For the weekend of January 30th, I attempted to travel on my own non-USAC-planned excursion. However, a lot of other study abroad students joined. We decided to go and visit La Rioja, the wine country of Spain. The adventure started with me waking up at 5:30 am and then walking to the bus station with Allison. It sounded easy enough, but it was confusing trying to figure out where we go to get on the bus. Allison and I decided to wait for other people in our group. We did show up early, after all. Moments later, wondering why everyone else hadn’t showed up yet with 8 minutes until the bus was due to leave, I decided to talk to an employee and figure out where to go. I walked up to a group and awkwardly asked if anyone spoke English, which was followed by an even more awkward dead silence, and then a man explaining to me in broken English that the bus station was actually down the road. Apparently, only trains leave from the station we were at.
So, Allison and I booked it down the road, only to show up moments after the bus had left the station. I panicked briefly but then calmed down and ordered us two new tickets for a bus leaving just 45 minutes later. We only ended up loosing 6 euros out of the deal and I was thankful we got this out of the way with a smaller trip instead of a large one in which we’d have to catch a plane or something.
The bus took us to the capital of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. From there, Allison and I rushed to catch another bus scheduled to leave for Haro, where we were going wine tasting. Luckily we made it and were reunited with the rest of the group. *Sigh of relief*
Wine Tasting
The winery we visited was called Bodegas Martinez Lacuesta. It was a pretty large winery and they export wine and vermouth all over the world. It started with a tour, which was very interesting because my knowledge about the wine-making process is very limited. I even learned how they make wine barrels!
Reception room
Wine bottle light wall
Where the wine ages
Where the specialty wine ages
The barrel room
Yours truely
After the tour, we got to taste wine and eat snacks (yay!). I even tried a little vermouth, but I don’t really like it. Our wine tour package also came with a lunch at a restaurant in Haro. There were no cabs available to take us from the winery back to the downtown area, but luckily there was a nice couple on the tour with us who offered to drive us.
Wine tasting
Grace, Nicole, Maddie, me, Allison
Vitoria
While some USACers decided to take the bus back to San Sebastián, a few of us girls decided to stay the night in a hotel in Vitoria. It was pretty snowy and cold but the buildings were beautiful. We spent most of our time there jumping from cafe to cafe to stay warm. Luckily I brought my snow boots (yay! A packing decision I don’t regret).
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