After my Erasmus adventure last year, I knew I would someday go back to the Basque Country. The climate, the people, the food, the culture, the cities, the beach, … too many reasons not to come back. A training period at EiTB was the ideal solution to explore Euskal Herria some more.

Koen and I said Gipuzkoa goodbye and moved up north to the inner city of Bilbao (Bizkaia) in the Abando district. An opportunity to live the city life style to the fullest, while we are not restricted by long distances and bus lines (our last stay was in Bergara, approx. 50 km from Bilbao). Bilbao itself has enough to offer, as we knew already.

Tastebuds

Our apartment lies in Indautxu, one of the two neighbourhoods of Abando. It is ideally situated in the heart of the city with everything within walking distance.

Abando by night © Wiki

Culturally and gastronomically this is going to be a welcome break from the everyday life back home. My first bite in a pintxo yesterday was a delight for my tastebuds. Don’t get me wrong, Belgium has some great dishes, especially in winter, but the Basques simply take cooking food to another level.

Last time my cultural visits in Bilbao were limited to the unavoidable Guggenheim. This time I’m going look for some alternatives like the Museum of Fine Arts (with a great permanent collection)  or the beautiful Teatro Arriaga. A music concert (Santana 27, Kafé Antzokia) here and there would be nice as well.

The inside of Teatro Arriaga © Astenagusia

¿Que?

My Spanish language skills upgraded from ‘terrible’ to ‘understandable’ which eases social converse and brings with it the opportunity to connect a bit more with locals. But I have still a very long way to go until I can master the language.

Of course the climate is a positive change as well. Although there’s only a small difference of 5°C in comparison to Belgium you notice an immediate shift when you get of the plane. Not exactly Meditarianian but good enough for me.

We’ll see what this city has in store for me…

See you next time!

Agur!

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Another week comes to an end and we’re starting to realize that there are only four of them left. Four weeks to enjoy every moment we have and meanwhile trying to obey our upcoming deadlines. This week didn’t really help doing that, since one of my best friends, Zahra, arrived on Wednesday and stayed until today. No complaints though, I really loved having her over!

While at first I thought Zahra would only be arriving on Thursday, she eventually arrived pretty late on Wednesday evening. The next day we took a bus to Donostia and I showed her around the city the best I could. While we had plans to see everything and visit a museum, that all changed when Zahra ate her first pintxos. She loved them of course, and eventually we spent a large part of the day in a pintxos bar in Donostia’s old part of town (pintxos-heaven).

With the weather being so beautiful this week, we even went to the beach for a while. In the midst of November, with Christmas decorations already present in the store windows, we still don’t have to take out our winter’s clothes. Way too lucky!

On Friday then, we had to go to Bilbao again for our internship. Zahra tagged along, planning to spend the day discovering the city. At 7 pm, we met each other again and together with Koen, Niké and Chiara (an Italian Erasmus student from our university) we had plans to go to a concert at Santana 27, a concert hall outside of the city centre.

But first: finding a place to stay! Zahra and I booked a room in Pension Serantes in Casco Viejo and the other three stayed in a hostel in the Deusto quarter. We went to drop our stuff, but finding the pension proved to be a little more difficult than expected. It was located in the main going out district of Casco Viejo, in Calle Somera, and it wasn’t noticeable from the outside. You had to enter through a door, then onto crooked old stairs to the second floor. Really old and kind of dubious at first, but on the inside it was quite nice with lively colours and friendly people and a room all to ourselves!

The hallway at our pension. © SaJeh

We arrived at the concert a bit late, after making a detour in a very unknown and desolate part of the city. Santana 27 turned out to be a lot bigger than we had imagined, but the concert still had an intimate feel to it. The first act was Atlas Sound, of which we unfortunately only got to see the last half of the show. A good half though, I love the music (anyone who has the chance to check out their album Logos should definitely do so!) and at least I was on time to hear my favourite song Sheila. The second act was The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, a bit rougher than the first one but also very good and – in my opinion – 15 euros well spent.

Atlas Sound at Santana 27. © SaJeh

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart @ Santana 27. © SaJeh

From the concert we went to Casco Viejo to continue our evening. We love this part of Bilbao, it’s filled with all kinds of cool bars and shops and in the weekends everyone is out on the streets having a drink. Coincidentally we even bumped into Cécile again, a girl from Leuven (Belgium) that we’ve met last month.

Crowded streets of Casco Viejo. © SaJeh

The next day, Zahra and I walked through Casco Viejo, Bilbao La Vieja and San Francisco because I had to gather some information on these parts for a school assignment. In the next weeks I’ll go to the Museo de Bellas Artes and to the Zinebi film festival. Looking forward to it!

Zahra in Bilbao. © SaJeh

On Saturday evening we returned to Bergara to have a drink there with a bunch of the other Erasmus students. Today I had to drop off Zahra at the bus stop because she had to head back to Belgium. Unfortunately, it won’t be too long before we have to do the same. And now, back to work!

Agur!

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