Burgos!

Another big food filled weekend has passed. What can I say, I love food! This weekend I went with my program to Burgos, which is about 3 hours south of here. It is known for having one of the three largest cathedrals in Spain (the other two are Toledo and Sevilla). It was quite impressive. We also explored an archaeological site and a museum about evolution. We saw bones that were around 500,000 years old (It was hard to imagine how old that is!)

                                                        Cathedral in Burgos 

                                             

On Saturday, we walked 11.5km of the Camino de Santiago. It is a trail that starts in varying places and ends in Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain. People do it for various reasons but it draws people from all over the world. I loved seeing people from varying cultures, exchanging a few Spanish words with them and watching them continue on their journey. It was a very gorgeous and peaceful walk as the trees were covered with snow.

                                                               Camino de Santiago

                                       Sign indicating the Camino de Santiago  

Sunday’s festivities are a semester highlight for me. I was invited to Kepa’s hometown to celebrate his mom’s birthday. It is a small town with about 7,000 inhabitants. There were 14 of us altogether and after a few bars, we ended up at a restaurant for lunch. The amount of food put in front of me was unthinkable, but oh so delicious. I tried a fried cow tongue and all I can say is that it was excellent. I was also faced with my first whole fish. Luckily, I was sharing it with Lurdes and she was equally as intimidated. Kepa (fortunately!) nicely filleted it for us and artistically displayed it on our plates. We would have been in trouble without him. The lunch lasted about three and a half hours (If you are a Healey and are reading this, it rivaled a Healey gathering in length!). It was so nice to be part of such a family event. Before coming to San Sebastián, I always imagined myself at such a gathering experiencing the true Basque culture. The day was a dream come true!

  Food photo of the week: Raspberry sorbet with creme and chocolate shavings at lunch in Burgos

                                         Nothing is more beautiful than San Sebastián on a (very rare!) sunny day!

                              

Besos,

Erin 

Food and Wine!

Food and wine. What more can be said? My parents and their friends came to visit and we had a week centered around (yes, you guessed it) food and wine. In between all of the eating and drinking, we managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing as well.

                                                    Salmon with dill aioli 

             There was the obligatory day in San Sebastián when I got to show off some of my favorite spots and another day in France. I also successfully fit in a quick morning in Bilbao at the Guggenheim Museum with them before heading back for class (I even managed to get scolded by a German lady on the bus who didn’t speak English or Spanish, but that is another story!)

                                                        The Guggenheim in Bilbao

                              Dog sculpture covered in flowers outside of the Guggenheim.

            The highlight of the week was our weekend spent in La Rioja (the wine region of Spain), six wineries, 2 days. I have never eaten so much in my life, but it was worth every bite! Each winery consisted of a tour and wine tasting. It was interesting to learn about the wine making process, it is way more complicated then I ever imagined. One of the highlights for me was doing an olive oil tasting at one of the wineries. I got to try a couple of great olive oils and even got my parents to join in.

                                                    Wine tasting in a vineyard in La Rioja

                                                            A view from LaGuardia in La Rioja

            The week wouldn’t have been complete without Mom and Dad having dinner with Lurdes and Kepa. Kepa made us a fabulous dinner and I had the job of translating. It kept me busy, but it was great to have all four of them around the same table. It was strange having my Spain life and real life integrate, but I was glad that everyone got to meet and spend some time together.

                                             Lurdes, Kepa and me at our family dinner!

Besos,

Erin  

Reconnecting and...Recalculating!

England was filled with new places and familiar faces! I stayed with friends in Henley on Thames and used their house as home base for all of my day trip adventures.

            Two of the days were spent with a friend from home. I visited him in Oxford (where he goes to school) and then we met up in Bath. In Oxford, I got to see the university and a lot of the countryside. It was a beautiful town. Bath was filled with more tourist attractions. We managed to fit in the Roman Baths, the Cathedral and a few other museums. It was great to catch up and explore some new places!

                                                  One of the many libraries in Oxford.

                                                           The Roman Baths

            On Easter, I spent the day in Henley. I enjoyed some traditional English food like lamb with mint sauce, hot crossed buns and a traditional sponge cake. Being the foodie that I am, I loved all of it! The day wouldn’t have been complete without a walk along the Thames River. Henley is known for hosting the Henley Royal Regatta every summer. Although I didn’t get to see the regatta, there were teams out practicing. Later in the day, we watched the Oxford versus Cambridge boat race on TV. A very important race and Oxford came out as the winner!

                                                               The Thames River

            My final day in England was spent in London with my friend, Rachel, from Edinburgh. It had been about four years since we had seen each other so our day was spent wandering around the city catching up. We walked by the Tower Bridge and over to Covent Gardens. Our walk was rewarded with mint tea and scones. Later in the evening, I was met by more friends and saw some of the typical London sights.

                                                    Rachel and me in front of the Tower Bridge

                                                                  Big Ben!

                                                            Obligatory food photo: scone with creme and jelly

                                                             The London Eye

            To end Spring break, I was (of course) forced to “recalculate” on the way home. Halfway to the London airport by train, it was announced that the train tracks had cracked and that the train was going out of service. With less than 2 hours before my flight, I managed to hop in a taxi and make it to my gate 5 minutes before it was supposed to close. The day wouldn’t have been complete without extra excitement! I was very happy to make it home and be welcomed with a shower, clean sheets, good company and a homemade dinner. Nothing beats the home life after two weeks of recalculating!

Besos,

Erin  

Recalculating!

Nothing could have started Spring Break better than having my aunt Mindy and her friend, Kathy, come to Spain. To say we had an exciting journey would be putting it lightly. Our original itinerary was San Sebastián, Lisbon and Madrid. We ended up in San Sebastián, Salamanca, Sevilla, Marbella and Madrid. I am sure you are wondering how this happened and so are we. We decided to live by the word recalculating.

             We started out the week in San Sebastián with beautiful weather and a great dinner. Our real excitement started when we missed our flight to Portugal due to illness. A quick recovery sent us on the road towards Sevilla. Semana Santa (Holy week) was taking place in Sevilla when we arrived. They have the largest celebration in the world, which means lots of processions and absurd amounts of people pouring into the city. No one warned us that there would be massive amounts of people, narrow (and I mean extremely narrow) and windy streets, and processions blocking the roads. Between 2 nights, we spent seven hours trying to get to our hotel. It definitely kept things exciting for us, luckily, we were able to laugh about it and continue recalculating!

 Dinner in San Sebastián: Roasted lamb with a garlic creme sauce

                                                                 Processions in Sevilla

            When we weren’t dodging processions, we were able to fit in some great food, a Flamenco performance and a trip to the Alcazar (an old palace). On the (out of) way to Madrid, we stopped for lunch in the resort town of Marbella. By doing this, we successfully went coast to coast in Spain. Not bad!

                               Kathy, Mindy and me in the Alcazar gardens

                                                                      Marbella!

            After an eventful and fun filled week, Kathy and Mindy headed back to the States and I continued my journey to England…