Back to Basques...

So I'm back in the Basque country. As you can see from my very detailled last post, I had a great time here when I came last time. There were between 8 and 12 of us here for 4 days, basically we swam and surfed during the day, sat around talking, watching movies and just chilling at night. It was a great vacation.
After that there was a training for teachers of pre-youth in Lliria, which I had volunteered for. It was an adventure getting there, involving a long bus ride, arriving in valencia at 2:30 a.m. and some random other happenings, but overall not too bad. The weekend was great. I joined forces with Amanecer in cooking for the vegetarians. They didn't die, and actually by the end of the weekend there were twice as many people claiming to be vegetarian than at the beginning, so I guess that's a good thing.
In the course of the weekend, Amanecer (which, by the way, is Dawn in English, which is my middle name) and I became even better friends... in the summer school a few weeks before, we had been roommates. I convinced her to join me in going to Zaragoza following the training. She came, and we hung out for a couple of days with Antonio and Hector and Farida. Then we came up north to Bilbao. She has never been to Pais Vasco before. It was wonderful seeing her reactions to everything. Apparently, in Cordoba, where she's from, it reaches temperatures of about 45 degrees celsius in the heat of the day and goes down to the low 30s at night. No Cordoba for me then... not in the summer anyway. She was amazed that we could still be in spain and have to wear long sleeves at night and a blanket to bed! She was also entranced by the fact that in the middle of the city, or anywhere in the city, you could still see mountains and forests and sometimes riveers.... I love that about this place too. We visited the Guggenheim Museum - well the outside. Apparently the inside is a ripoff, but the outside is absolutely beautiful. Very calming....
Bilbao as a city is very enchanting. I fell in love with the old city right away. And being surrounded by mountains and forests is definitely an experience. What's the real sell for me is the cool weather. And the proximity to the beach.... and the nearby Pyrenees.... I really like it here :o)