We finished our time in Morocco and made the long journey back to Bilbao. I was actually relieved to come back to Spain after the hectic unpredictability of Morocco. As I walked down my street to my building, I thought to myself ahhhh, home, sweet… well, kinda home. Bilbao doesn’t feel exactly like home yet, but I certainly feel more at home here than in Morocco.
Our second module began last Thursday – “Judicial Cooperation in the European Union”. This time around we have class anywhere from 2 to 6 hours per day with days off interspersed to prep for various class tasks like oral presentations, tests, and papers. This class’s focus is another topic very unique to the EU. Similar to the Regulation 44 topic I mentioned a few posts ago, judicial cooperation is the idea that in order to create a stronger union, there must be some sort of cooperation between the courts of each EU Member State. Thus, we are studying jurisdiction, the enforcement of judgments within the EU, EU insolvency cases, the structure of the EU itself and more.
This module is much more enjoyable, and it leaves me time to actually walk around Bilbao, discovering the city. I’ve never been to Baltimore or Cleveland, but I imagine those cities to be similar to Bilbao. Bilbao is a small city of only 350,000 people, but it offers an incredible amount of public services. There’s an excellent metro system, a tram system, a public bike rental system, a bus system, free wi-fi hot spots, public gyms, tourist offices and more. The city is very clean – sometimes annoyingly so. Every single morning when I walk to class the streets have been soaked with water and I slip on the wet cobblestones in Casco Viejo, where I live. To me it seems excessive, but I suppose it also conveys the pride Bilbaoans have in their home. There are a variety of neighborhoods in Bilbao – from the quaint and sometimes gritty Casco Viejo, to the sophisticated Indauxtu, to the urban Deusto district to the shopping of Gran Via in Abando. Deusto and the Guggenheim clearly influence the city, but not so much so that they are the only personality Bilbao offers. Modern art abounds, and people range from being annoyed at tourists to welcoming us almost excessively. One day, Jessica and I stopped a man on the street to ask where a restaurant was. He not only gave us detailed directions to the one we were looking for, but also gave us nearby recommendations and then called a friend on his cell phone to get the address of a place they enjoyed. He told us in broken English “I like help when I travel, so I help you.” Getting to know the real Bilbao came later in the game than I expected – first the fiesta, then the intensive program, then Morocco – but in bits and pieces, I’m finally starting to see it and I certainly like what I see.
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| View down the river Nervion, with the Guggenheim on the right |
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| View of my street in Casco Viejo, from my room |
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| Modern art on Gran Via in Abando |
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| Another view of Gran Via shopping |
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| One of the many pedestrianized streets in Casco Viejo |
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| Another part of the river Nervion |
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| Indauxtu |
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| The bus, and the inspiration for this blog's name |
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| Abando |
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| A park in Indautxu |
