June 27- Hola Basque Country (aka. Northern Spain)

We’re in Spain! How incredible is that? After breakfast, Courtney and I met up with a group of friends and we headed out into Spain for the day. Technically, we aren’t docked in the actual city of Bilbao. We’re in a nearby town called Gexto. Bilbao is farther inland, but SAS is providing us a shuttle to run us back and forth all day (which is really nice). Gexto itself is a pretty cool little beach town, and I’d like to do some exploring here before we leave. Today, though, we went into the heart of the city. You can guess what we did first… we saw the Guggenheim! It was pretty incredible.

"Puppi" at the Guggenheim

This cute little dog was playing in the fountains! Made my day.

The Infamous Guggenheim Museum

Guggenheim's Spider Sculpture

Amazing Street Art

Lindsey and Courtney

Tada! Bilbao's Pride and Joy

Our big group then split into smaller groups. Courtney and I went into the Guggenheim with two girls named Lindsey and Mari. I didn’t know what to expect because the Guggenheim is a modern art museum, but I’m really glad we went for one exhibition only: Ragnar Kjartansson’s THE VISITORS. It was utterly amazing. Like it’s one of those experiences I can’t describe with words. It’s something you just have to see for yourself. However, I’ll try to give you an idea of what it was like. It’s just this small, dark room with 9 screens placed on the walls. A group of musicians got together and recorded themselves singing/playing their instruments in different rooms of an old, beautiful house. Each screen shows a different artist in a different room. So for 60 minutes, they have this incredible jam-sesh, and it’s absolutely beautiful. You’re never able to see all of the screens at once, so you just walk around the room and watch one artist play while listening to all of their music creating this beautiful, haunting song. It was one of those rare moments where I completely lost myself. You know how when you see or hear something amazing that makes goosebumps pop up all over your body, and then you just sort of stop existing? And you can feel the music inside of you? And the vibrations of each note rings in your heart? That’s what it felt like.

We spent over an hour in that room. We watched the entire performance and then some. After we left, we figured we weren’t going to anything that cool in the rest of the museum, and we were right. As it turns out, I really don’t like modern art. I guess I can see why some people might like it, but it just seemed kind of dumb to me. Like, “Oh cool, there’s a floating chair with some random plate around it.” I don’t really get it. It’s like the artists are trying to be really deep and really unique, but it just doesn’t make much sense in the end. To each their own I s’pose.

Courtney, Mari, Lindsey and I then left the museum and followed the river down to the “Old Town” (the oldest part of the city. We got some food at a small restaurant there. I had two small sandwiches, one cod and one sautéed mushrooms. They were cheap, but they really hit the spot. Then we started wandering back towards the city center. We got some chocolate ice cream at a street vendor. Then a piece of chocolate cake at a bakery… And then some chocolate crepes at a coffee shop… So we definitely got our fill of sweets for the day.

When we were done stuffing our faces, we took the shuttle back "home" and had a light dinner back at the ship. We all decided to go to bed early because we’re exhausted and we have three more days ahead of us. You gotta pace yourself when docked at a port city!

As a side note, apparently we are in “Basque Country.” Although it is technically a part of Spain, Basque is like its own independent territory. The Basque people would claim that they are NOT Spanish, they are Basque. They have their own history, culture and language. So far, I have yet to see a Spanish flag anywhere in the city, but I’ve seen plenty of Basque flags.