Sunday, February 28, 2010

Vitoria-Capital of País Vasco (Basque Country) and a little more :)












Friday-Feb. 26, 2010 Chrissy and I have decided to start exploring more areas. On Thursday we decided to go on a day excursion to the capital of our province, Vitoria-only 45 minutes away via bus. When we got there it took us a little bit to orient ourselves on the map-but once we did we were off. The city itself is not big at all. We had made reservations at the Cathedral of Santa Maria to take a tour of it. The cathedral is under restoration currently and we were not allowed to take pictures. To give you an idea there was scaffling everywhere and support on the bottom and top of all the columns. They had uncovered people's bodies deep down in the church--between where the altar is and where the benches would have been. They were people that way back had paid a lot of money to be buried with the church. The tour guide also took us up winding steps that led us to the top of the cathedral where we could look down on the church, and then down also to a balcony that overlooked the city (picture on the left). It was really beautiful.
After the tour Chrissy and I continued to look at all the tourist spots to see on our map. We saw different churches including the newer cathedral built called Cathedral Maria Inmaculada (picture on the right), and many plazas. The pictures are on facebook in an album. In one of the plazas Chrissy and I took an hour or so break and ate delicious gelato :) We saw about 31 of the 41 places to see on the map--so we were quite busy all day. But we still ended earlier then we thought and were able to catch the 7pm bus instead of a later one.
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Saturday a group of us were supposed to go on a wine tasting tour in La Rioja-a province just south of us. But--something in Bilbao came up. We were in for a wind storm-with potential winds up to 80 miles per hour. We were in for tornado winds to give you a perspective... Anyhow the metros/buses shut down in the early afternoon on Saturday before anything even started. That evening/night the wind was absolutely insane and my lights flickered quite a few times. But we managed to keep power throughout it. So we plan on going to La Rioja on a nice day, when we won't blow away (literally) or get stuck somewhere and not be able to return...
Today--Sunday---is a gorgeous day however, beautiful blue skies and a lot of sunshine :)
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School is going good, I realized that mostly I just talk about my trips or excursions with the school. But school itself is going fine. I am taking 4 classes, 3 are taught in Spanish. I am taking a Spanish Business class, a Basque Culture and Language class-where I learn about the history and culture of this area I live in, and my third class in Spanish is-Culture, Politics, and Economy of Spain. Culture, Politics and Economy of Spain and my International Economy class (taught in English-my 4th class) are going towards my International Business Major, whereas the other two are for my Spanish minor. My professor are all nice, and have been welcoming since the beginning of my trip.
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This upcoming weekend my program is taking us to Madrid and Segovia, so stay tuned :)

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