A Breath of Bilbao: Basque-ing in the Culture Part 1

This past weekend in Bilbao has been very eventful. As such, I will divide this update into three parts, one for each day of the weekend.

Friday, June 15th

The main plaza of Casco Viejo

Today involved visiting many of the neighborhoods of Bilbao that I have yet to see. To be technically correct, I use "neighborhood" loosely to refer to the towns, municipalities, metro stops, etc. that comprise the greater Bilbao metropolitan area. As I may have alluded to before, this city has one of the best public transportation systems in the world. Because of this, I was able to wander aimlessly around town without any concern for getting lost as I knew I could always return to my house by simply finding any one of the many metro stops.

Following class, I returned to Old Bilbao in Casco Viejo to begin my journey.

Navigating through Casco Viejo's maze of shops and restaurants, the environment around me quickly began degrading and I soon found myself in what I could assume is the poor district of Bilbao. After drudging through a long uphill walk adorned with empty bars, graffiti stained buildings, and a laughing pair of drunkards, I came across my savior: the metro station. Here, I found that the neighborhood I had wandered off to was that of Santutxu (pronounced "san-toot-choo").

The not-so-great part of Bilbao: Santutxu

Adding this to my previous experience in Boluetta (the "sketchy" place I had journeyed to that reminded me too well of Fast Five), my general perception of the neighborhoods past Casco Viejo wasn't too great. Of course, like any logical person, this means I had to explore more of the area. So expecting a trip into the urban wilderness, I hopped onto the train to explore the areas surrounding the far-side terminus of the metro, namely Extebarri, Ariz, and Basauri. These neighborhoods are completely opposite of where my home is located (Algorta), which I have learned is part of the more affluent Getxo area, which includes the surrounding neighborhoods of Neguri, Larrabastera, etc.

To the left is my current perception of the Bilbao area, using metro stops to resemble neighborhoods:

Bilbao by the colors

The blue area: the really affluent part of Getxo. These areas are relatively excluded and require more money to get to them via metro. They supposedly have the best beaches, especially for surfers, in all of Bilbao.
The purple area: the relatively affluent part of Getxo. It's suburban, quiet, and includes my home neighborhood of Algorta. It also has nice beaches to offer.
The green area: from what I've seen while riding the metro, it's less nice than the purple area and has some industrial utilities.
The yellow area: the city of Bilbao. Many of these aren't actual towns but rather segments of Bilbao. It has the typical urban rush feel.
The orange area: not-so-great and most likely a significant contributor Bilbao's high unemployment rate.
The red area: my destination and following this trend, what I expect to be even worse.
Everything not marked I can't give an opinion on yet

As the metro whirled past Boluetta and its characteristic warehouses, the landscape became unexpectedly green. Although there was some sort of industrial plant in Extebarri (which I didn't get off at for this reason), the metro station entered what seemed to be an entirely new area in the hillside.

Getting off at the last stop of Basauri, I found that the metro was extremely clean and pristine. The lighting was almost futuristic and I was pleasantly surprised.

Interesting tunnel to get in and out of the metro

The city itself looked similar to the ones in the purple area above. It's located on a relatively steep hillside; therefore, I can understand why it's a terminus for the metro.

View of Basauri from a platform outside the metro

Seeing as how nothing interesting was within walking distance, I traveled back one stop to Ariz.

Ariz has tons of greenery and walkways

View of the hillside from Ariz

Some town (maybe part of Ariz) not to far off from the metro station

The landscape of Ariz was simply spectacular. Surrounded by green hills on all sides, Ariz was a breath of fresh air compared to earlier today. I had my lunch outside on the bench and relaxed underneath the shadiness of trees. There wasn't anything much in terms of tourism, but the greenery was something not usually seen back in Nevada.

After spending the early afternoon wandering what I initially thought would be the eyesore of Bilbao but what turned out to be nature valley, I met with my group to go "hike" up a mountain near Casco Viejo. I am hesitant to say hike because it was simply a trek up hills (similar to San Francisco) and we wanted to take a trolly to the mountains peak. However, the trolly wasn't functioning and our journey ended up with us walking back down the hill to explore the area near the Guggenheim Museum.