First official FULL weekend in Spain

I have officially been here one week! it feels more like 1 month, but that might be because the days feel longer & they are full of more adventures. This weekend I spent all of my time exploring other places in Spain to become more familiar with my surroundings. On Friday our resident director took us to Mount Arxanda, where we could see the entire city of Bilbao (pictured below) and a part of our neighboring city Getxo. It was really interesting because we took this tiny tram like thing to get to the top and on the way down it got a flat tire and people flew forward inside the cars. It was quite funny and scary all at once.

On Saturday, two friends and I set off to the neighboring city Getxo. It was a very easy metro ride and gave us a smaller city feeling. Honestly it felt as it this was the city we expected rather than Bilbao. Simply put, Bilbao seems small but it provides a big city feel. While on the other hand, Getxo is more of a small coastal town by the sea. We found a super cute bar and watched the people chatter away. Afterwards we trekked down to the water and found a tiny little beach that reminded me of the Oregon coast. We ended up walking the coast line for quite a long time and ended up walking many many miles on a pier. By the time we got to the end we were exhausted and hungry and headed back to Bilbao. Once we arrived back home we gathered other friends and did a huge Tacobell picnic night. That's right, TACOBELL! Some familiarity was exactly what we needed and it was absolutely delicious and much better than in the states.

Sunday (today) was a huge adventure! My friends and I decided that we were going to see "Dragonstone" or actually known as San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, where a part of Game of Thrones was filmed. We hopped on a bus and sat for 40 minutes taking in the sights of the smaller farm towns. The ride was peaceful and once we got there we looked at a map to see how far we had to walk. To our utter horror we discovered it was a 30 minute walk, which didn't seem too bad but then we realized it was all straight up hill. To make matters worse none of us were wearing hiking shoes (luckily I was wearing workout gear). Determined, we set off on our hike to find the island. It was a beautiful walk besides the fact that we were all sweating and our knees were absolutely killing us. Once we finally got to the top we noticed that everything in the little town was closed (On sundays absolutely nothing is open). With empty stomachs we kept walking and finally found the island. We couldn't get as close as we wanted because one trail was closed, but we did get some stunning far away photos. Immediately after photos we whipped out our snacks and water! The walk back was easy and downhill and we were so proud of ourselves for doing such a strenuous hike with little preparation. Once we got back to Bilbao, again we had limited options on a Sunday for places to eat. Luckily we found a McDonalds and wolfed down delicious burgers and fries. I promise I have been eating traditional Spanish food every chance I get, but every once and a while you have to cave and eat something familiar!

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Overall:

It was an amazing and EXHAUSTING weekend that really tested my walking ability. I have loved every second and can't wait for next weekend (hopefully I will be going to San Sebastián)!