Last Friday was International Women’s Day, and there is no place that does it bigger than Bilbao. One of the things that I love about this place is how socially active everyone is. There are many causes that people hit the streets for: ensuring pensions don’t disappear, labor rights, and on this day, women’s rights.
For all of the demonstrations, or manifestaciones that I have witnessed in Bilbao, there is none quite like the #8M, or the eighth of March. Just check out how packed the streets were.
We recently had the pleasure of attending the local “Pelota Mano”, or “Handball” championships. Now this isn’t like the Handball you watch in the Olympics, this is Basque style handball.
It is played on a court similar to Racquetball, but much bigger, and only has two sides. You can read more about the rules from Wikipedia.
This was the local championships for Berango, the small town outside of Bilbao where I live. Check it out:
First was the double’s finalFollowed by the Single’s final
Be sure to watch those videos with the sound on, because the sound the ball makes when it hits their hands is almost the same as when it bangs against the wall. Check out what their hands look like afterwards:
After works, what better way to what better way to wind-down than a bike ride to the beach? We are so lucky that this place is 15 minutes away!
There’s a steep hill to go down to get to this beach, and it wasn’t the nicest of days, but I almost like it better this way, that way not as many people show up and we had almost the whole beach to ourselves!
I woke up this morning to a surprising, very unexpected white Bilbao! There was talk yesterday about this happening overnight but I distinctly remember saying, "Lo creeré cuando lo vea," or "I'll believe it when I see it." Well, I believe you mother nature, you're capable of dusting Bilbao with snow.
People out in the streets seemed nervous and determined to get to work. They clearly don't know how to handle a snow day. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the snow this only happens once every 50 years here! Don't waste it stopped in traffic, or at a bus stop, waiting for a bus that will never come.
Today we continued a tradition of hiking to #Pagasarri the day after Christmas. The 4 of us made it the 18 km door to door, had a great lunch on top of the mountain and now we're off to dinner! #GoodTimes#ramenpic.twitter.com/DkpWhUwE7r
