French Basque Country and Loyola: Yes, THE Loyola
So, I'll start with Thursday. So I had heard from my host father, and also seen posters around town, about this German beer festival thing this weekend. Because Spain is really deficient on beer--no need, I guess, when there's an abundance of good wine--I had an urge for some good beer. So, we went to check it out. Indeed it was a German festival, complete with long tables and huge mugs of beer with awesome brauts, all to a German band playing festive German music interwoven with some Hispanic classics. The Spaniards were going nuts, dancing on tables, having a blast. The beer was good, I must add, as well.
Friday: day trip with the Program to St. Jean de Luz and Biarritz in France and Loyola back here in Spain. Set out early, again, at 8:15 am. First stop in St. Jean de Luz. It's a sleepy little fishing town in the offseason, right on the Bay, beautiful little place with a nice beach. The population evidently sextuples (six-times?) in the summer when all the tourists come, but it was nice just to walk around a little with not that many people around. Biarritz, however, was a bit cooler. Amazing coastline, with some very nice rocky juts into the sea on which we could climb. Bigger town, with supposedly one of the best chocolateries in France, or Europe, for that fact (according to my gourmand of a teacher). Very cool market too, in which I got to watch a fish monger slice up a tuna in front of my eyes. We discovered, though, how difficult it can be to get around in a foreign country in which you do not know the language. Every time I went to ask for something in a store, Spanish came out. In some of the bigger stores, they realized we were speaking English/Spanish and tried to speak one of those. From there, we were already a little hungry and were forced to get back on the bus and drive to lunch.
CIDE, you owe us an apology. Every time we have a group meal, the food sucks. Straight up. Last time in the hotel in Madrid, the terrible lasagne in Toledo, and now horrible paella. How do you mess that up?! We were all ravenous and yet we still could tell that the paella had NO taste. It wasn't mal-flavored, but rather lacked anything whatsoever. I felt bad for the people for whom this was their first paella experience. Oh well, at least they couldn't screw up the second course of chicken. We all discussed, tho, how they should just give us the 10 euros and let us find food somewhere. Oh well, at least we get to eat together in a big group.
Then we went to Loyola. Let me tell you that this was one of my explicit goals before I came to Basque Country, to visit the birthplace of St. Ignatius. Sort of a pilgrimage to me, I guess, after all his legacy has done for my life. I can't really describe how it made me feel, to be in that place, to look out a window of his house and gaze at the same scenery he would've seen at my age. It was kinda sad, tho, not going with other people with backgrounds of Jesuit education. I had one friend who could appreciate some of it, as I believe he has a rich Catholic background. I was ready and excited for this, while others in my group just wanted to go home.
Not much excitement for the remainder of the weekend. Day trips are tiring tho, so we mainly stayed in on Friday. My friend, Kara, and I were going to go hiking on Saturday, but the weather was bad when we awoke so we scrapped those plans. Saturday night was fun, tho, some more excitement in Bilbao.
Today I bought airfare to Paris for a weekend in November. I purchased my tickets to Dublin, as well, this weekend. Oh yeah, to Andalucia, to see Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada. I might try to fit in London, if I have any energy. So, I'm traveling in Europe...
All the best--
AMDG,
Tony
Friday: day trip with the Program to St. Jean de Luz and Biarritz in France and Loyola back here in Spain. Set out early, again, at 8:15 am. First stop in St. Jean de Luz. It's a sleepy little fishing town in the offseason, right on the Bay, beautiful little place with a nice beach. The population evidently sextuples (six-times?) in the summer when all the tourists come, but it was nice just to walk around a little with not that many people around. Biarritz, however, was a bit cooler. Amazing coastline, with some very nice rocky juts into the sea on which we could climb. Bigger town, with supposedly one of the best chocolateries in France, or Europe, for that fact (according to my gourmand of a teacher). Very cool market too, in which I got to watch a fish monger slice up a tuna in front of my eyes. We discovered, though, how difficult it can be to get around in a foreign country in which you do not know the language. Every time I went to ask for something in a store, Spanish came out. In some of the bigger stores, they realized we were speaking English/Spanish and tried to speak one of those. From there, we were already a little hungry and were forced to get back on the bus and drive to lunch.
CIDE, you owe us an apology. Every time we have a group meal, the food sucks. Straight up. Last time in the hotel in Madrid, the terrible lasagne in Toledo, and now horrible paella. How do you mess that up?! We were all ravenous and yet we still could tell that the paella had NO taste. It wasn't mal-flavored, but rather lacked anything whatsoever. I felt bad for the people for whom this was their first paella experience. Oh well, at least they couldn't screw up the second course of chicken. We all discussed, tho, how they should just give us the 10 euros and let us find food somewhere. Oh well, at least we get to eat together in a big group.
Then we went to Loyola. Let me tell you that this was one of my explicit goals before I came to Basque Country, to visit the birthplace of St. Ignatius. Sort of a pilgrimage to me, I guess, after all his legacy has done for my life. I can't really describe how it made me feel, to be in that place, to look out a window of his house and gaze at the same scenery he would've seen at my age. It was kinda sad, tho, not going with other people with backgrounds of Jesuit education. I had one friend who could appreciate some of it, as I believe he has a rich Catholic background. I was ready and excited for this, while others in my group just wanted to go home.
Not much excitement for the remainder of the weekend. Day trips are tiring tho, so we mainly stayed in on Friday. My friend, Kara, and I were going to go hiking on Saturday, but the weather was bad when we awoke so we scrapped those plans. Saturday night was fun, tho, some more excitement in Bilbao.
Today I bought airfare to Paris for a weekend in November. I purchased my tickets to Dublin, as well, this weekend. Oh yeah, to Andalucia, to see Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada. I might try to fit in London, if I have any energy. So, I'm traveling in Europe...
All the best--
AMDG,
Tony
posted by Anthony Damelio at 8:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home