Thursday, July 26, 2012
Bocadesse
I went and took a 30min walk along the shore from my flat to Bocadesse, which is a neighborhood where the buildings are very old. It was scenic, though it didn't reach out past these pictures. It was maybe a block or two big. Regardless, it was nice.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
San Sebastian
After Plamplona I took a short bus over to San Sebastian with some students from MIT, which is apparently a popular tourist spot in Spain. I hadn't heard of it and just went along with everyone else, but it was probably my favorite part of the trip. I fell asleep on the bus over there and it took a couple minutes for me to figure out where I was when I woke up at the destination.
The city is on the Northern coast of Spain, so next to the Atlantic and about a 45 minute drive from the French border. It's part of the Basque Country, a region of Spain where people of that ethnic group (with their own language) originated from. Franco (the MIT student doing his internship there and showing us around) said the people were very intent on making it known that their culture was distinct from the Spanish, so much so that they had a banner hung up with the Spanish jersey crossed out during the Eurocup. Right off from the bus station, it was pretty scenic.
This is an uneventful picture but I was trying to get a shot of how clear the water was. You can see the fish in it (which is very different from the Charles River in Boston).
The architecture was also very nice. It felt more like a resort than a city, which was a welcome change from the crowds in Pamplona.
We at lunch and some gelato then dropped our stuff off at Franco's apartment. Afterwards we went and swam at one of the beaches with better waves for surfing (first picture here) then went and walked along the other, more scenic beach.
We took a funicular up to the top of hill in the picture above where there was a nice view of the whole beach and the coast on the other side. You can probably spot the huge statue of Jesus on the peak of the opposite hill (left side of the picture below), which reminded me of all the pictures I've seen of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
We went down to the base of the hill to see a sculpture but the sun wasn't in the right place to take a picture of it. The geology was pretty interesting though, I'm not quite sure what needs to happen to craft rock like this.
Finally, that evening we went out for Pintxos, which is a part of Basque cuisine. They were explained to me as being similar in size to Tapas (a Spanish type of food). If I got it correctly, Tapas means "caps" which refers to the size of the dish. You usually order a drink and a tapas, which is about just the size to cap the top of your drink (I think they may bring it to you on top of your drink). Pintxos are about the same size, and cost about 1.50 - 4 euro.
For lunch we went to a Pinxtos place, where there are a bunch of plates with a type of appetizer (though you just eat a bunch of them for your meal) splayed out on each along the bar. You go in, take whichever one you want to eat with a napkin, then crumple up the napkin, throw in on the floor, and repeat. Each one cost 1.50 so you just told the bartender how many you had and pay that much at the end.
It's also a social way to eat. You would typically get together with your friends on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday night, each throw in 10 euro at the beginning of the night and go hopping around these bars. Someone would be the point-person for one bar and order drinks/pintxos for everyone from the pool of money, then you would switch off the point-person at the next bar.
Franco said that San Sebastian was supposed to the a gastronomical capital of Europe and I would believe it. These were some of the riches tastes that I have experienced, so I really enjoyed it. The night we split off into groups of four-ish and Franco was in charge of ordering for ours. We each took a bit of the different plates. Below is foie gras, a pork dish, and cow cheek. I had cow ear earlier in the day, which was also delicious in the sauce that they put it in.
Here are the best, hurried pictures I could get in the crowded bar we were in. There wasn't much counter-top to eat on and everyone was standing.
This was another and was more of the style that had everything laid out on the table for you to pick up.
Finally, towards the end , I had to catch my bus at midnight so we ordered a bunch of plates at one more place. I tried frog legs, which tasted like chicken but with less meat for the work you had to put in to bite it off. It was alright, but not my favorite.
Here's a partial group picture that we took before splitting ways.
I then went to the bus station and fell asleep on my ride to Madrid.
The city is on the Northern coast of Spain, so next to the Atlantic and about a 45 minute drive from the French border. It's part of the Basque Country, a region of Spain where people of that ethnic group (with their own language) originated from. Franco (the MIT student doing his internship there and showing us around) said the people were very intent on making it known that their culture was distinct from the Spanish, so much so that they had a banner hung up with the Spanish jersey crossed out during the Eurocup. Right off from the bus station, it was pretty scenic.
This is an uneventful picture but I was trying to get a shot of how clear the water was. You can see the fish in it (which is very different from the Charles River in Boston).
The architecture was also very nice. It felt more like a resort than a city, which was a welcome change from the crowds in Pamplona.
We at lunch and some gelato then dropped our stuff off at Franco's apartment. Afterwards we went and swam at one of the beaches with better waves for surfing (first picture here) then went and walked along the other, more scenic beach.
We took a funicular up to the top of hill in the picture above where there was a nice view of the whole beach and the coast on the other side. You can probably spot the huge statue of Jesus on the peak of the opposite hill (left side of the picture below), which reminded me of all the pictures I've seen of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
We went down to the base of the hill to see a sculpture but the sun wasn't in the right place to take a picture of it. The geology was pretty interesting though, I'm not quite sure what needs to happen to craft rock like this.
Finally, that evening we went out for Pintxos, which is a part of Basque cuisine. They were explained to me as being similar in size to Tapas (a Spanish type of food). If I got it correctly, Tapas means "caps" which refers to the size of the dish. You usually order a drink and a tapas, which is about just the size to cap the top of your drink (I think they may bring it to you on top of your drink). Pintxos are about the same size, and cost about 1.50 - 4 euro.
For lunch we went to a Pinxtos place, where there are a bunch of plates with a type of appetizer (though you just eat a bunch of them for your meal) splayed out on each along the bar. You go in, take whichever one you want to eat with a napkin, then crumple up the napkin, throw in on the floor, and repeat. Each one cost 1.50 so you just told the bartender how many you had and pay that much at the end.
It's also a social way to eat. You would typically get together with your friends on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday night, each throw in 10 euro at the beginning of the night and go hopping around these bars. Someone would be the point-person for one bar and order drinks/pintxos for everyone from the pool of money, then you would switch off the point-person at the next bar.
Franco said that San Sebastian was supposed to the a gastronomical capital of Europe and I would believe it. These were some of the riches tastes that I have experienced, so I really enjoyed it. The night we split off into groups of four-ish and Franco was in charge of ordering for ours. We each took a bit of the different plates. Below is foie gras, a pork dish, and cow cheek. I had cow ear earlier in the day, which was also delicious in the sauce that they put it in.
Here are the best, hurried pictures I could get in the crowded bar we were in. There wasn't much counter-top to eat on and everyone was standing.
This was another and was more of the style that had everything laid out on the table for you to pick up.
Finally, towards the end , I had to catch my bus at midnight so we ordered a bunch of plates at one more place. I tried frog legs, which tasted like chicken but with less meat for the work you had to put in to bite it off. It was alright, but not my favorite.
Here's a partial group picture that we took before splitting ways.
I then went to the bus station and fell asleep on my ride to Madrid.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Running of the Bulls
Arriving to Pamplona was exciting; after the bus had gotten past a certain point you only saw people in white and red. I spent the first couple hours walking around and trying to reconnect with the MIT group that I had met up with in Barcelona. I played this game where I hopped around on payphones since my prepaid cell didn't work in Spain. It eventually worked out.
I came ready with my costume, though the only pants I could find were off-white.We spent most of teh day lounging around. We didn't catch the opening ceremony, which happened at noon. Though we didn't have to deal with getting drenched in the Sangria that everyone throws around during that part of the ceremony. There were people walking around drenched in it.
Here are the MIT students sitting in the park towards the end of the day
As you can see, there were a lot of people around doing the same thing.
The park was a good place to see the fireworks after nightfall. They were pretty impressive, almost up there with Boston's Fourth of July.
After then, we went around the city for the entire night. The shutter speed on my point-and-shoot camera wasn't fast enough to get a steady picture in more of the night shots. We hung out in a plazza for awhile and at one point were in a cafe/restaurant that turned into a club at night during the festival.
At one point during the night, we ran across this sketchy stand selling hamburgers for 5 euro. It was literally a burner under a sheet of metal. A couple people from our group got one, but I wasn't about to chance it and bought a kabab somewhere later.
The original plan was the sleep in the park, but we ended up powering through and walking around all night which was probably a better choice. It was a little chilly and the people we saw trying to camp in the park didn't look to comfortable.
At 5am we started to stake out a spot to see the actual running, which happens everyday at 8am during the festival. I believe it was originally used to transport the bulls from where they were kept to the stadium where the bullfighting would take place in the evening. We found a good place where you could see down a long stretch of the route. This first picture shows where the people were lining up, and you can see some bulls in the second one down the street running away from my camera.
Overall, I probably wouldn't line up for it again, since the whole thing was about 15 or 30 seconds of action combined (they let out multiple rounds of bulls). But I couldn't leave without trying to see it.
We walked down to the stadium afterwards, though we didn't stay in the town long enough to see the matadors fight the bulls.
Here is the same square at 9am in the morning. Not many people chose to wake up early.
On our way to our next destination we ran into a spontaneous crowd having a party on the street. It was two saxophone players and a man with a drum playing songs that everyone seemed to know while the crowd danced around together. At one point we all crouched down low then brought it back up with the music.
The last thing we were able to catch was a parade. I didn't know who was waving from the balcony but I assumed it was royalty or officials or something. The big costumes were followed by a marching band as they processed.
Originally I thought that the Running of the Bulls would be like a city carnival, but it actually ended up being closer to St. Patrick's day in Boston where the main event is everyone dressing up in the same color and drinking a lot. I thought it would be more cultural but it ended up being a lot of cheap sangria and trash on the floor. It was a sight to see but I was glad we only stayed for a day by the time we left to San Sebastian. It may have been different if we had a place to stay.
I came ready with my costume, though the only pants I could find were off-white.We spent most of teh day lounging around. We didn't catch the opening ceremony, which happened at noon. Though we didn't have to deal with getting drenched in the Sangria that everyone throws around during that part of the ceremony. There were people walking around drenched in it.
Here are the MIT students sitting in the park towards the end of the day
As you can see, there were a lot of people around doing the same thing.
The park was a good place to see the fireworks after nightfall. They were pretty impressive, almost up there with Boston's Fourth of July.
After then, we went around the city for the entire night. The shutter speed on my point-and-shoot camera wasn't fast enough to get a steady picture in more of the night shots. We hung out in a plazza for awhile and at one point were in a cafe/restaurant that turned into a club at night during the festival.
At one point during the night, we ran across this sketchy stand selling hamburgers for 5 euro. It was literally a burner under a sheet of metal. A couple people from our group got one, but I wasn't about to chance it and bought a kabab somewhere later.
The original plan was the sleep in the park, but we ended up powering through and walking around all night which was probably a better choice. It was a little chilly and the people we saw trying to camp in the park didn't look to comfortable.
At 5am we started to stake out a spot to see the actual running, which happens everyday at 8am during the festival. I believe it was originally used to transport the bulls from where they were kept to the stadium where the bullfighting would take place in the evening. We found a good place where you could see down a long stretch of the route. This first picture shows where the people were lining up, and you can see some bulls in the second one down the street running away from my camera.
Overall, I probably wouldn't line up for it again, since the whole thing was about 15 or 30 seconds of action combined (they let out multiple rounds of bulls). But I couldn't leave without trying to see it.
We walked down to the stadium afterwards, though we didn't stay in the town long enough to see the matadors fight the bulls.
Here is the same square at 9am in the morning. Not many people chose to wake up early.
On our way to our next destination we ran into a spontaneous crowd having a party on the street. It was two saxophone players and a man with a drum playing songs that everyone seemed to know while the crowd danced around together. At one point we all crouched down low then brought it back up with the music.
The last thing we were able to catch was a parade. I didn't know who was waving from the balcony but I assumed it was royalty or officials or something. The big costumes were followed by a marching band as they processed.
Originally I thought that the Running of the Bulls would be like a city carnival, but it actually ended up being closer to St. Patrick's day in Boston where the main event is everyone dressing up in the same color and drinking a lot. I thought it would be more cultural but it ended up being a lot of cheap sangria and trash on the floor. It was a sight to see but I was glad we only stayed for a day by the time we left to San Sebastian. It may have been different if we had a place to stay.
Getting to Pamplona
I decided to make the effort to go to Running of the Bulls, which started in Pamplona, Spain July 7th, and went on for a week. The plan was as follows:
I had two hours in between my train getting into Milan and my coach bus leaving to the airport so I took the subway Milan's Duomo (italian for Cathedral, I forget if I mentioned this when writing about Florence). It was very impressive.
I had planned to walk back, but somehow lost my map inside the church. I still walked back and made it in the hour I had left, so I think my navigation skills are improving.
I arrived into Placa de Catalunya in Barcelona, there was some nice scenery and architecture.
Though my friend Felipe made an attempt to show me around a bit, I had gotten in too late to really see anything after I had gone to the internet cafe to book some tickets for later on in the weekend. We went back to the apartment and I knocked out on the couch. The bus the next day was about as long as the drive from LA for Yosemite, so it wasn't that bad. The scenery wasn't too different from going through California.
- Skip work on Thursday/Friday, take a train to Milan Central Station and bus to Milan Bergamo airport
- Fly to Barcelona, take another bus into town
- Sleep on a friend's coach
- Take a 7am bus to arrive in Pamplona Friday at 2pm
- Experience the Festival!
- Sleep in the park
- Take an hour bus to San Sebastian on Saturday afternoon
- Experience San Sebastian!
- Sleep on a 6 hour bus to Madrid airport which departed San Sebastian at midnight
- Take a flight back to Genoa
I had two hours in between my train getting into Milan and my coach bus leaving to the airport so I took the subway Milan's Duomo (italian for Cathedral, I forget if I mentioned this when writing about Florence). It was very impressive.
I had planned to walk back, but somehow lost my map inside the church. I still walked back and made it in the hour I had left, so I think my navigation skills are improving.
I arrived into Placa de Catalunya in Barcelona, there was some nice scenery and architecture.
Though my friend Felipe made an attempt to show me around a bit, I had gotten in too late to really see anything after I had gone to the internet cafe to book some tickets for later on in the weekend. We went back to the apartment and I knocked out on the couch. The bus the next day was about as long as the drive from LA for Yosemite, so it wasn't that bad. The scenery wasn't too different from going through California.
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