Basque Country: "This is not Spain!"

Depending on your views of Basque independence, this next post may either be an international vacation or just a trip to the north of Spain. It's quite a charged question for the people of Basque Country, a region of northern Spain and southern France that has a distinct language and culture. They've been trying to get their independence for years, sometimes resorting to violence through the terrorist acts of ETA--an extremist Basque independent group. Now things have settled down a bit but the people are still fiercely independent and would love to have complete autonomy. But that's not why we went there. We went because we heard they have some of the best food in the world. And they didn't disappoint. Here's what we saw in Pais Vasco:

The streets of San Sebastian. For the first couple days that we were there, it seemed as if no one lived in the town because the streets were so empty. Our hostel was right in the middle of the old town,a great location.

A morning hike and the view from the top of the hill. A cold and foggy day but a beautiful view nonetheless.

Another big Jesus.

Mike and Rohit after the run up the hill.

Quite the view.

Signs reference the region's problems with the extremist ETA. Also, Euskara, the language of the Basque people, is on the left. It bears no resemblance to Spanish or French.

The beach!

Some crazy dude out for a morning swim in the icy cold water. He wasn't the only one either. The Basque people must have thick skin.

Rohit had free passes to a gym on the beach. A really cool place with a great view.

We played a little pádel, a spin-off of tennis with smaller rackets and a glass wall at the back that you can hit the ball off of. Super fun.

A great little restaurant next to the beach where we ate lunch.

Pintxos (pronounced "pin-chos") are the tapas of Basque country. You can either pick something off one of the plates or order something hot from the back--the latter is a much better choice. The custom is to order one per bar and then move on to the next place, making a night tour of the city until you've had enough to eat.

It was Carnival in Spain (like Mardi Gras, the time right before lent) and the whole city was dressed up. So we headed to a costume shop and bought some tonterias, silly hats and glasses.

More pintxos. I think this may have been bull.

Octopus. The first night we had it was much better--with bell peppers, onions and olive oil. 

Some kind of fish? I don't know--they're all running together at this point. They were all really good though.

Apparently guys dressing up as girls is popular for Carnival. Very popular.

Or, you can wear giant shells on your head.

The Basque language is pretty crazy--tons of t's and x's.

The next day was much clearer in San Sebastian. Too bad we were off to Bilbao and couldn't enjoy the beach in the sun.

A little game of beach soccer in the morning.

The river that runs through San Sebastian. A very watery place.

Really? Stop? They have two languages and they write their street signs in English. Go figure.

Lots of beautiful countryside on the bus ride between San Sebastian and Bilbao. I guess this is why they call the region "Green Spain."

Insert hobbit joke here.

In front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Same architect as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A. Can you tell?

The building is really impressive from the outside.

The outside continues to impress.

And within lies the problem. For such a cool building, they sure filled it with some awful art. I know it's supposed to be subjective but I struggle to see how nine gray panels with paint splashed on them are worthy of being shown off to people. What's more, this is supposed to tell the story of the murder of a Roman emperor. Yeah, okay...

Let's go back outside. I need some air. Here's Puppy, a 43-foot tall dog/plant. They love him in Bilbao.

I'm laughing at your art.

A sort of light show. Hey, it's better than the gray panels.

Back outside to get some more air. The museum is located right on the river. They say that the Guggenheim is a symbol of Bilbao's resurgence as a regional economic power. The city struggled for awhile but over the past 20 years or so has again become a hub of education and technology.

Part of the atrium. Apparently the floor is the only straight line in the place.

We were struggling at this point.

A metal spider.

The atrium. A really cool place.

Back outside. I'm telling you, they need to work on getting some better art for the inside of this place. They're wasting such a great museum space.

Bilbao on Saturday night. The streets were packed with people and almost everyone was dressed up.

Group costumes are a big thing there. Round up your five closest friends, buy matching embarrassing costumes and head out for the night.

On the left is a wolf. To the right, three pigs.

Sheep? More manly costumes.

One of the highlights of the trip. We stumbled upon this free concert in the middle of the city. They had a live band and singers covering popular Spanish songs. It seemed like the whole city was there--young, old, everyone. And everybody was dancing and having a good time. We left at 2 a.m. and it was still going on. We discussed how something like that would never happen in America--the noise complaints alone would overwhelm the police department.

The people of Bilbao enjoying Carnival.

The next morning we took the Furnicular up the hillside to a great lookout point over Bilbao.

Very similar to Angels Flight in L.A.

The top of the hill. A really relaxing place.

As promised, a good view of Bilbao on a hazy day. 

We had some of the pastries on the left with the strawberries. Not sure exactly what they were but they were delicious.

I'm not sure how they taste but they sure look the part. Mustache and all!

Back down to Bilbao.

The oldest professional stadium in Spain (or is it even in Spain?), San Mamés Stadium. Athletic Bilbao, one of Spain's five most successful soccer clubs, plays its home games here. They're getting a new place in 2013 and it's badly needed from what I saw.

Sneaking a view from the street. The stadium hosted all three of England's first round games in the 1982 World Cup held in Spain. England won all three but was eliminated after finishing behind West Germany in the second group stage. I'm sorry, I really can't resist giving meaningless stats and information about soccer.

In front of the Athletic Bilbao crest outside of the stadium.

We saw tons of little pueblos on the ride home. That's a completely different Spain than the one I've been experiencing in Madrid.

The sunset on the bus ride back. We came, we saw, we ate.

The other non-photo highlight from our trip that stands out came from three Basque guys we met one night in San Sebastian. They all had been to the United States before and two of them taught English in San Sebastian. They loved the NBA and one of the guys even made a list of NBA players that had suffered a specific knee injury. I got the impression that they really like basketball in Basque Country. We played a pickup game in a park in Bilbao with a guy from Cameroon as well. What a world we live in. Anyway, I'm about all caught up on the blog. I have a few photos from my weekend spent in Madrid and hopefully those will be up sometime this week. And this coming weekend, it's off to Valencia for Las Fallas--The Fire Festival. Sounds intriguing, eh? That's all for now. Hasta luego.