The Long Lost Puente: Part 1.5

Where did we leave off? Oh, that's right. I had survived my first RyanAir flight without having to pay any "fecking fees" and was on my way to Milan, Italy...
If you're just joining the party, I recommend reading the previous entry first :)

Milano! (December 5th-7th 2012)

By the time I landed and took the bus from Bergamo (location of RyanAir's "Milan" airport) and found my slightly-more-expensive-but-DEFinitely-worth-it hostel called Ostello Bello, it was already dark, and I was late for dinner with a fellow auxiliar friend who happened to have similar puente plans (She also has an amazing blog and talks about a lot of the same places I went on my trip here).

The Duomo at my first night in Milan

Afterwards, I returned to the hostel and made a few new friends at the bar (yes, the hostel had a bar)... two guys (one from Brazil, the other from Seattle) who had met each other earlier that night and were burning the midnight oil like myself. In the midst of (quite a few) drinks-- including my first glass of grappa-- the three of us decided to spend the following day touring the city together.

The next day, however, before touring, I had to keep my 9:30am appointment with Signore da Vinci and his Last Supper. It was somewhat saddening to find out how poorly it was treated throughout history... and sometimes even intentionally... but through dirt, flooding and bombings, an echo of what da Vinci originally painted remains, and it is truly breathtaking. No pictures were allowed, but here's a better image than the one previously posted:

Note at the bottom how someone decided "Hey! Let's put a door here." :(
Regardless, it's still amazing. [source]

With that done, Seattle, Brazil and I hit the beautiful streets of Milan! 

No idea why Elvis was there, but it was an excuse for a jumping sequence, and a great way to kick off the day. :)

Bilbao and the Puente

Bilbao! Frank Gehry's architectural masterpiece, The Guggenheim Museum and El Puente de la Salve

I have decided to ride the wave of my freshly asserted motivation (see last entry) and tell you all about my trip to Bilbao over the puente two weeks ago. But first, let me answer the question that some of you may have: what in the world is a puente? Yes, I am a mind-reader ;) Actually... funny story...

A lovely girl named E.* who is also an auxiliar here as well as a palm-reading enthusiast told me that I have "the mystic's cross." In other words, I kind of am a mind-reader. Or at least, I'm intuitive enough to be... according to my right hand. But I digress...

This is puente in the traditional sense.

Puente means 'bridge.' This can be a literal bridge (as in build one and get over it :P), but it is also what Spaniards call a 4(or more)-day weekend. For example, the most recent puente was due to All Saints' Day (November 1st and a National Holiday in Spain). It fell on a Tuesday this year, so the schools and a lot of businesses go ahead and give everyone the Monday before off as well, thus they bridge the weekend to the holiday. Get it? This is a Spainism (yes, I made that up) that I wish the U.S. could adopt... but alas, they have manipulated our federal holidays (MLK, Memorial, Labor... do we get off for Columbus?) to all fall on Mondays.MLK's birthday's on the 15th? Let's put his day on the third Monday of the month. Columbus landed in America on the 12th of October? The second Monday of the month for him (regardless of the fact that the rest of the world celebrates it ON the day). Sheesh.