Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Basque Country

I know it's been a long time since I've updated the blog and I'm going to try and update it more regularly.  This summer was very busy, we had 2 amazing groups come for our teen art camps (3 weeks each).  Kids from U.S., England, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Columbia and France.  Some were return students (one has come for the past 3 summers) and some were new.  It's non-stop, 24x7 for us, but we love it.

During one of the camps we got an email from our good friends E&K in Los Angeles.  They wanted us to meet them in The Basque Country - San Sebastian and Bilbao, Spain for 5 days.  It's only 3 hours from us, if they were going to be so close we had to go see them.  Plus we had never been to the area and both really wanted to see the Museo Guggenheim and it was a few days after my birthday, so it was good excuse to celebrate.

We started in San Sebastian, a lovely seaside town.  We rented bikes, Bruce surfed, we shopped and ate pintxa (like Tapas) and had some good wine.  Weather was perfect and it was relaxing and great to spend time with E&C.  After 3 days in San Sebastian, we left for Bilbao.

View of San Sebastian from our hotel balcony

Bruce & Kevin

Pintxa spread

Hanging by the sea in San Sebastian

Bilbao had a very different vibe, but we both really liked the city.  We had a private tour of the Guggenheim too, which was really nice, it wasn't a tour of the artwork, but a tour of the building and an overview of how it was built, etc.  It was really interesting.  We ate at some really nice restaurants and did some shopping too.  The weather wasn't as nice here, cold and rainy, but we didn't let that stop us.


Me & Erica

A few glasses of wine

Outside the Guggenheim at night

My man

The Guggenheim

It's hard to say goodbye to your best friends...but we know we'll see them very soon (or at least on Skype once a week).  We had a great time and would go back to both places in a second.  The people were so lovely and nice and both cities had loads to offer.  If you haven't been, I'd highly recommend you go.