Apocalypse Cow

---

In the hills of Quieros, near Bárzana, there lives a cow. Something is wrong with this cow. Kait, who sleeps across the street from this cow, was, at first, concerned for its well-being. But after two whole days of listening to its incessant, demonic cow-calls, now all she wants to do is bludgeon it to death with a blunt object.

And so, leaving Bárzana was bittersweet. Fortunately we happened to be in town for a ¨festival¨which felt more like a Lord of the Rings convention to me. Everyone looked like a demented leprechaun. I loved it. Copious amounts of bread, cheese, and chorizo. EVERYWHERE. We went from stall to stall buying pastries, the flakes of our previous victims still fresh on our lips as we greedily moved on to the next and the next. Unfortunately we missed the cheese making demonstration, but we did get to see the clog making demonstration. Pictures to follow.

Lauren and I left Bárzana yesterday and are now in Bilbao where the street signs are in Spanish and Basque (which looks like ancient Mayan). I´ve been wandering the streets like a country cousin, unable to understand either language. But we spent a lovely afternoon at the Guggenheim here, and saw several wonderful exhibitions. My favorite was the work of Takashi Murakami, the hottest artist coming out of Japan right now. He took inspiration from both ancient Japanese works and pop-culture and the colors read like something straight out of an acid trip. They were irreverent, psychedelic, and blatently consumer driven.

This afternoon we took a tram up into the hills of Bilbao, and on the way down we had the good fortune of sitting next to the craziest old couple I have ever come across. They had obviously been married for about 50 years, and were verbally and from time to time, physically, abusing each other. Though one didn´t need to speak Spanish to get the gist of what was going on, Lauren later provided me with a translation after we managed to stop laughing. Here is a brief excerpt:

HER: You´re drunk!
HIM: No I´m not.
HER: Yes you are! Cider, cider, cider. That´s all you do. I´m hungry. You better take me to eat.
HIM: I´m not taking you to eat. You´re fat!
HER: I´m not fat, I´m thin! Take me to eat!
HIM: Shut up! Shut up!
HER: (slapping him on the thigh). I will not shut up! You´re drunk!............

I may have to write it all out later, because it´s priceless.

It´s siesta right now, so we are killing time until the bars and restaurants open up again and the entire population decends for a collective pub crawl....Also, please email me your addresses, because I want to send some postcards!

Next up: Barcelona.

---