Port Meadow, Oxford

Sometimes, it's good to discover the place you live a bit more. Today, I decided to go to Port Meadow, just steps away from our home. Okay, it takes you about 6 minutes on your bike. Still very close!

I went for a walk first, through the meadows. After that, I went for a swim! The water was lush, didn't seem dirty at all. I'd read some warnings online, but I've been in waters which were more dirty, so I decided to just jump in and enjoy the swim!

Next Thursday, my partner and I will be going back to the Netherlands for three weeks. Keep tuned for more adventures!

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Bilbao, Spain

 

We didn’t choose to go to Bilbao – I’d almost say: Bilbao chose us. It’s not that poetic though – we booked a srprs.me trip (my third one!) and were sent to Bilbao. It was fate. Destiny.

Word jokes were made – like calling our luggage “Bilbo Baggings”, but we were super excited.

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. Its views are amazing and it’s a lovely place to enjoy carefree moments and indulge in art and culture.

But. Yes, there’s a “but”.

If you google Bilbao, one of the first hits is “The Best 10 Retirement Homes in Bilbao, Spain”. At least, that’s one of the hits we got when looking up what to do in this city!

Compared to the city that never sleeps, this is a city that’s dozing off a little bit. Everything’s a bit more slow-paced. Good place to practice mindfulness!

This was my first time in Spain, and although I was slightly worried about the food – the country doesn’t occur to me to be very vegan friendly – I was surprised by the high amount of vegan bars and restaurants. More about that later!

Day 1 - We arrived at 11:30 CEST, it was boiling hot! Glad I only brought summer dresses. Taking the Bizkaibus Line A3247 we were taken to the center of Bilbao. Srprs.me had booked us a hostel – Poshtel – so we decided to check in there first. After that, we made a long walk through the city. We dined at La Camelia Vegan Bar, and it was delicious. We went to bed quite early, because waking up at half past three is not really our thing!

Day 2 – Decided to take the Metro to Plencia, Pais Vasco. It was warm, but after a while it started raining so we decided to head back to the city and find a place to eat. Off we went to the Kxutrut Vegan Bar, and again, had a lovely vegan meal. Yum! 

Day 3 – Mountain climbing! Our morning started a bit slow, not really knowing what to do, but then we decided to walk through Bilbao, straight ahead to the mountains. There we found a path that led us to an even higher mountain. This mountain did not have a path, but Ron decided he wanted to climb it anyway. It was a good thing I brought my e-reader, because it took him one hour to get on top of the mountain, and then he had to get down… At last, around 23:00, we arrived at Poshtel, very tired but also satisfied that we’d climbed some mountains!

Day 4 – The Guggenheim museum. A must-see, definitely. Currently, there’s an exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos, which was amazingly impressive. We wandered through the museum for at least four hours, but soon it was time to leave – we didn’t want to miss our flight! Arriving at around 20:00 GMT, we took the bus back to Oxford.

Scratched Spain off the scratch map, sewed a Bilbao patch on my backpack... A whole new experience, and I enjoyed it very much. I’m wondering where our next srprs.me trip will take us…

For more photos, visit my Instagram account @elisabethheida or follow the tag #travelwithelisabeth