Bidding Adieu to Summer, Bilbao style!

“Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God – Kurt Vonnegut”

This September I went back again to France (in an attempt to make this an annual thing, and make it sound all fancy!), and luckily for me, this year, the (European) weather Gods were in a much better mood! The 10 days that i was there i soaked up more sunshine than I actually ever have in Bangalore in the last 1.5 years!!

Since last year I had managed to cover a lot of places in France, so this year I decided to drive down further and visit the areas of the Basque Country which lie in Spain (obviously it’s a blessing when you have an adoring boyfriend willing to drive you down to wherever you want!)

Our first stop was Hondarribia.

Hondarribia, which in Basque means sand fort is a quaint border town located on the west shore of the Bidasoa river. The first thing that hits you when you step foot on here, is how different the pace of life is from France which is just a couple of kilometres away! Almost felt that the car ride was more than a ride, it was a journey back in time (or forward?!), to a space where good food, good ambience, walking by the beach, watching pristine white sailboats and colourful yachts on the deep blue waters, meandering aimlessly on cobbled streets define a way of life instead of the madness that consumes us as we run every morning from home to the gym to work to the local bar to back to bed. It was a Wednesday and we only planned to stop for a few quick hours to walk around the town, but it almost felt like in the middle of a festive season with kids running all over the place, people old and young sipping on wine and gulping down beer on the tiny bar stools that pockmarked every walkway and lively music floating through the air.

Apart from chilling, soaking in the good life and leaving all worries behind, the other things to do here would be to relax some more (!!) and maybe to visit the Ermita de Guadalupe, a small church situated on the hill top.

From postcard to reality!

Cobbled pathways of Hondarribia

Next up was the city, which is now a part of my ‘favourite cities’ list; Bilbao. Before coming, the usual things one would have heard about Bilbao were..umm nothing more than a small gritty industrial town, but it is magnificently surprising to see how culturally oriented the city has become with marvels of art to stumble upon at every second turn you take!

First up of course is the most famous attraction – the Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Frank Gehry, the building in itself is an architectural masterpiece. And even before you can enter the museum, you are hit by a blast of art by from the several installations around museum premises.

Installations outside the Guggenheim Museum

That moment of pride - Anish Kapoor at Guggenheim

The Guggenheim is situated right next to Casco Viejo, the old town which is full of charming streets, quaint houses, magnificent churches, boisterous bars, quirky shops and lots of good food!

When in Bilbao, one must try the pinxtos (Basque tapas), and we were just lucky to have landed right in the middle of the pinxto festival! This is when almost every pub (which double up as cafes during the day) serve their specialties and compete with each other to win the best pinxtos award!

Now since Bilbao is a valley town nestled between mountain ranges, it’s a pretty good use of one’s time there to take the funicular as it creaks and moans its way up Mount Arxanda from where one can get spectacular views of the entire city.

At Mount Artxanda

Sunset at Mount Artxanda

Finally on our way back to France, we decided to make on last stop at Donostia- San Sebastian. If ever you have dreamt of what the perfect beach would look like, then Playa de Concha and its extension Playa de Ondarreta would be the epitome of that dream! With the golden sandy beach stretching till the eyes can see, water more blue than you’ve ever witnessed, hundreds of toned bodies soaking up the sun, it is easily one of the best beaches I have ever been to! Walking towards the western part of the beach, you reach Playa de Ondarreta and if the sumptuous beach wasn’t enough to enthrall your senses, then definitely the sculptures embedded in the rocks would. The installations by Eduardo Chillida, create a mystical harmony between human art creations and the creations of nature. 

Playa de Concha

Installations at Playa de Ondarreta

San Sebastian, screams art, culture, history and positivity from every brick! No wonder it has been named as the European Center of Culture for 2016. One can spend hours walking around the old city, savoring the pinxtos followed by the churros, witness wedding celebrations at the Ayuntamiento de San Sebastian, laze around in the courtyard of the Plaza de Constitucion, walk up to the sculpture of Christ as the Good Shepherd or just check out the Aquarium at the end of the pier.

Plaza de Constitucion

It is true that visiting Spain is tantamount to a visit to India, it’s a collection of small nations working together, each with its own distinct art, flavour and culture and yet fusing together so effortlessly. A weekend in the Basque region will most probably be spent OD-ing on art and beauty and letting the smells and tastes overwhelm your senses.

These are not the most advertised European destinations, but by far one of the most beautiful and fulfilling journeys I have taken. 

Shipping up to Boston!!

“Journeys are the midwives of thought” ~ Alain de Botton

With the last weekend of the American summer and a couple of hundred dollars to spare, I decided to take a weekend trip from New York to Boston. Only armed with the knowledge that the city is known for the best university in the world, I landed up unaware, waiting to be wowed and yes Boston did wow me and how!

Packed with ample doses of history, all of which can be covered on foot, a charming combination of the old and the new and almost predominantly a student atmosphere, Boston is the perfect cocktail of a city!

With less than 48 hours at hand to discover the city, I mentally prepared myself to torture my limbs and enthrall my mind and following are some of the most enjoyable parts of the Boston weekend!

 Freedom Trail: The walk able size of the city and one of America’s first historic walking tours makes Boston a history-loving-budget-traveler's paradise! A red brick lined path connects 16 historical sites and guides one through two and a half centuries of America’s most significant past. Among my favorites were the USS Constitution and the Charlestown Navy Yard, Faneuil Hall and the Granary Burial Ground.

The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world and it lives up to every word spoken about its grandeur and strength! The Faneuil Halll started as a marketplace and a hall for meetings where several patriots made inspirational speeches. The hall still houses a bustling market place.

The USS Constitution in all its glory

                                                   

At the Charleston Navy Yard

      Quincy Market: Just the word ‘market’ makes me feel what a bee feels as it get drawn towards a flower’s nectar (!) and with that strong inclination I stopped by at Quincy market to check what it had to offer. The market is a gigantic food court with several small eateries, kiosks selling jewelry and souvenirs and magicians and gymnasts performing tricks and acts to entertain the forever swelling crowd.

One of the many eateries at Quincy Market

 Samuel Adams Brewery Tour: A beer sampling tour makes any trip worth the visit and the one at Sam Adams surely did not disappoint! The tour involves a comprehensive overview of the different ingredient used, the whole process of brewing a beer and all the details involved, culminating into a beer sampling session where visitors get to sample different kinds of beers brewed and concocted at the brewery. We were lucky enough to also sample the Sam Adams beer for the 2013 Oktoberfest! 

The heady tour!

      Harvard Yard: Taking a stroll around the premises of the most storied institution of the country helps zone out all the noise and only focus on how to ace the next exam and come back as a student!!

Harvard Square 

Boston’s marvels can be seen anytime, anywhere just strolling down the small alleys or jogging by the river in front of MIT. Its quaint yet cosmopolitan at the same time, so much so that you don’t even need two whole days to fall in love with it and yearn to go back again!!

We'll Always Have New York!

“One hand in the air for the big city

Street lights, big dreams, all looking pretty

No place in the world that could compare

And we’ll always have New York”

I started working last summer, and our mighty firm sends all new recruits to New York for 4 weeks for training (and 6 weeks if you fail a basic test, which guess what I did (on purpose, of course!))! How cool is that!

All that I had seen in the Hollywood movies and the American TV shows for almost 2 decades was finally going to unfold and unravel in front of my senses for 6 whole weeks! And to top it all, BenJ flew down from France to spend a little over two weeks, and who would deny the increment to fun and enjoyment when travelling and discovering with the one you love.

And now that I look back at last year’s glorious summer, here’s a rundown of the things we miss, things we loved and things we want to do over and over again:

1.       Walk the High Line: The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets of Manhattan’s West side. It is by far one of the most underrated and most charming ways to get a feel of the city. We walked the High Line, danced to African pop music there, sat next to a guy who wrote 5-minute stories on an ancient typewriter, painted for charity, walked some more and watched the sun set behind the crazy skylines.

The Highline gives view to some amazing graffiti

And like us, you may get to paint for charity!

Or just watch stories being spun out of thin air (via a typewriter!)

2.       Spend a Sunday (or two) at the Central Park: No matter how much is said about this urban park covering almost a third of Manhattan, it will never be enough. It is one of the most entertaining ways of spending a Sunday (or any other day as long as it’s sunny and you don’t have to work!) without burning a hole in your pocket. Walk across the length of the park, be a spectator to the several baseball matches, groove at one of the many Summer Concerts (we were lucky to be right in the middle of a thumping Fatoumata Diawara performance) and you never know, but you may also get to witness a wedding right there in the middle of the park!

A lazy Sunday afternoon at Central Park watching one of the umpteen baseball games                          

3.       Subways: God bless the MTA for the brilliant subway line connection down and across the borough! Almost like the Delhi metro (well the Delhi metro is a little more sophisticated), the subway system offers brilliant opportunities for people watching, people watching and more people watching! With music performances inside the stations or sketch artists pock marking the system, a ride from one place to another can never be boring.

4.       Speakeasies: When in New York, dump the fancy, glitzy bars with over priced drinks and even more over dressed crowd and find yourself a speakeasy for the night. We got talking to the locals about their favourites and picked out two: The Bathtub Gin and The Blind Barber. The Bathtub Gin was the first one we hit and boy it did live up to the definition of a speakeasy! We kept standing in front of a coffee shop for 5 whole minutes, scratching our heads and figuring out where the bar was, till a gentleman finally showed us inside the coffee shop where a hidden door leads you to the dimly lit, sophisticated, gin-based-cocktails serving, burlesque performance showcasing bar. With amazing drinks, polite service, brilliant performances and yes the hidden entrance, The Bathtub Gin was not a disappointment. The Blind Barber was our next stop. Hidden discretely behind the doors of a nondescript barber shop, the ambience, the drinks (not as good at Bathtub gin though) and the music was well worth the trip to the East Village.

5.       Hester Street Fair and other markets: The Hester Street fair is a perfect way to spend a lazy, balmy weekend afternoon. With artisanal street food, vintage clothing, hand-made jewellery, colourful stationery and not overly crowded, it’s a fairly good alternative considering the hustle bustle of most markets and fairs. BenJ gifted me two pairs of earrings and a necklace from one of the vendors here and they are by far one of the most quaint looking pieces of jewellery I own ( <3)

6.       Discover D.U.M.B.O: DUMBO, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a neighbourhood in south Brooklyn with an interesting combination of old warehouses, quirky shops and restaurants and the magnificent view of Manhattan. We checked out the multiple old warehouses converted into creative centres, clicked (LOTS of) pictures with the Manhattan and the Brooklyn bridges in the backdrop, bought chocolates from the Jacques Torres chocolate shop (the lady working there told us about the speakeasies), and just sat at Fulton’s Landing watching the ferries pass by.

One of those mesmerizing photo-ops

The view from the other side

                                     

Apart from the above favourites, we walked (and we walked and walked and walked) almost across all streets and avenues and was the best way to discover New York. Be it amazing graffiti in different nooks and crannies, rice and chicken on 53^rd & 6^th (The Halal Guys and yes this cart is a NY Landmark and the chicken makes the queue stretching for a block and a half every bit worth it!!), all the museums (working in a firm associated with any of these museums can get you free entry), the tiny, yet expensive cafes in Meat Packing, the bustle when you get off at the Union Square station, getting lost inside the Grand Central Station! New York gave us the best two weeks last summer (and the best Facebook profile picture options!!)

Walking led us to discover some of our favourite haunts

                                  

And we made some of our favourite memories, in New York