Bilbao: Bridges, trains and the metro....

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So, I'm in Spain! After a rather long wait in Heathrow (I knew we were delayed before the ground staff...), I was on a flight to Spain! Since Vueling is a Spanish company, all the flight announcements were done in Spanish... Good for me to practice, but bad for the Aussie sat behind me! (Lovely guy, told me he'd just spent a few days on Skye. Did say he'd seen it by bus though. Hopefully not Haggis Backpackers!) Anyway, we landed and I only had a little trouble findings the bus into town. Slightly harder was finding the hostel at 11.30pm! Eventually I found it, and went straight to bed after being shown around. Unfortunately, I did not go straight to sleep - there was someone in the bed beside mine who would not stop snoring!!! Thankfully, I did manage to get to sleep, though it took forever...



This morning, I woke up to a relatively quiet room. This did not last long! Once I left the dorm, I was accosted by a very drunk guy who obviously hadn't been to bed. Thankfully he disappeared fairly quickly, leaving me to eat breakfast in peace. Realising I had a while before my bus, I decided to have a look round Bilbao. A quick Google search told me about a transport bridge just north of the city, so off I went. I took the metro out, and following the instruction I was given, stayed on till the end. This landed me in a rather strange wee town, with only a church and a 'palace' as it's tourist attractions. There was a lovely park I walked through though, following signs for the tourist information. Here I was directed to the bridge. On route, many groups of rowers went by, at a right rate of knots! When I got to the bridge, my breath was taken away - it's incredible! It was basically a gondola that went across the river. For a few euros extra, you could get up onto the supporting structure. Very high! Also, quite scary - you could see between the wooden beams that made up the walkway...

Once on the other side, I went to the nearest tourist information (they are very useful!) to ask the easiest way to get back into Bilbao. She asked whether I had spent any time in Guxjo (the area I was in), and after responding in the negative, she suggested hiring a bike to look around for a wee while. I did so, and had a lovely cycle along the beach, and into the old town. Here I dumped the bike (there were stations to return it to all over the place), and wandered with the intent of finding the metro to get back. This took a while, and while I took the numerous stairs to get up into the newer part of town, I noticed a lift going up the cliff! Lazy... Finally, the glass tube of the metro entrance appeared (the metro was designed by an English guy, who made it all out of glass and steel - even the tube is interesting to travel on here!). I raced back into Bilbao to realise I still had an hour to burn, so went off in search of more bridges/modes of transport... There is a tram stop opposite the metro, so on I hopped, getting off when I noticed a sign to the funicular (is that the right word? It the same thing that is on Cairngorm...). Off I went to go up this, a train going up the side of a very steep hill. Once at the top, I was very glad I had! The views over Bilbao were stunning! At this point, I realised I didn't have quite as long as I thought, so I quickly caught the train thing back down and ran back to my hostel to grab my bag. I still had just enough time to cross the bridge by the Guggenheim though, which is an impressive bridge! Here I also saw loads of nuns around, and three listening very intently to another woman talking. Looked very quaint! I jumped back on the tram, which had Flower Power emblazoned down the sides, and made it to the bus station with a few minutes to spare. I hopped on the bus to discover they have TVs on the back of each seat! After exploring the options, I decided on Despicable Me (having not seen it before), and amazingly it was in English! During the journey, I was also offered some biscuits and a cup of tea. Felt like bliss... The views were amazing too - mostly along the coast, looking out to sea. Arriving into Santander, I realised I didn't know who or what to look for, all I knew was that Fernando was collecting me - no idea what he looked like though...




After a frantic few minutes of not knowing what was happening, someone came up to.me asking if I was Talitha, and introducing himself as Fernando. We then went off to the train station, as he needed to collect his sister as well. She came off her train explaining that she'd watched The Impossible and cried the whole time. Imagine her surprise when I explained that Tomas (whose family the film is based on) went to AC! Amazingly, this entire conversation was in Spanish, with a little help from Fernando for the words I didn't understand/know...

After dropping her off, we set off into the countryside, to a little village called Aes. The journey was amazing, lovely rolling hills. Once at his home and settled in, I was introduced to his twin daughters - 2 and a half, and full of energy! I've spent the rest of the evening being their new toy... Thankfully they are now off to bed, though I don't think I'll be far behind them!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Congratulations on your gap year
Eager to read more. Happy travels.

[mammateej]

Thanks. Not quite on my gap year yet - I'm actually mid way through exams... I have Spanish next week, before graduation. Then my gap year starts!