The students of the Spanish course get to know the Ernest Hemingway route

The American writer who spent time in the peninsula was a fan of Northern Spain. When he came to the city of Bilbao, he was staying in the Hotel Carlton. For him the town had many of his great passions: a bullring where he enjoyed watching the bull fights, the Museum of Fine Arts where he contemplated the art made by Basque artists, the Old Town which has always been the perfect place for being in different places to eat and drink as well as the tip basket, which was another of his passions and he could enjoy it from the pediment of Artxanda.

On one of his trips to Bilbao he came during the big week. All this before the ASTE NAGUSIA existed as it is today and therefore, Bilbao was the centre to move around the different fairs of the villages.

Close to the Santos Juanes church is Barrenkale. There was the restaurant Casa Luciano where Hemingway and other stars of the epoch hung out. Nowadays, Casa Luciano, which closed in 1970, is a private home that, nevertheless, preserves the foundations of the epoch of Hemingway’s visits. Namely, its beautiful walls are works of artists like Aranoa, a big part of the structure of the dining room, the foyer and the kitchen, a part of the furniture and a window that is almost unique in its kind as lookout.

Another of his favourite places was Mundaka, where a photo of him eating an ice cream in the Heladería Pereira can be found in the writer’s archives. Moreover, he met the priest André Unzain in this place, even though the majority knows him as Don Black thanks to Hemingway.

Eventually, after a lot of time spent in Cuba and his travels to Spain, he gained a very high Spanish level. Without any doubt, the immersion in a language happens when one can visit the country, listens to the speakers and knowing the language become a necessity to communicate.

If you want to follow the footsteps of this author and improve your Spanish level, the Instituto Hemingway can help you in finding accommodation, a Spanish course with your level, cultural activities to discover the treasures and the experiences that the Basque country keeps and all that with competitive and affordable prices.