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People always think Bilbao is the capital of Basque Country. Frankly, this is because it is the most badass and awesome of the three major cities, but unfortunately it is also incorrect.
The actual capital of Euskadi is Vitoria-Gasteiz, located in Alava. It was my destination for my final daytrip in Basque Country. Three friends and I packed onto a bus last Sunday morning to see what it was all about.
Los Indignados - and my friend Cat has already done a great summary of what that is all about, if you don't know, which you can read here - occupied the main square, the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca with their tent village.
"Indignados"
"Yes We Camp"
my friend Thomas was good enough to sit for about 689789 portraits
We spent the remainder of the day wandering around the city and noticing that it feels more, well, European than Bilbao (or even Donosti in some ways). One friend kept getting reminded of northern Italy. To me, the big, glassy windows on many of the buildings in the center of town were reminiscent of A Coruña.
For lunch we stopped in a couple of the bars that line the small streets of the old city, sharing pintxos around.
Bull's tail stew and carrillera (veal cheek) - from the first place we stopped
All in all a solid little adventure to say "farewell" to Euskadi. For now...
I was just there on Sunday. It really is very different than Bilbao and Donostia, but I liked it a lot!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shout-out, as usual! How is the re-entry?
ReplyDelete@Cat- good. sad. awesome. difficult.
ReplyDeleteyou must explain why you think bilbao is such an awesome city!
ReplyDeleteI'm on it, Kaley. I'm on it.
ReplyDelete