There Might Be a Little Dust on the Bottle

Friday January 27th we went to Las Riojas which is the wine country in Spain, Marques de Riscal is a world famous winery and hotel designed by Frank Gehry, it was so amazing to witness his work. He is the same designer that created the Guggenheim Museum in Bibao and the winery further exemplified and complimented his style. The bus ride there was only 12 euros which I appreciated because I need to start ballin’ on a budget! It was about 1hr and 30min away, Emily and I just jammed on the ipod and I tried to show her some Texas Country….her idea of country was the Dixie Chicks and SheDaisy ….which made me want to kill myself. I hate you michelle-emily …..That was Em – she’s not happy with my account of the ride in…. First we got to Logrono, and had lunch there and explored the little wine city a bit, we went to a really nice restaurant and had an awesome lunch! Then we took a cab ride to El Cieglo – home to Marques de Riscal. We had reservations for a tour at the winery, and our group of 15 had the entire vineyard to ourselves! AMAZING! The Las Riojas wine region has the strickest requirements for aging/fermentation in the world, and their wine is supposedly the best as no chemicals are added to speed up the fermentation process. Some of the wine was over 200 years old from, the 1800’s – the guys were plotting to steal a bottle ….they didn’t- thank God. Good ol’ Carlos (our tour guide) explained the in’s and out’s of the wine process, everything was in Spanish so I’m not sure how much I actually learned…just kidding – I surprisingly understood a lot. At the end of the tour we got to sample 2 wines, a red and a white. The white was the best wine I’ve had in my life (which might be why it was voted amongst the Top 10 in the world) Carlos asked the group what fruits we thought were in the white wine….I got that one right…Grapes! :) However….he was looking for pineapple, apricot, and nectarines = HEAVEN! I bought 4 bottles and promised my mom to not down ‘em all in 1 sitting. The tour was about 2 hours long so afterwards we had a little time to walk the grounds and take some more photos, then it was time to catch the bus ride back to Bilbao. Once we got back in town, we were all so tired from waking up so early that we decided to have movie night at our apartment – so we pulled out our mattresses into the living room and camped out for the night. Our new Spanish friends weren’t so keen on the typical American movies and their vulgar humor. Lol….we were. Saturday our friend Tony hosted all of us for dinner and drinks which was so nice to have the whole group of us together and just hang out for the night, after dinner we headed into the city to a few clubs and danced till our feet were falling off. We heard Suavemente – a Texas favorite – and my dance moves would’ve made TX proud.  Sunday its been raining all day, so I didn’t do much of anything since I still don’t feel 100%, we all had a TON of homework so we had a homework party…and then I thought writing this and catching up on here would be a brilliant distraction….it was – thanks blogger


I am having the time of my life here, I am so grateful for the friendships I have and the places I am getting to see, it’s a nice feeling to be grateful for something everyday – most of the time in the states things just get lost in translation. Don’t worry mom – I’m grateful for every moment here, and am loving it all too  Miss you all from Espana xoxBelle