While not technically any type of bird, I though a dragon would be appropriate because I WENT TO DRAGONSTONE! My spring class trip (the equivalent to the Fell trip through to the South of France) headed up through Spain in February (Yea, I've been busy, so sue me). We spent 7 days on the road and went to 8 sites/ cities. In the list of things they don't put in your welcome packet: Spain gets COLD! Northern Spain in February is a rainy, snowy, cold, mess. Yet for some reason people still surf. Yea, I don't get it either. More on that later.
Our first stop was the beautiful Loarre Castle. It was so snowy! The castle was built in pieces by different rulers and military forces. It is the oldest original example of a Romanesque Castle that is standing in its entirety without any major restoration.
The fun thing about this castle is that it was the filming location of the movie Kingdom of Heaven, which I watched freshman year of high school with good ole' Mr. Mike. Hope you're enjoying that Kingdom of Heaven, sir. You deserve it.
But yea, I walked the same halls as Orlando Bloom.
Next stop- Pamplona! The running of the bulls! Hemingway! Architecture by Moneo. Honestly, the Architecture was the least interesting part! The cool thing was when we had a break for lunch, my friend Elizabeth and I went in search of the cafe (Cafe Iruna) where Hemingway wrote and set parts of The Sun Also Rises. We found it! Pamponians are very proud of the fact that Hemingway took up residence in their town and have signs and souvenirs dedicated to him. I have never read the book, but I looked for a copy while we were there and surprisingly couldn't find one. I did however find one of the best bakeries in the city called Pastas Caseras Beatriz, which is apparently family run by two sisters and has been for it's entire existence. It is also the oldest bakery in Pamplona! The famous "garrotillos" are like little chocolate bombs wrapped in pastries that explode in your mouth. Pretty much happiness in your mouth
We spent a day in Eunate to see a really old church that some people think is a free mason building, even though there are no records of that. The church was built really unevenly, the dome was all wonky, but it was still beautiful!
We headed to Vitoria next and saw the building that I am using as inspiration for my capstone project! It is a Archaeological and playing card museum. Believe me, I have no clue how those two things are related either. But it has really cool windows! And a bomb interior colonnade.
FINALLY we got to our main destination- BILBAO! I got to see the Guggenheim Museum, the Calatrava Bridge and so much of Bilbao, thanks to taking an adventure walk with Chris and getting stuck in the rain at night. We walked up hill for literally hours. And somehow even the walk back downhill ended up being uphill because we went a different way. Don't ask me how.
Next stop- Dragonstone! This was by far the coolest thing we did. Located in Bermeo, pretty much the northern-most tip of Spain, The filming location of Dagonstone from Game of Thrones was quite the hike to get to. We had to walk from this high up parking lot down this steep, muddy path (in the rain) and then hike the rest of the way to the base of this giant bridge. The bridge is the rrecognizable feature from the show- the castle at the top of the island is CGI! What's really there is a church! Despite the rain and the cold, the views and experience were worth it. And now I have the ability to say I've been to Dragonstone. How many people can say their teacher agreed to spend a whole day taking their students to the location that a TV show was filmed? I have some bomb ass teachers. It did of course get sunny as soon as we came down from the church, but for real, it was hailing while we climbed the steps all the way to the top.
In Hernani, we saw some statues. That is all. They were metal and stone. The end. We finished the trip in San Sebastian where we saw another Moneo building- the Kursaal- and some crazy people surfing in the freezing rain. Oh and we almost drowned and froze to death trying to see these statues in the water, but there was a torrential downpour. After which we had a very small amount of time to make ourselves look presentable and to go to see an orchestra performance in the Kursaal. Somehow, half the group had front row, center seats, and the rest where in the first and second rows of the side sections. HOW did Magali and Alex get us those seats?! Also, one of the violinists had crazy hair.
I'll try and post tomorrow about my trip to Granada (AKA what dreams are made of) because I want to catch up before heading to Italy!
