Bilbao & San Sebastian, Spain

After storing my large suitcase at the airport in Barcelona, I took off to see Bilbao and visit Cody. Since I arrived in Bilbao around 10:30 a.m., I could go right to the Guggenheim Museum. It certainly is a wonderfully interesting building and fun to take pictures of. The exhibits are not really my cup of tea (very modern) but some were definitely better than others. Richard Serra's "The Matter of Time" was definitely interesting and I really liked the work of Anish Kapoor and his different exhibits. The reflecting metal mirror room, the bright pure colors of his first works, and the large paintball shooting canon exhibit were particularly fun to see.

Bilbao is basically an industrial town and not particularly attractive or interesting (to me). I'm sure that someone staying there would tell me many wonderful things to see so maybe it was just my desire to get on in to see Cody. So, I left on a bus around 6 p.m and saw the beautiful scenery between Bilbao and San Sebastian along the way. This is really the first green I've seen in a long time. Cody met me on his bike when I arrived in San Sebastian and we walked to the hotel/hostel he had booked for me near his homestay. As I settled in he took off to meet some friends for dinner and hooked back up with me around 10. He, MacKenzie (a friend of his from Oregon State) and Rich (an older student who was in Cody's Spanish class) met me at the Cathedral and we went into the old town area to have San Sebastian's version of tapas, called pinxos. Great version. Rich is somewhat of a gourmet about this food so it was fun to see his excitement. He also was certain he had met me before. Lo and behold, he had. He was on the Madrid tour that I was on in late May and he remembered talking with me in a coffee bar when we went to Toledo. Once he reminded me, I remembered as well.

So, while Cody was finishing up his last three days of school, I got to experience a bit of San Sebastian. What a gorgeous place. The statue of Jesus overlooking the city is a great place to walk up to, the old town with it's wonderful cathedral, millions of tapas bars and stores is very appealing, and the three beaches make this a great resort town. As Setare says, "this is a great place to visit and perhaps even honeymoon in." She still loves Alicante though and I can see that it is harder for the group to remain connected when they are spread further out across town. We did get to a salsa bar to dance one night and I got to experience all three beaches. The walk up to the funicular on the third beach where some wonderful iron sculptures have been placed was a special venture and I enjoyed getting to know some of the students that Cody had been with this month. They had all taken a few surfing lessons and Cody had gotten hooked up with two intercombios as well as taught English to a 14 year old teenage boy to make some extra money, so he had many people and things to say goodbye to.

I also got to meet Cody's house parents--a middle-class couple with grown children--who were very kind and seemed to think he was one of the "good American kids." Their home was quite lovely and it was another time that I wished I could speak Spanish. I believe he was very lucky and it really helped his Spanish. My hostel/hotel was close, had easy access to the beach, and had a delightful breakfast, so it wasn't hard to take off from there each day and experience a bit of the town. The cathedral near Cody's place was a nice one and I could see how this had been a good place for students to study, use the internet, and meet.

As we prepared to leave on the final evening, Cody had gotten bus tickets for he, Setare, Amanda (another student from Texas) and me to go overnight to Barcelona. At the last moment, as we packed up, Cody couldn't find the tickets he had bought for all of us. We ultimately went to the bus station (in his house father's car -- that Cody didn't even know he owned) and hoped that they would let us on the bus. Luckily, a woman who was checking people in remembered Cody and let us get on. The unfortunate part, however, was that Amanda missed the bus. Apparently she is typically late and this time she was just too late. We felt badly but couldn't do anything about the situation.