Espana!

WOW! What an amazing adventure and it’s just the first port…. From the 24^th -27^th of June, I was able to see, smell and taste Spain.

The first day upon arriving in Barcelona, Spain, my friends and I ate breakfast on the ship and then attended a diplomatic briefing by Spain’s U.S. ambassador, where we learned sort of the “do’s and don’ts” of Spain. Shortly after, we left the ship to do some exploring. Our first destination was Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is basically a long road with a shopping stip in the middle as well as on either sides of the street. You can find anything from outdoor cafes and art dealers to other streamline shopping, such as Sephora and H&M. Other interesting characters you might see while walking down Las Ramblas are the men and women who have mastered the art and make a living by turning themselves into human statues, giant babies, or…. by far the most original—an amputated head, only showing movement when given money.. I’m sure you’ve seen them if you’ve been to New York..

For lunch we ate bruschetta (ham) and Swiss sandwiches on baguettes and drank sangria as we soaked in our surroundings and listened to a crazy man serenade us with his guitar. “No gracias!” probably became one of my most used Spanish phrases.

After lunch, we took a taxi ride to a gondola, where we were able to see Barcelona from an aerial view and then ended up back in town for dinner where we ate at a very authentic restaurant called Los Caracoles (The Snails). Yes, we ate snails and YES, they were delicious! Even cooler than the snails though, my father ate at this exact same restaurant when he was in college.

The next day, Kelcey and I, as well as about 10 other girls took a plane to Bilbao, where we saw the Guggenheim Museum, toured the city, and participated in a Spanish custom called deportes de pintos or a bar crawl. Deportes de pintos is however done in the afternoon rather than night. Groups of people go from bar to bar and eat a small snack and have a drink at each. The traditional “snack” is usually a thin slice of baguette topped with some type of meat in a cream sauce; ham, bacon or cod, and cheese. My favorite was cod with pil pil sauce. After deportes de pintos, our group toured more of Bilboa and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Unlike Barcelona, where Spanish was easily understood and most of the time English as well, the people of Bilbao primarily speak Bask, which I did not understand AT ALL..Although very few people of Bilbao understood our English, one charismatic little boy with long, dark curly hair, who I guess to be about eight years old, helped us order coffee after he saw us struggling to communicate with the café owner. He boldly approached and asked in a very serious tone, “Wh-whaaat is the prob-b-blemmm?” Well, can’t you imagine we were just thrilled, not to mention incredibly charmed. We got our coffee Americano, yet needless to say, we all ordered dinner by crossing our fingers and pointing to the most appetizing picture on the menu.

After staying the night in Bilbao, we took a day trip to Hondarribia.. This is another Bask speaking city, known for commerce in wine, fish and cereal. More importantly, Bilbao is the border town between Spain and France. When in view of the water at Bilbao’s coast, you can also see France. Pretty amazing! Luckily, our wonderful tour guide would lead us through the town and communicate with the locals. Hondarribia was lovely and quaint, with brightly colored houses sure to cheer up and welcome the local fisherman who had long been at sea. The funniest thing I learned about Bilbao is that they consider themselves a gastronomical community, meaning that they love to eat, as well as a MANocracy, because of the many men’s societies, which are basically small pubs where women are not usually allowed….Unless they are cooking the food. Imagine that! Haha!

After spending a couple of hours in Bilbao, we headed to the fashionable San Sebastian about 20 minutes away. San Sebastian was definitely my favorite Spain destination and I hope to go back at some point. This coastal city was very clean and cheery. Everywhere we went, families and children scattered the sidewalks as well as older couples walking hand in hand. We even saw a wedding! After touring, we ate lunch, spent some time looking around, and headed back to Barcelona, where we spent our last night. That night was spent enjoying Barcelona’s nightlife and developing friendships with bar owners, natives of the country, foreigners and Semester at Sea peers. I can only hope my horizons never quit expanding. Now, I am off to Italy! Arrivederci!

A few things I’ve learned:

1. Just because people are different, does not mean they’re bad. LEARN from them.

2. I think Americans should take the initiative to learn more than one language if we expect people to speak English everywhere we go.. I’m working on it right now.

3. If you want to build some pretty awesome relationships with people, live on a ship where you’re immersed in their presence constantly. J