Making up puentes as I go

Well, I'm off for another long blog hiatus. (It will almost be nice when I am back in the states and stuck in 1 country for an extended length of time.) I'll be spending the puente in Basque Country (País Vasco)  with a couple friends, and then creating my own personal puente Wednesday-Sunday to go to Northern Ireland. Sometimes its nice to have a job where you're under-valued and under-used, so you don't feel bad when you take off such large chunks of work.

My trip to País Vasco is one that I've been looking forward to since last October, when I first met a native Basque and began to learn just how special their little corner of the world is. We have trips planned to Bilbao, San Sebastian, and his coastal fishing village. I am ready to be blown away by all that País Vasco has to offer, as well as load up on pintxos and kalimotxo. ( Which will be a welcome break from the Andalucían tapas and tinto.)

Then on Wednesday we say goodbye to northern Spain, and I say helloooooooooooooo to Northern Ireland! I recently learned that I have distant relatives living in Northern Ireland. They are very distant, our common ancestor is something like 7 generations back, but hey. I'm not one to discriminate :)

This will be my first solo-travel experience. I'm nervous. When I studied abroad in Granada, my spacyness and general lack of self-awareness earned me the nickname Space Cadet. While I can be awesome at planning trips and making sure the itinerary lines up, the actual going and doing it part can be my downfall. Let's all cross our fingers that I make it back to Spain in one piece, and without losing too much money or personal belongings.

Lekeitio, Basque Country [Source]

Northern Irish Coast [Source]

I'll be back in early May with my own pictures to post, stay tuned!