Late Nights in Spain

I had a few late nights last weekend.

Last week Friday I returned to Santander. It was Luca’s, a friend from near Rome, last few days in Santander and I wanted to say goodbye. So after work I caught a bus to Santander.

Luca was out to dinner with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, so I met up with Giulia and Margherita first. Luca is usually the one to cook while Giu and Margherita are just there to look good, or something like that. Well, this time I was treated to a dinner made by the girls. Despite their being Italian, they are not like the Italian grandmother everyone wishes they had. Instead we had jarred pesto and pasta. We had some great homemade bruschetta though, so I will have to give them that one.

After dinner and some drinks we headed out for a night of dancing, drinking, and talking. Ten months into my stint in Spain and I am still not used to 6 am being the earliest you can go home, but I stuck it out.

Saturday we went to Somo Beach, the same one that I learned to surf at. Some of the group went surfing while the rest of us tried to relax on the beach. I say tried to relax because it was so windy out that sand kept on pelting us. It was difficult to look towards the direction the wind was coming and there was sand all up in our food.

Soon I had to meet up with my land lord so I said my goodbyes and bussed it back to Bilbao to move into my new apartment. My new apartment is… underwhelming. I like my room, it is decent sized and has a lot of space. Yet, it has a window that opens onto the balcony that we all share and my blind is hardly opaque. I feel like everybody can see me.

After moving into my new place I caught the metro to Erandio where a friend from class lives. The girls and I met David and had a drink before we headed to the fiesta Erandio was hosting up on the other side of the mountain. Apparently during the summer every pueblo has a fiesta. This one was kind of like a really small fair. It had cheap drinks, food, and like one carnival game. It also had live music and later, a DJ.

Since I am in Basque Country, this fiesta had a band playing traditional Euskara music. Euskara music is kind of like Celtic music. Everyone was dancing along to the music. It was quite incredible to see a really small town show off their pride of their culture. We tried to follow along in some of the dances, but apparently these people have been learning these dances since they were little, so they all knew what was going on.

I said I had a few late nights. Friday we stayed out until 6:30 the next morning. Saturday, we got to the fiesta at around midnight and the bus back wasn’t until 8:00 the next morning. I ended up getting home, exhausted, at around 9:00 a.m. I was so tired, but had to work on a paper I still have due for my Prehistoric Art class. Ah, well. Only five more weeks of living like this. It is going to be bittersweet.