Bilbao Day One

Hey Everyone,

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

I'm back in London and I've already started writing blogs about the last three weeks of my travels now that I'm back at Holly's house and am ready to fill all of you in on my latest adventures.

On this day I left Holly's house with plenty of time to spare for an easy check in and flight back into beautiful Spain. I caught the tube from Ladbroke Grove to Hammersmith where I had to change onto the Piccadilly line to continue through to Heathrow airport. I got there checked in my bags with plenty of time and had a chance to look around at the duty free and airport shops as well as read my book which was nice. As I boarded and got my seat on the plane I knew I was off to Spain because I couldn't understand a word of Spanish that was coming from the overhead PA system on the plane. Before take off I was asleep as I usually am as circling around the tail mack makes me feel sleepy and woke up just as we were landing in Bilbao.

Bilbao:

Bilbao is in Basque country at the very north of Spain. It is best known for it's famous and magnificent Guggenheim Museum. Many people come to spend time exploring Bilbao's Casco Viejo (old quarter) which is a grid of elegant streets dotted with shops, cafes, pinxos bars and several small but worthy museums.  

I was again travelling alone and was a little nervous about getting to my accommodation/hostel without any hassles. I always take screen grab photos of my hostel addresses as most of the taxi drivers speak no English and without the exact address it would be very difficult to communicate how to get there. I got out and collected my backpack from the bag terminal and then headed straight for the taxi rank. I said 'Hola', showed the taxi driver the address and was headed off into the mountains of Bilbao to my hostel. As I drove in the taxi I loved the look of Bilbao and loved the feeling of being in another country again. I saw many brown,pink and cream houses which is very Spanish and the drive was very mountainous until we came into Bilbao.I listened to Spanish music on my way and after around 20 mins was at the front of my hostel. It looked really modern and I was stoked I had booked accommodation all alone over the Internet that was actually good. I checked into my room which had lockers and had bunk beds and met an Aussie guy as soon as I walked in who was also staying there. Minutes later I met his two other friends and I realised I was in a room with three other Aussie guys from Hobart lol They were all around my age and older and were all really nice. We chatted for ages and then decided to go out, walk around and get some dinner together. 

It is the strangest thing meeting people whilst travelling and hanging out straight away. In Australia I have my sisters and my close friends to eat dinner with and party but when travelling at times you are by yourself which makes you immediately cling to the first people you meet. I love meeting new and different people though so I was glad we were all heading out to dinner for my first night in Spain. As we walked around the streets of Bilbao I loved the chilled out feel of this small town and the cobbled streets were beautiful and very clean. Bilbao isn't very  touristy and it was very apparent as the shop keepers and waiters did not speak English. All of the menus were written in Spanish and one of the Hobart boys decided on a restaurant and we sat down to eat. We ended up having a very tasty meal and chatted about what we all did for work and where we were planning to travel to next etc After dinner we came back and I looked at the boys photos of Ibiza and places they had already been to which were pretty funny. I was tired from my flight and the boys were leaving the next day so we all got to sleep reasonably early that night whilst listening to people getting drunk outside our room. 

Love The Backpacker

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