'Study Week' and Trip to Pamplona (Navarre)

Well so much has happened since I last updated my blog (which unfortunately was about 3 weeks ago). Last week was called "study week" and we didn't have our usual classes. However studying was the last thing on my mind as the first 3 days we had academic conferences related to topics like politics, architecture, etc. in Spain. As it turns out I wasn't required to attend any of them, so I had a few extra days off. Except for the fact that I had to prepare for this week with 3 midterms and a paper due...blech.

Then Thursday morning I had to hit the metro right away at 8 AM to meet at Plaza Catalunya since our entire school was going on a weekend trip to Pamplona. Our program is the largest in Spain (and possibly Europe) with about 500 students, so we had 9 buses full of students on several different routes. As it turns out Pamplona is about 5 or 6 hours away by coach...it's hard to tell since we had planned stops along the way both directions.

First a little background on the weather--it had been nasty with clouds and smog for an entire week in Barcelona. That is until the morning we left. The Mediterranean winds had come up and blown all of the smog out and the sun was shining brightly. After we headed out the first stop was for a quick breakfast on the side of the road. The weather seemed to be getting a bit cloudier and windier. The second stop was a mandatory stop for the driver since they are required to rest after two hours of driving. Once we had reached this stop visibility was almost 0 and the rain was blowing sideways. Lovely. This would set the weather tone for the rest of the trip.

Our final stop before arriving in Pamplona was at the small town of Olite which is home to a castle and a church (like most towns in Spain). We were scheduled for a walking tour and at this point it was no longer raining sideways...it was snowing sideways. So we had lunch first at a town bar. It was pretty delicious actually I had a Tortilla Española (basically an egg and potato omelette) Sandwich (all sandwiches are on baguettes here). So then we stood in the cold for a while and toured the castle which wasn't too different from others we had been in before.

After our tours we headed for Pamplona and checked into our hotel which was ver nice actually and located next to a beautiful open park called Parque Yamaguchi (the name is a long story but basically a famous saint went to Japan for a while). Dinner the first night wasn't bad...some lasagna and a fried steak with fries and ice cream (its been a long time). Then we stayed in and took over the TV room and watched some interesting shows on German Televison incuding Millionaire and Germany's Next Top Model.

Day 2: We visited Irache and toured the winery! It was incredible! The amount of wine they produce is unbelievable. We walked through the factory and there were countless hundreds of barrels of red wine and huge 70,000 liter vats of white and pink. Some people even have their own wine barrels and can call up the vineyard at any time and ask for a few bottles as they please. Between the factory and the museum they have a wine fountain that dispensed Vino Rosado for free which is great except for the fact that we were the first group to tour the factory at 9 AM. In the museum we went into the cellar that contained the oldest wine bottles on hand from 1933...it was a little dusty in there.

The tour guide, Vanessa, took us to our next stop which was Puente la Reina which is another regular town with a nice bridge and (wait for it) more churches. We visited a grand total of 4 in one day which was quite enough for me though the one here was quite impressive and different from the other Gothic churches in the area.

Finally we went to Roncesvalles which had an extremely interesting castle but the inside was turned into a museum and was very modern. The location and views from the castle provided beautiful views of the entire valley on up to the snow-capped mountains. This was a significant stop on the Camino de Santiago which is a pilgramage the comes from France and continues on through the north of Spain to the Atlantic coast (this was thought to be the end of the world).

Day 2 ended with the return to our hotel and dinner featuring a fish and potatoe soup which was good followed by some strange meat that was mostly bone. Not bad though since there is delcious bread to fill up on. I did go out later that night to experience Pamplona a noche. It was pretty fun; the city is smaller than Spokane with about 190,000 residents in the greater metropolitan area.

Day 3: Once again a prompt 7:45 wake up call and dash to the delicious breakfast which included a giant glazed croissant and scrambled eggs! It was refreshing because they don't really do breakfast here and the only time I get to have eggs is on a sandwich or in tortilla. We checked out of the hotel and 'Nessa took us to the heart of Pamplona and we visited one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite cafés. He often travelled here to write his books and one even takes place in the area. We followed the path of the Encierro (Running of the Bulls) to the Plaza del Toros (bullfighting ring) which takes place in July during the San Fermín Festival. At the end of the tour one of the girls asked, "Wait...is this like...where the bulls run?" I found that a little humorous and maybe a little annoying.

After that we took a break at Café Iruña once again (coffee!!!). Then we hopped on the bus and watched Penelope Cruz' first movie, Jamón Jamón, which was interesting to say the least. Let´s just say that Spanish movies are a bit more open with their sexuality. Of course that was in Spanish, but after we had a break we watched Titanic in English for the rest of the way back which was awesome and I enjoyed it a little too much.

We got back Saturday night and took it easy at Bar Sans, our favorite local bar, where can avoid being around too many Americans. Then Sunday it was back to studying for my midterm Monday morning bright and early and another Tuesday afternoon. Now I'm trying to avoid finishing my history paper and doing a pretty good job by watching American Idol and checking Facebook.

I'm picking up some Catalan as I'm out and about so...

Adéu!