it could take me snf hour to get back to my hotel, so no, I will not let you buy me a beer at the next bar Mohammed from Pakistan. I'm obviously not Spanish (I do not have bangs like every other one, and talk to me for more than a moment, and you'll hear that I'm not) but come on, I'm not your target, and you're not my type. At the airport today, they kept asking if I wanted them to speak in French, apparently I looked very French today. Fine by me, I'd rather look French while in Europe than American. And the French are known for style. Thank you lost equipaje counter man, now if you could only have worked quicker with the people before me.
Sangria and the warmth of being inside, and my tasty patatas bravas, are all taking affect, along with my 4:30am wake up call and very long day of travelling, and I am ready to already be back at my hotel, wash my face, brush my dientes, and hit my cama-- like WHOA.
It's now midnight. It is Easter Sunday. Praise the Lord for His Son who rose today and made it possible for me to know the peace that is Jesus and His blessed salvation. Amen.

Pues, aqui estoy en Barcelona

unas de las cuidads cuales tienen mi corazon mas de todas.

Too much drama at the airport today, courtesy of TAP, Air Portugal, NO thank you very much, but for all my troubles, and a freaking lot of wating today, I recieve a night in Barcelona on them. Whoohoo!!
Here is my short to-do list: (which is more like a to eat list, but it's night, so I can't go see places really)

Patatas Bravas
Churros con Chocolate de Cafe de L'Opera
Sangria
Passeig de Gracia
La Sagrada Familia (I need to at least see something Gaudi, and see if I can tell what's changed in a year)

I am le tired, but I cannot waste this time in Barcelona with a nap! A hot shower and get some bearings, and then it's into the city I go.

Love from Bilbao

After long flights, --my seatmate on the flight from SFO to Heathrow, an overly chatty Englishman, insisted on helping me crossword, and wouldn't let it go unfinihsed, grr-- a few hiccups and an uncompromising and unpleasant customs agent, I made it to Bilbao, and was so glad to see Shi outside the Airport. We went out to a club in Bilbao with Erasmus kids and dance dance danced, and met all of Sheila's friends (nice kids). Home late, passed out, woke up in the middle of the day. traveling + Jetlag + shots + dancing till 3am = exhaustion, and sleeping the day away.
We're off to see Bilbao and then get Pinchos with some other San Francisco kids and then leave for the sunny coast of the Algarve tomorrow morning. Another whole day in varois airports before getting to relax poolside, but at this point, eh, whats another? Off to walk!