Balmaseda y Portugalete

This past weekend our whole group got on buses and took a little tour around Pais Vasco, the state in which Bilbao is situated. We went to Balmaseda and Portugalete, both about 35 minutes (by bus) away from Bilbao. Balmaseda is the largest of a collection of small towns and villages in the western part of Pais Vasco with about 7,000 inhabitants in the town and surrounding area. The main attraction in Balmaseda is a really pretty Roman bridge that was built in the 15^th century as a place for tax collection on all goods entering Europe. Now the bridge is seen as a national monument for the people of Pais Vasco. Unfortunately it was raining heavily in Balmaseda, so we couldn’t go see many of the other things we had planed (including a walk along the river bank, a visit to city hall, and seeing the 6oo year old church).

After waiting half an hour in the rain for the bus (Spaniards seem to be pretty lax about time), we got on and went to a little restaurant in Vilaverde (Green Village) situated between two mountains called La Capitana. The food there was amazing! I was made (special) a salad with eggs, tomatoes, white asparagus, baby lettuces, and garlic mushrooms. The second course was another one of those egg “omelets” with more white asparagus and mushrooms that looked like little ears (no idea what kind, but very good and picked that morning by the chef and his dog, so he said). Our meal came with wine (more dirt cheap and delicious crianza- I learned it was an insult to the people and country if you ask for a non-Spanish wine in a restaurant or bar, plus it costs about three times as much) and the usual white crusty bread. For desert (three plates, remember?) we had a chocolate/raspberry mouse tart that was delicious, but I could hardly finish because there had been so much other food.

Post lunch it (finally) stopped raining for a little bit and we were able to really enjoy Portugalete, a small town north of Bilbao, right on the ocean. We saw the Salazar tower (Lope García de Salazar was a famous historian in the Basque area), Basílica de Santa María, and the bridge that goes over the river (it’s really really big). We were able to travel across it in the gondola (the thing that looks like it’s hovering over the water in the photo of the bridge below). All in all a fun day.

Classes started Monday and I’ve really been enjoying them. My teachers are all very good and very engaging. I am taking Basque culture and language, Spanish (courses in grammar, conversation, and writing), and contemporary Spanish culture and politics. I had to drop my course on Spanish cooking and theatre because I had too many credit hours and most of the food was not vegetarian friendly.

This weekend (Friday until Sunday- I get out of classes at 2pm every Thursday!) I plan on going to the naval museum and then scouting out hotels for my family to stay at when they come here. I might head out to a café with some friends, but no huge plans as of yet. This weekend is the festival of San Sebastian, so there will be some stuff for that going on, but nothing as big as the fiesta de tambores that’s happing in San Sebastian this weekend- that is supposed to be really huge (24 hours straight of drumming, from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday, people don’t go to bed).

I’m leaving you with one more picture for now…this bottle of wine I am holding was .59 €, that’s $.90 American. Crazy, eh? It was on special, but it couldn’t’ve been more than 20 or 30% off because there aren’t a lot of items marked down that much. I have yet to try it, and I probably never will, because I imagine that $.90 wine is horrible.