Un dia loco in Espana!

Saturday was a travel day. We left Vienna early in the morning, flew back through Dusseldorf where Laura met us at the airport and brought us to the other Dusseldorf airport before we said one last last goodbye to her before flying to Ale's home in Bilbao. We arrived in Bilbao (via Santander) late in the afternoon and I got to see Ale's apartment for the first time. Super Cute! She rents a room in the little house on the side of a hill. Bilbao is a cute city nestled in betwen mountains and the northern seas of Spain.

That night, Ale brought me to the old part of town where I fell in love with Pintxos! Pintxos are sort of like tapas, but they are unique to the Basq region of northern Spain and southern France. Apparently the Basq people want to be their own country...they even have their own language, but that's a whole other story. So they make these things called Pintxos which consist of a small piece of french bread that is topped with anything and everything from different meats like spanish ham, chicken, fish, to these exotic sauces to anchovies. Totally gormet...friends, get ready for me to host a Top Chef night. I'm creating Pintxois!!! They were super yummy and every bar has them sitting out! I definitely filled up on pinxtos and wine which was a good thing because later that night we met up with Ale's boyfriend Mikel and his friends and took a train to a town outside of Bilboa for their yearly carnival-like party. It was totally crazy. People were all over the streets drinking, dancing and partying. You just walk into a bar, order your drink, and then you can walk outside of the bar with your glass and everything and bring your drink to the next bar. Sooooooo much fun. I was introduced to Kalimotxos that night. It is a mix of coke and wine...and is actually not as disgusting as it sounds. I probably won't drink that back in the States, but it was fun to drink the "drink" of the region for the night.

The next morning, Ale and I woke up and headed for the beach. It was my first experience at a NUDE BEACH! YIKES! Don't worry, I didn't go topless! And before I post my pictures on fb, I think I need to censor them because in the background there are pics of topless people. Ale has a really great photo of herself but in the background there is a topless 10 year-oldish kid. We wouldn't want to get arrested for child porn! After a nice relaxing morning at the beach, we met Mikel for a late lunch before they drove me to the airport.

I'm sitting in Madrid now (Sunday night) as I write this. My plane was delayed which means I won't get to Rome til about 1am. ugh!

Roma, here I come!