A Breath of Bilbao: Diversions in the Dark

Yesterday was an exhausting day. It started with waking up at 10am and going to class at 1:30pm, which was held on the beach in order to provide a better context for our discussion on wind power.

View of the wind turbines from the beach

After a short siesta, I met with the other USAC students in Bilbao so that we could go group kayaking. It was meant to be night kayaking (as we started around 8:30pm), but it doesn't get dark in Bilbao until after 10:30pm or so. It was my first time kayaking but it was a memorable experience. The water in the river that runs through the city is a bit murky but still beautiful. The backdrop of our experience were the buildings and bridges of Bilbao as well as the Guggenheim Museum. I couldn't bring my camera on the kayak but here's an idea of what it looked like.

Around 8:30pm when we started

View of the river when we ended

One of the many bridges we went under

Typical backdrop of our kayaking experience

Following the night kayaking, many of the USAC students had tickets to go experience the "Art in the Dark" event at the Guggenheim, where the museum throws a party in its lobby and allows attendees to view the art for an extended period of time. Although we got there at midnight, we had about one hour to explore the museum.

Lobby of the Guggenheim Museum

Odd Video of the avant-garde D.J.

Pointless but interesting walkway art

One of the few photos I could catch before being told to put my camera away

I only got to explore about two floors of the Guggenheim and will probably go back sometime before I leave. The art though was very interesting to say the least, almost shocking. Among some notable pieces this time around included a variety of nature paintings done in pointillism, a giant motion-blur piece of a woman's face, and a large portrait of an African father and his infants adorned in red silk.

One of the local Spanish clubs known as Club Fever was having a special discount for attendees of the Art in the Dark event, so all the USAC students decided to attend. The club was in Bolueta, which turned out to be a pretty sketchy neighborhood in Bilbao characterized by graffiti, metal fences, and warehouses. As we were walking, there were dozens upon dozens of groups of young Spaniards hanging out in the streets. The street was bordered on both sides by cars and the scene seemed like something you'd see in a Fast and Furious movie. We got to the club at around 2:30am and the same D.J. that was at the museum was also the main music artist at the event. Most of the shots I got were blurry but here are the ones that turned out relatively fine.