My Basque Country Weekend!

5:30 am on Friday morning, Madi and I were woken up by a drunk Basque man yelling at the top of his lungs bellow our fifth floor window, which we left open for the breeze. I sluggishly got up, closed the window, then collapsed back onto my bed and slept till my alarm went off.
The hotel provided an excellent selection of food for breakfast. We both had an assortment of fruits and Basque style morning breakfast sandwiches. We headed back to our room to brush our teeth and then met the group in the lobby for a guided tour of San Sebastián.

One of the beaches of San Sebastián

Our group's guide was funny and full of information about the town. We walked to Maria Cristina's mansion and pool house that she spent her summers in when she was queen of Spain. We then walked along the coast to the old town. There we walked through the streets and ended in a courtyard the was originally a bull fighting ring.
After the tour, we were given free time for lunch before the "leisurely hike" up to the statue of Jesus Christ which has one of the best views of San Sebastián. 
With our 3 hours of free time, Tucker and I decided to explore the city. While exploring we found a restaurant called La Vaca and decided to have lunch there. I had, hands down, the best burger of my life there. With an hour remaining we explored some more and found a beautiful cathedral.
By then it was time to meet the group to go on the hike. It took us about 15 minutes to hike up yet it felt like forever. Being that it was raining and cold we had all worn pants and long sleeves. It started to warm up just as we began the hike, so we all heated up quite quickly. The view from the top was worth it.

Madi's stomach started bugging her so once we got to the bottom, we took a cab to the hotel. Upon our arrival, my stomach started to bug me as well.
After a few hours of resting, I felt slightly better and left Madi so she could nap. I went and hung out with Tucker who also wasn't feeling to good. All of the AIFS students have been passing around a cold and oh is it wonderful!
In need of some Ginger Ale, or really anything, Tucker and I went down to reception and asked for directions to the nearest grocery store. The lady at reception told us to go out of the hotel, take the first 2 rights, go 3 blocks, and there it was. We went out of the hotel, took the first 2 rights, and went 3 blocks. There was no grocery store there. Thinking we may have missed it we back tracked a few blocks and found a very small convenience store which had 7up. I bought a bottle and slowly drank it throughout the night. 
Realizing walking around was making us both feel better, we decided to get some food. In our struggle to find the supposive grocery store, we found a pizza place. We got some pizza to go and headed back to the hotel to eat it.
Fresh air and food was exactly what we needed. We both felt better after eating. Though we could have probably talked for a lot longer, we both needed to get to bed as we had to be up and ready to go to Bilbao by 9:30 am.

After eating another wonderful breakfast Saturday morning, we all piled on to our bus at 9:30 am to head to Bilbao. Once we arrived we all headed into the Guggenheim Museum. I loved this museum! The building itself was a wonderful work of art, along with all that was inside it. Except there were two pieces that I was not to fond of as they both had spiders.... My favorite pieces were gigantic iron sculptures. You could walk in and around these works of art and even follow the maze shaped ones to the middle. Madi, Brett, Tucker, and I spent a long time exploring these sculptures and of course took some selfies :)

I couldn't choose which one to post so how about both!

Brett, Tucker, Madi, and I with our
museum tour guide phones

After seeing all the exhibits, we met up with Sally and Marta (our AIFS chaperons for the trip) and walked into the old town. There we all split up for lunch. Tucker and I found a cute cafe and had Belgium waffles for lunch. We were expecting a nice size waffle but were served a small chocolate covered waffle. I am not complaining though as it was delicious! We slowly made our way back to the Guggenheim Museum which was our meeting spot for getting back on the bus. Before getting on the bus I got a picture of the huge flower dog in front of the museum.

The dog!!!

Back in San Sebastián, the whole group went out to dinner at Morgan Kompany. It was a delicious meal to share with great people. Sophia and I may have gotten there an hour late but that's another story for another time. Marta and Sally bought the whole group drinks afterwards. The choice was either white wine or red wine.
I chose gelato. Oreo gelato to be exact and it was awesome.
Disclaimer, I do not like any alcoholic drink where you can actually taste the alcohol.
This morning we sadly left San Sebastián to head home. We stopped in Pamplona along the way. It was raining and all I wanted was a hot drink. I had to stop at the ATM, so I told Anavi, Brett, Sophia, and Madi that I'd met up with them in a minute. Bad idea because I couldn't find them afterwards. It's okay because Tucker and I found a small group of AIFS people and joined them. A few more people joined the group, then a few people left the group. With an hour and a half left Tucker, Kyle, Pavel and I were the only ones left there. We sat outside this cafe and talked until we had to met the bus. Pavel and I talked about God and the bible the entire time. Kyle joined in on the conversation as well. Kyle is going into missionary work a month after we get back from Spain and would like to find a lifelong career in it. These two are a wonderful answer to my prays! People to talk about the Lord with!
After paying for our drinks and grabbing some snacks for the bus ride home, we met up with the rest of the group. Though we all had a wonderful weekend, we were all very happy to be heading back to our homes here in Barcelona.