A Little Piece Of Home (part 2): Bilbao

    For those of you that read my previous blog post, I went to Barcelona with my mom, took the ACT, and then drove back up to Bilbao. Our time in Bilbao, though it didn't feature anything incredible that I haven't already seen, was definitely 1 million times better than our time in Barcelona, because I got to show my mom who I am now, where I've been living, how my life has been, and who I've had the amazing opportunity to share this amazing year with. It was a trip for the books.
     So our first day in Bilbao, I took my mom to my little town, Mungia. It's not much, and I'm totally used to it now, because I've been living here for almost 10 months now. But my mom fell in love. She loves cute little towns like that. It was funny because all the pictures she was taking of my town I had taken 10 months ago when I first got here. I was just as intrigued and amazed by it as she was when she got here, but the effect has worn off and now it's just my home.

 Mungia

     Then around 2:30, we went to my host parents house for lunch. I was a little worried about that to be honest because I wanted them to like each other and I didn't know how things would go. But in the end we had a lot of fun talking, eating, laughing, and even breaking out the baby pictures...

 Whole fam together

The ladies

     We spent a few hours at my house here and then we went to Bilbao. My mom fell in love immediately. I mean how could you not? That city is absolutely gorgeous. We went out to eat with my best friend, Fer, because it was her birthday. I know it's a lame gift but I got us friendship necklaces...lol don't laugh. I know it's such a kid thing to do, but I thought it was cute. The half that I have is half of the sun and the half that she has is half of the moon. They fit together perfectly, just like us.

Best friend's bday

     That night, we got home at around 11:00 and went directly to bed, because it was an early morning again the next morning.
     On Monday (the next day), we woke up, went to Mungia to get some pastries and coffee for breakfast, and then took the bus to Bilbao. When we got there, the first thing we did was go to the mall, as that's the first stop on the bus, and the first thing you see when coming into the city on the bus. Of course the first shop we saw we ended up buying a bunch of stuff. It's this really cool store called Ale-Hop that has clothes, jewelry, electronics, baby stuff, toys, bags, anything really. I ended up buying things like phone power banks, earphones, and a friggin selfie stick...
     After that, we went to the tattoo shop to see how they did things. We ended up picking out a tattoo and setting an appointment for that night! (I'll get more into details later).
     When we left the mall to walk around Bilbao, it was POURING rain and really cold out. I'm used to that. I've been living in Bilbao for a year now and I know to always have an umbrella with me and never to wear sandals or flipflops unless you're 100% sure it's not even supposed to be cloudy that day. Mom didn't take my advice, and she wore sandals. She regretted that, to say the least. She ended up having to buy a pair of shoes in some random shoe store in Bilbao.

 Parque de los patos

     After a morning full of showing her around my favorite place in the entire world, we met up with our foreign exchange student from 3 years ago that lives in Donosti (1 hour from Bilbao) and goes to college in Bilbao. It was so crazy to finally see her again. We've been talking about getting together this whole year but we both get so busy and lose track of time and it feels like you've got all the time in the world when really you've hardly got any. But we finally got to catch up with her, which was amazing.

Paula

     Later, we met up with my boyfriend and all went to Artxanda, a place up the mountain where you get an incredible view of the entire city. It was SOOO beautiful. I don't know how I hadn't gone before that day.

Lol yay for selfie sticks

Bilbao you are gorgeous

<33333

     After that, it was TATTOO TIME!!!!! For those of you that don't know, I already had 6 tattoos. My mom's boyfriend is a tattoo artist, and so is my brother, so it's close to home you could say. Well, my mom wanted to get a matching tattoo (though we already have one), and she wanted something that would represent Spain, so we decided to get the outline of a bull head. My friends from Bilbao weren't that pleased with it, as that more represents Spain and not Euskadi, but oh well, for my mom, it's ALL Spain. Each tattoo only took about 10 minutes to do, and no, it didn't hurt, it actually tickled. The tattoo guy was so impressed with my Spanish for only having been here 10 months and he was amazed that at 17 I already have 7 tattoos. 

 NBD

Hi I'm Bri and I LOVE tattoos

     The next day, we went with Fer to a bunch of different places. We went to Butron Castle, and we got seriously lost on the way there...which yeah, that's awesome.

     Then we went to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, which I have pictures of in one of my very first blog posts here. I went there my first month here. It's absolutely gorgeous, but it's one heck of a hike... After finally trekking up the hill and making it to the car, we went out to lunch at a precious little restaurant that overlooks the ocean and had incredible food and absolutely disgusting cheese cake (seriously don't try it...).

This friendship is forever

I seriously don't think we look THAT much alike...

     Then we went to Bermeo, a little town on the ocean that doesn't have a beach but the amount of boats bobbing up and down on the docks is ridiculous (but totally gorgeous).

     After a little wandering, we went to Sopelana, my favorite beach I've been to in northern Spain. Mom of course walked along the shore to find shells, like she always does, and I just chilled in the sand, like I always do.

     That night, we went to Bilbao and had a late night dinner of pintxos in a bar with Pino (boyf). Pintxos are little sandwiches. There are a bajillion kinds of pintxos, and apparently the bar we were at was ranked one of the top pintxo bars, so that's cool. They were definitely delicious.
     The next day, Pino, mom and I got up early, ate breakfast in Mungia, and then headed out to Donostia (San Sebastian) which is a little over an hour away from where I live. The first thing we did was go to the aquarium, which is supposedly amazing, but really just like any other aquarium. Then we shopped and walked around the little streets and did a lot of tourist-y picture taking.

Idk

 MAMA

 mi amorcitooo

 idk what he's doing tbh

      When we went back to the car, we realized that we had parked in a lot that was for residents only. We had no idea because there were no signs and there was no problem getting in, but we realized we were in the wrong place when all of a sudden there were these poles that had come out of the ground and only allowed you to get in if you had a special card. Whoops... so we had to go talk to a police officer that was there and he almost gave us a 90euro ticket, but I'm so smooth I just talked my way out of it. In the end, everything was fine and we just moved the car.
     For lunch, we had tapas at a random bar, but we sat outside, which was a little chilly but very beautiful. Later we walked along the beach, looked around the town, did a lot more tourist-y picture taking, and then finally went back to Bilbao to drop off Pino. While we were in Bilbao, mom decided she wanted to try a kebab. If you don't live in New York or some other really big American city, or you've never been to Spain, well you probably think a kebab is a stick with grilled meat and vegetables. Yep, I thought so too, until they took me to a Kebab...they're like turkish sandwiches, but they're SOOOO good.
     That night, it was time to pack and get everything ready to go because the next morning we had to leave for the airport at about 5:45 AM... Even though I knew I would be seeing my mom in only a week, it was still really hard to say goodbye to her. It was like having a little piece of home with me, a little tease, and then all of a sudden it was gone, and it took a day or two to readjust to being alone here in THIS country living THIS life.
     Although we got on each other's nerves a little bit and got lost a LOT, I had the most amazing week with my mom, and I'm so glad I was able to share this country, this language, this life with her. Thanks mama for making it out here!!