Lucky Comedy of Errors

The last few days of our trip have been a comedy of errors with very nice results.
On Wednesday we left Braga and headed to Vigo to pick up my friend Fran. We left late which was already a problem. It was pretty obvious that we changed the border into Spain. There was a stark difference because northern Portugal isn't as bustly as southern Galicia. Anyway we stayed on the road to Vigo and suddenly ended up right where we needed to be in the middle of Vigo. It was so shocking that I thought that we were in the wrong place. We didn't see Fran so we turned off the roundabout to double check. On the way back up we saw Fran walking down the street. So we grabbed her and headed off to Santiago de Compostela.
The cathedral in Santiago is amazing. I don't know if I'll be able to post pictures for a bit, just trust me that it was beautiful. The three of us spoke in a hybrid of English, Spanish, Galego and Portuguese. The nice thing is that we understood each other the whole time.
After we got to the hotel Fran and I decided to go on a walk and look for more yogurt since the amount we'd already had that day just wasn't enough. But as we were leaving, the receptionists at the hotel told us that it was 10pm. I looked at my watch and said that no, it was 9pm. They smiled and said, no, son las diez. Did you know that the time changes from Portugal to Spain? Hmmph. Fran had been waiting for two hours, not one. I felt terrible. But this also meant that we'd been off by an hour all day. So funny. A little bit later I dropped her off in the middle of the city with a friend of hers and said goodbye. It was sad. She's the bomb.
The next morning (Thursday) I had tons of cheese and yogurt for breakfast. Clark makes fun of me for this. I eat on average 3 yogurts a day. Today I had more.
Anyway, Dad and I headed to Bilbao which was a LONG drive. But it was GORGEOUS. We drove along the Bay of Biscay for most of it. Oh my was it beautiful. We finally got into Bilbao and then drove around and around and around and had no idea how to get down to the Guggenheim. We gave up. It was a mess. So we decided to find our hotel which was in a neighboring city. We couldn't find the exit, but we did see an exit for Gernika-Lomo. Most of you have heard of this place because of the painting of the terrible bombing by Hitler's forces in 1937. So we decided to take a detour. We were happy to see that the city was a normal small town. So we doubled back and then finally found the city that had our hotel. But we couldn't find the hotel. We drove and drove and drove and drove in circles and more circles. We asked people, they told us and then we drove and drove and drove around this really nice, small Basque town. We finally stopped at a restaurant that was closing, but the owner still fed us anyway. I had calimari. Yep, I ate squid. But I didn't eat the pig's face. Nor did Clark. It still had hair on it. Blech. The owner, José, was wonderful. He and his girlfriend led us to the hotel later. So wonderful.
The next morning we tried to get to the freeway toward Vitoria. [We changed our plans and bagged France. :'( ] But we couldn't figure out how to get to the other side of the freeway. Then suddenly we were at the Guggenheim. So our comedy of lucky errors continued and we got to see the Guggenheim. So funny. This is how our whole trip has been.
Then we left for Zaragoza. But then I convinced Dad to push a little bit more to Lérida. By now I was driving and I told him that we might as well head to Barcelona. So we're here now. I'm very happy. I like it here a lot. This is going to give us more time in Barcelona, so I'm glad I was able to convince Clark that driving for 2 days in a row would be worth it. This has turned into an Iberian road trip. I think I'm enjoying it more than he is, though. Well, at least the driving.
I'm sure that there's more to report. But he's waiting for me downstairs and he's really hot because it's nice and muggy here: just the way I like it. :D
I'm really happy. Hopefully I'll get to post more pictures soon.
Love you all.
J'aime l'Espagne!!!!