St. Patty's Day, "Father's Day", and Castro!

Since I had a test on Wednesday, the official St. Patty's Day, I decided to postpone my celebrations until Thursday after classes. My friends and I all dressed up in green and headed to an Erasmus party at Sala V.I.P- we made it to the right club this time. It was fun, but nothing like an American St. Patty's Day party and those Spaniards were severely lacking in their green attire. I'm pretty sure it's just another excuse for them to drink, and they don't bother with showing their Irish spirit. In any case, it was a fun time but I'm excited to be done with parties in Bilbao for a while and have a change of scenery from the "Orgasmus" parties.

The weekend prior was definitely what I would call a lazy weekend, though still not measuring up to some of the weekends I've had at Mary Wash. Either way, I promised myself before this trip that I would take advantage of every moment and not fall into laziness! So, this weekend I took charge. Jacklyn, Nina and I were all on the same page and wanted to so something fun, so we planned a day trip to Bakio, a small coastal town about half an hour away that was having a festival for el día de San José (the region's version of Father's Day). Where at first I was a bit skeptical of the fair, it was a fun time hanging out with two of my best friends here in Spain (even though Nina likes to deny it).

Nina and I on the beach of Bakio.

It was a wine and cheese festival- dad, you should have been there, not me!- and we ordered lomo (pork) sandwiches with hand-ground corn tortillas (talo), along with small glasses of txakoli (the wine the Basque Country is famous for, a bit sour though.. blech).

We walked around a bit more, finding cows and horses that we were allowed to pet. I'm not really sure about the latter, though, because I tried to pet one of those massive cows and I'm pretty sure it would have bucked me if I didn't stop...

After buying some delicious chocolate (already gone...), Jacklyn convinced me to head to the beach that was close-by and known around the region for being a good surf spot. I'm glad we made the walk, because it was a beautiful beach and we had a ton of fun. I even showed the other girls how climbing was done on a jungle gym on the beach. We collected rocks and sea glass, goofed around, and watched the surfers until we decided to head back to Bilbao. A successful day ended in a very successful night of getting comfy and watching Beauty and the Beast with the girls. :) hahaha.

We had to carry Nina across the water.

The next day, I got up early and caught the bus to Castro Urdiales to visit Olga once more before Spring Break. She invited me the weekend before to visit, saying that her family wanted me to come on an excursion with them to Burgos. However, she couldn't do it at the last minute, and we postponed the visit to this past weekend. Unfortunately, her dad wasn't there and we couldn't go to Burgos (they want me to come back soon to go, though I don't know when that will be- all of my weekends are filling up with trips around Europe!).

I was glad I visited either way, because it was Olga's friend Elena's birthday and all of her friends that I met during my last visit were celebrating. Before heading to the academía to throw a surprise party for Elena, Olga's mom made a delicious lunch after which Olga and I walked around her town, Montealegre (Happy Mountain... haha)- a small, rural town with countless sheep, dogs, donkeys, and ponies. During our walk, Olga was telling me about a barbeque place that people form Bilbao and all over come to during the Summer because you only have to buy a drink in order to get unlimited barbeque. She suggested I come back with my friends in May, and I think I will definitely have to fit that in. Another thing Olga was telling me was that she didn't like Ireland (she went to camp there four summers in a row)... let's hope I think differently!

We went to the academía and met with her friends to plan the surprise. Spanish teenagers, rather than having house parties, will rent out a space and each chip in to pay the monthly bill. In Olga's case, her friends and her rented an academía. I found out that for anyone's birthday, their friends do a surprise- so Elena knew something was happening, just not what. All of them wrote riddles on a piece of paper, revealing who they were and where they were hiding in the academía, so when Elena came in she had to find them. After the surprise, we all sat, talked, and ate the food that Elena made (pizza, sandwiches, tortilla de patata) and the tarta (cake) that Olga and I bought. We thought it was a brazo gitano (literally translated as gypsy arm!), but it wasn't- still tasty all the same.

The night ended with us going to the street with all of the bars, full of people of all ages (en serio-- I saw a baby in a stroller at 3am, and old couples too). Then, I left Olga's in the morning to get some work done.

Wish me luck this week! Two tests, then off to Italy, Paris and Barcelona for Spring Break!!!!!!! Can't wait! I'll update you all when I return from my two weeks of travels!