Day 9: New Day, New City - Hello Bilbao!

No matter what kind of shower the hostel has- whether it be no pressure, cold water, etc- they all have one thing in common: they are tiny! Now I know I'm not the smallest person out there, but I'm definitely not the biggest, and even I find those showers to be so cramped. There's nothing worse than benfing over to grab your shampoo and your butt touches the side of the shower- eww! Ohhh, if only I was rich and could stay in the Four Seasons...maybe in another lifetime!

So I was debating whether to stay in San Sebastian a little longer today or not, since I never got to enjoy the beautiful beaches. But the weather forecast was calling for about 19 degrees and cloudy, so I figured I might as well head off to Bilbao as soon as I could! I did wake up a little earlier though, to see a little bit more of San Sebastian before I left. I climbed up to the top of Mount Urgull. There is a castle up there as well a massive statue of Jesus- plus amazing views of the city! And that trek definitely counted as my workout for the day so I killed two birds with one stone!



I was planning on taking the train to Bilbao today, but after talking to a guy at my hostel last night, I decided to take the bus. The train was only got to cost 2 euros, but it supposedly takes about 3 hours to get there. On the other hand, the bus was a little more expensive (10 euros) but it gets you to Bilbao in only an hour! So I decided to splurge and take the bus so I wouldn't be wasting precious sightseeing time!

When I got off the bus in Bilbao I met some girls who were heading to the same hostel as me, so we befriended each other, found the hostel together, and then decided to all head to the Guggenheim! Unfortunately, for the first time on my trip, the weather decided to take a turn for the worse and it started to rain as we were walking there. But I guess I should really be saying FORTUNATELY, because at least the rain came on the day I was going to be spending inside! The Guggenheim was very interesting- it was designed by Frank Gehry (for all you Torontonians, he did the new addition to the AGO) so its quite an impressive structure on its own. But of course, there is lots of cool art inside too! It had a ton of "video installation" art pieces. You know, the stuff that is really strange and doesn't really make any sense?! We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but here are a few from the outside:


On the way home I stopped to pick up some groceries...have you ever noticed how many different things could pass for spaghetti sauce?! I was so worries I would get salsa or tomato paste by accident, but I eventually found what I was looking for!

I'm off to Madrid tomorrow- still debating whether I will take the bus or train. I've been hearing more and more about the train system here in Spain and how it isn't the greatest so I might shell out the cash again and take the bus, but no need to decide right this second! Talk to ya tomorrow!

Love, Dianna