One Month

This weekend marks a couple of landmarks for me.

1. It has been one year since I have been home in Wisconsin. The last time I was home it was for the Fourth of July weekend. This was the last time I saw any of my friends from home and one of three time I saw my family in the last 15 months. Don't worry though, Independence Day will be celebrated here in Spain too!

2. I now have a full month left in Spain. I have begun to realize that these weeks are passing much more rapidly than they have, but it hasn't really hit me that my time is coming to an end. Probably when I move out of Bilbao or board my plane in Barcelona it will actually sink in that my year abroad is finally over, but until then I guess I will just try to enjoy it all.

3. The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona is less than a week away. There were two events I have wanted to participate in while in Spain. One, the Tomatina, a large tomato fight in the streets of a tiny town in southern Spain, I will not make it to. I have been in Spain for almost a full year, but the three weeks that I will miss in August are when this fiesta falls. The second is the Running of the Bulls. Way back when I thought I would run in it too. Well, I have since wizened up and will be going just to party and soak in the culture. Looks like I will have to go out and buy some white clothes!

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.

Last Days in Norway (and a Little Bit of London) Pics

Last Days in Norway (and a Little Bit of London)

It’s getting to the end of Norway, the end of probably one of my most favorite trips in Europe. Sad! But we still have a little bit left!

Late into the morning of day 4 we woke up to the sun shining into our tent. I walked outside and was greeted with probably the best view I will ever have in a morning, Bearded Valley’s fjord, and the sound of a waterfall a few meters down the trail. We slowly packed up our things and started our trek back to the cars. Only 4 miles this time, nothing too extreme.

Once on the road we headed towards Odda, the small village that we had been frequenting for food. Odda is really quaint, sitting right on a beautiful fjord. The Norwegians said it was an ugly town. I hope they never visit Gary, Indiana or Detroit. If Odda is one of their ugly towns, I think I could live with that.

Well, we stopped for some Chinese food for lunch and then had some dessert at Langfoss. We said our goodbyes to Cecilie and Trygve and headed back to Kristine’s. Once back we showered and cleaned up because we were eating dinner at Kristine’s parents’. Let me tell you, a good home cooked meal after climbing mountains for the past three days is one of the best things you can experience. Her parents were delightful and the food was perfect. It was traditional and comforting, exactly what I wanted as it was actually raining. Did I mention we lucked out with no rain during the backpacking? Well, the food, like I said was traditional Norwegian. We ate these balls made out of potatoes that Kristine assured us we wouldn’t like (but did) and a bunch of meat. Top that off with some ice cream and I was in heaven.

After dinner we just relaxed at home and fell asleep early. The next day we woke up late, ate breakfast, saw a mini Statue of Liberty where the French got all the copper to make the statue and went to the airport for our flight to London.

Once at Stansted, Caitlyn and I headed into London while Hillary went to a friend’s house. We didn’t do too much in London honestly. We just studied for our last final, Foundations, over a pint outside and then had some delicious burgers at another pub. I fell asleep really early (9 maybe).

The next day I woke up really early. I felt like I should at least sightsee a little, since after all, this was only my second time in London, so I left Caitlyn to her studying and walked around to Big Ben, the Globe Theater, Saint Paul’s Cathedral and a few other notable sights. We then headed back to Stansted and caught our flight home to Santander.

Norway: Third Backpacking Day Pics

Norway: Third Backpacking Day

Day three could be described by numbers.

We hiked close to 20 miles for 14 hours.

We climbed over 600 vertical feet.

We followed the sky ladder for 200 meters

We ate 1 piece of bread for lunch.

We saw 0 lemmings.

There were 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

Day three could be described in numbers, but that wouldn’t tell nearly the whole story. No, it wouldn’t even begin to describe the awe I felt at the summit, the sweat that was dripping down my face 100 meters into the sky ladder, the hunger I felt at hour 13, the frustration I felt at mile 14. Numbers cannot even begin to capture the beauty I experienced at the edge of Trolltunga, the sense of accomplishment that filled me as I got into my sleeping bag at 3 in the morning, or the wonder that flowed through me as I looked down into the Bearded Valley.

That’s right, I was in Bearded Valley (Skjeggedal for those of you who understand Norwegian). That is where the story begins.

We wake up and start the 4 mile hike to the base of our ascent. This was probably the easiest 4 miles of the entire trip. It was actually a flat path! In Norway? No way! Way. So 4 miles in we drop off some of the weight from our packs. We had to decide between ascending with full packs and camping at the top, or getting rid of weight at the bottom and coming back down to sleep. Thankfully we dropped off most of our weight at the bottom. Climbing so much with full packs would have been extremely exhausting.

Then some of the fun part comes. We have to hike up along the dry river bed to reach the base of the Sky Ladder. This sounds easier than it turned out to be. First, there were no marked paths, so we were kind of just hopping from boulder to boulder, approximating our path by just heading toward where we thought our goal point was. Second, after the dry river bed there were the extremely high grade slopes that were covered in snow. While some of the girls thought the climb was scary, I was not looking forward to our climb down those slopes. That climb down could very easily turn into a short tumble down. By short, I mean many, many meters long tumble down the side of a mountain.

No paths and steep slopes aside, we made it to the base of where the actual climb began. Trygve gave us a short lesson on how to use the carabineers and harnesses to secure ourselves to the ladder and we were off. Let me tell you, this was one of the greatest experiences I have had in my life. I was climbing up a ladder bolted into a sheer cliff face hundreds of meters above the base of the mountain. The largest cave I have ever seen, easily over a hundred meters tall (probably inhabited by trolls), waterfalls pouring over the cliffs, and the fjord down below were easily the most beautiful natural views I will probably experience in Europe while harnessed into something… okay, or ever.

After a good hour or so of straight up I climbed over the last leg of the Sky Ladder and was greeted with triumphant and relieved faces, and of course, a view. But this isn’t where we were going to stop. Although the views from here were absolutely breathtaking, Trygve had another place in mind to blow us all away, so we started trekking off into the snow blanketed landscape.

A few kilometers later and I realized that we had reached our goal: Trolltunga (or Troll’s Toungue). Interesting name right? Well, if you imagined the mountain was a troll, you would think that it would have a pretty big tongue. Now, if the mountain/troll stuck out his tongue, it would be a giant stone jutting out over the fjord. That is exactly what this was. Imagine a Norwegian version of Pride Rock from The Lion King but taller and without the supporting rock. Well, I got to stand on the end of that. It was incredible. Absolutely incredible. Check out the pictures if you don’t believe me.

Again, we had a little photo shoot, some lunch of just one slice of bread and some bacon cheese and headed off back down the mountain. Again, we had to make a decision. Do we go back down the way we came or the longer route which is milder in its descent? It was getting late and we didn’t want to navigate the boulder hopping in the dark (nor did I want to deal with sliding off a cliff due to the steep snow covered slopes) so we headed down the longer way.

I cannot say with certitude if it was the best choice. At least an hour after we started our descent, we were still higher than when we had started. I realize Norway doesn’t really understand downhill, but this was getting ridiculous.

Several hours later (and admittedly, many more breathtaking views of glaciers in the distance or fjords down below) we started to make some progress downward. It was almost dark when we reached the steep downhill similar to that of Langfoss from before. To deal with our frustration of ours of hiking and seemingly no progress, we started to sing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” and, incredibly, finished it just after reaching the road we were camping on.

We drove into Odda for some food to celebrate what we had just accomplished, but still had the 4 mile trek that we did in the morning to get back to our site. Trygve and Cecilie, the champs that they are, ran ahead again to set up camp so we could get to sleep as early as possible.

It was after 3 a.m. when we finally made it to camp, tents already set up and pads inflated. It felt so good to go to sleep after a day like that. I slept like a rock, not even a troll could have woken me.