Pulpo paradise, or...

Oke.. If you don't mind dear reader? I have a complaint to make! You know what it is? Pulpo.. Squid, octupus or ink fish as we call it at home. I mean, come one! What's so great about it? Don't want to be close minded here, and really I trie something when it's offered..

Here I've eaten morcilla, stomach, tongue, pork cheek(see other post) and yes, squid. Now I have to admit that the taste wasn't even that bad, sort of rubbery chicken, although opinions on that vary..
The point for me is that in this case I prefer not to be confronted with the looks of the animal involved. I realize I'm being a spoiled brat that's used to perfectly clean food from supermarkets. However, this squid really looks awful to me. LOOK!
Did you? Well, honostly, do you feel like chewing one of those tentacles now? I don't anyway.. But people here and in Spain are just crazy about it. They even have special restaurants, called pulperias.
PULPERIAS, for heavens sake, pulperias! That would be a squidery, octopuseryor a ink fishery!
A sidreria okay, a pulperia, no way!

One of those rainy days..

Somehow on Saturday it was raining everywhere! And I mean everywhere.. I checked from Buenos Aires to Valencia and from Paris to Cape Town. Rain, rain, rain.. And when there is one place it always rains, it's the Basque Country. 'Good for the garden', my mum always says. yes, that's true, but when you're looking for something to do on that rainy Saturday, it might set your enthousiast spirit a bit back! Last Saturday me and my French friend were at my place, thinking what to do. . Okay, so “no outside programme for today”, we concluded after seeing those forecasts.

So what do you do then? We were really looking forward to do at least a little something, all seemed better then hanging around at home. We started looking for places that could be fun to visit with this weather. And what else can come to your mind at that moment than Leinz Gatzaga?!

Leinz Gatzaga is a tiny hamlet, leaning on the side of a mountain, a couple of kilometres up from Eskoriatza. This border town of Gipuzkoa has it all, or not, depending on what you’re looking for. Leinz Gatzaga’s well kept old centre, which is practically the whole town, kept a silence that makes you fantasize yourself away some hundred years ago. Pretty little streets, tiny churches and cosy bars around the squares.

We entered one of them, is was a lucky guess.. To be honest, it didn’t look all that promising from the outside; plasticised, dirty white doors and an ice cream sign makes you wonder why we entered it at all! But it turned out to be just a bit more than we’d expected. The small room crowded with people eating appealing dishes on tables with those typical old fashioned table cloths, old men and women playing cards and having a drink, good jazz music and just a warm atmosphere!

Lucky us, one table was free! We sat down, ordered ourselves a fish soup (suppose there wasn’t much more on the menu) and a good Rioja. Not the worst way to spend your Saturday afternoon! The soup appeared to be great, filled with chickpeas, monk fish and clams it was a considerable meal. We finished with some home made flan, coffee and an essential patxaran. Good times on a rainy Saturday in Leinz Gatzaga, quite recommendable

Arrasatterdam?!

The other day I was just having a walk in my town Arrasate, dreaming my own stuff, when I got woken up by an awkwardly familiar odor.. Is that weed? But I thought: Hey I'm the Dutch guy here, and clearly I'm not smoking! Who is that?' Well, just some guys, having a smoke in the streets.. That's is not even allowed in the center of my town due to a bye-law!

But this is Arrasate, so apparently it is okay. Thereafter, I went to a bar with some Basque friends, only to be confronted with the same damn smell! 'In a bar?!', I asked them. And yes, nobody seemed to be bothered by the joint rolling youngster at the bar. Another thing which is not done in the Netherlands. Okay, since the smoking ban you can't smoke anywhere, but even before that.. Smoking weed in a bar was not done. For example, the bar I used to work had you kicked out instantly!

What a surprise, small villages tend to be more conservative, but in the same time there's a feeling of anarchy. And EVERYBODY does seems to do it! I guess the 'legalization' in the Netherlands proved effective, cause I think we don't find it that interesting for that reason. While here it's illegal, but everybody does it and no one seems to care about it happening.So when homesick in Arrasate as a Dutchy, just close your eyes, open up your nostrils and feel at home..

Fishy times out here!

Some fish a day keeps the doctor away.. I never heared anyone say it really, but I think it should be a Basque telling you this. Cause eating fish is healthy, and even more popular in the Basque Country. I'm still investigating where this popularity comes from.. But one thing is for sure, a happy Basque is one eating a good plate with tuna, red snapper or cod! I wonder, would the popularity have something to do with the sea close by?

Women repairing the nets in Donostia

A fine tuna pintxo, cod pil pil or whatever the pintxoneers (pinxto makers, just invented it..) here feel like putting together, fish enjoys a well respected status in the Basque diet.

For that to happen, I guess you need people to take that fish.. Yes! That must be it, the fish live in the sea, Basques eat fish, so somehow, the fish comes to the Basques! And that’s what all these small villages are for! Must be my egg of Columbus..

I went to a few of those places where they make all this happen, fishing villages you call them, and they are inhabited by fishermen and women. Traditionally, the men take care of the fishing part and the women of the on shore activities such a repairing nets.

Because nowadays people often feel like drifting off from reality, fast lives, traffic, office jobs,

etcetera, they occupy themselves with things that make them feel basic. And yes, some of them go fishing. It looks quite relaxing to be honest, you just stand a bit, watch the sea, and just wait… All these hobby fishermen, cause somehow it’s always men(of a considerable age), appear to be bothered by nothing. Just enjoying the fresh sea breeze..

However, this sea breeze might be too fresh sometimes. Because when I started talking to one of them, the guy got a bit over excited and threw out all his social isolation out on us! He was just so proud of his latest catch, that, while bombarding us with unintelligible phrases, he did not satisfy with just showing it.

The ever so quiet fisherman, agitated and all, simply had to stuff that red snapper in my hand. Muchas gracias tio!

Time flies!

Wow, things go fast here.. Now what I feel I'm getting used to things out here a bit, we have to move homewards. Before I knew what was going on, I had a look at my calendar and saw that there's only a good two weeks left to do my things in the Basque Country. The bad thing about places is that they become better when you get to know them.

How many of these villages can I still visit?

That goes for the Basque Country as well. In the beginning we had to depend on other people to see places because we didn’t know anyone, but now we’ve made friends we can visit and we know about more places we should go to. But where has the time gone we had in the beginning?

It’s a shame the weather has changed so rapidly cause I would really like to go hiking in the Pyrenees for a couple of days, but it’s wiser to keep that for summer. Then there’s the French Basque Country which should be worth visiting, Navarre and the Basque part of la Rioja, numerous lovely villages and other beautiful hikes that just need to be done..

How many of these mountains can I still climb?

But I’m never going to squeeze that in four weeks, and even if i had time, my wallet wouldn’t approve all this. So I have to make choices, not my greatest talent.. Painful times, but on the other hand, even if I had done all, mentioned above, I would have found other places to feel bad about for not going there.

In the end I think I should just enjoy the time here, not worry about what and what not to see, and just have the best time with my friends here. But who to see when and where?

Working hard here, mum!

Each Tuesday we get educated about the ins and outs of the Basque Country, this also includes ten minutes of Euskera(Basque). It's quite interresting realy, and if people hear that you bother to speak some words they appreciate it a lot! Oke, we're absolutely unable to have a conversation but I can say ‘kaitxo, zer moduz?’, order ’sagardo bat’ in a bar and some more basic stuff.. Maybe I should do more Euskera classes, but I'm unsure if I'll ever use it after I leave the country, that's why I'm studying some Spanish here in town.

Spanish might help me out just a bit more in the future and is A LOT easier to learn. As I was saying, I went to my language school in Arrasate to see if I hadn’t missed out on too much, and if I could still know what they were talking about. But what happened? My professor appeared to be sick at home.. Bummer! I was kind of looking forward to get started again, and I didn’t feel like waiting for him to get better.

The guy who told me though, happened to be the teacher for the higher level class (I started at level one, cause I hadn’t ever had Spanish lessons). He told me that I could have a trie in the second level class if i wanted.

And it was brilliant! The level was higher than in my other class, but in the end I went home with a more satisfied feeling than before..

Just one of those days...

Since the end of August, we have done a lot of traditional jaiak, Basque parties. Because I love them in every way, I wanted to introduce my visiting Dutch friends to one. Just too bad for us, I couldn't find any.. Therefore, we had to somehow create our own fun. No problemo! We were happy to see each other and we had enough gun to catch up, so creating our own, perhaps less traditional, party was to be a good choise.

After an awesome day in Donostia (sights, pintxos, cider and txakoli), we headed for Arrasate to spend our last night together. Unfortunatley, the calendar said it was Monday. and what can you possibly do on a Monday?!

All our Basque lagunak(friends) were panikcing over deadlines, so we invited our Erasmus friends. Cause Erasmus people aren’t known for having the tightest schedule, as I experience myself! But as the mood was kind of weird the whole weekend, we decided to thematize the party as a dress-up-as-dumb-as you-can-party. Great fun, most people showed up, and they had even bothered to put on something stupid.

Somehow people loosen up a bit when they dress up, as if they can hide behind a different personality. They act, and that can be for the good. Everyone was dancing to my wacky, fast Romanian music and having such a great time!

My Dutch friends and I made us some dinner at two o’clock at night to keep the energy level steady for some more fun, and it worked. We ended the festivities around 6, cause we figured our neighbours would like to have a peaceful breakfast. Still wonder if they managed to sleep at all that night..

In respect for my friends I chose not to post any pictures of this night, since it might do damage to their future career

Keeping up the pass in Zarautz

The very Basque town of Zarautz is known all over the world for its surfing championships. That's why in early September, tourists could accidently find themselves in the middle of a very Basque celebration. We were there with locals who wanted to show us what this meant here. The traditional feast is just called Euskal Jaiak(Basque party), and is an ultimate expression of Basqueness.

Even though people were dressed up for a party, you just knew that they had a strong feeling attached to it. In Holland we only dress up for queens day, but the ridiculosity has the upper hand in this celebration. We put on our most Dressed up kids in Zarautz
lunatic orange outfit, cause in a way we feel
uncomfortable expressing pride of our country.

This fear of expression however, was nowhere to be found in Zarautz. There was traditional Basque dance on different stages, there were plenty of parades and gatherings to express political feelings. But the thing that impressed me most was the fact that the youth participated in a traditional way too. They wore the traditional clothes, knew the old songs and they were very able to dance to them, as their ancestors have done for centuries.

My friend preforming a Basque dance

Since there are supposed to be over 400 dances I wouldn’t know which one my friends were performing, but it looked pretty easy. Hands up, wave a bit, some footwork, a turn here and there and that’s it! Okay, maybe not.. These guys and girls have been doing these dances since they were kids, so they managed quite well, and fast!
I had a go, but lost track soon, which the Basques found hilarious.. Well, what was I thinking anyway, I’m even unable to do the Dutch clog dance.

Welcome to Arrasate!

With the intention to take it easy after a party night in Bilbao, me and my Dutch visiting friend(see previous), wished to calm down in Arrasate a bit. We wished.. Somehow we ended up meeting all my Erasmus friends and some Basque friends from Arrasate. They all found it most lovely to meet my friend, so we ended up in one bar after another.

I nearly got used to the fact that people here react this enthousiast after encountering a foreigner, but for my friend it was a whole new experience. But he's a cheerfull lad, so he met al lot of new people. The second I looked away, someone had stolen him already!

Basques enjoy talking, having a drink and playing games in a bar we found out, cause even if we were only near to the football table, we were challenged. Great fun, we didn't calm down, but my friend felt welcome in the Basque Country, and that counts!

Hairy food, silly clothes.. Welcome to Bilbao!

I put my girlfriend on the plane last Tuesday, but the fun wasn't over yet.. Another friend came on Thursday, just to catch up and see what I'm doing here. The good guy took a present for me from the Netherlands. An absolutely foolish outfit to have a dress up party in. I immediately started wearing it, and to get even, we bought him one as well. Great times we had, when people looked at us as if we were from another world! Dressed up like this, we hit some bars late in the afternoon, to show him around a little, and allow hime to get used to Bilbao, the city we were.




We started close to the football stadium, where the atmosphere is always warm and pleasant. When matches are played the stadium and the surrounding bars are crammed with people. A cheerfull vibe is guaranteed here, also between five and eight o’clock, when people get back from work to have a pint and a pintxo.


After that I wanted to take him to a bar that I thought was a very typical sailors bar. I passed it a couple weeks ago, wondering through the area behind the bus station. It turn out to be a pro-bullfighting bar instead. Well, I’m the last person to be in favor of bullfighting, but I never experienced such a bar, so we had to go have a look. That was an interresting encounter with a piece of Spanish culture, bull’s heads on the wall, pictures of glorious bullfighters and displays other pointless ‘cultural’ killing. Oops, I guess that was an opinion there;-)



The barman however was a friendly guy, he wanted us to taste the pintxos where we were looking upon so strangely. It turned out to be pork cheek, joy! I always say that I prefer not to reject anything I never tried before, so I took the bite. Maybe also cause the barman was looking as if saying: “oke, you’re a very typical too-clean-Northern-European eater if you don’t want this”. I tasted less dubious than it looked, except for the hairy, fat pieces. We didn’t ask for it again that night..

Vegetarian?! Ehm.... Tuna??

YES! I do love the food out here! Basques are supposed to have the best cuisine in Spain, and so far I can't really disagree. However, I began to look upon it differently after a few experiences I've had since last week. My girlfriend is visiting me, and just like me and the Basques, she greatly enjoys those good things in life. All of that, exept for the carnivorous part. Yes, my girlfriend is a vegetarian, a rarity around here.

Being vegetarian means asking for trouble we discovered. Even in the culinary capital of the Basque Country, Donostia, we could't find more than one or two veggie pintxos in each bar. So while I happily shove another fantastic creation with 'bacalao'(cod) or 'jamon Iberico'(famous cured ham) inside, she saw the barmans finger pointing at the tortilla patata, again..

Good Samaritans as we were, we even tought the barmen that tuna isn't growing from trees, as they recommended the tuna salad more than once. Yes, I think a lot of them had conversations at home like: 'Hey honey, I found out what a vegetarian is, and did you know there's no such thing as a annual tuna harvest!'

Luckily, we found one finger that wasn't pointing to another bar with 20 hams on the ceiling. Just outside the meat-loving old town, we were given directions to a vegetarian restaurant! Guess what, they nearly convinced me to become one of them.. The food just was excellent, accompanied with ecological txakoli, we had a great time.

Unfortunately though, I don't have a chance to be a vegetarian yet.. There's just so many pintxos and Basque dishes I didn't trie jet, we'll talk after that!

Pleasant studying in the Basque Country

Now that I've been here for two months, I can say that I still feel privileged every day I enter the university in Eskoriatza. The facultuy is just amazing, it has been used as a hospital and a monastry before and with only a little imagination you can find yourself back in the old days, walking with your books to study latin, theology or whatever..

Onati however, has an even more stunning university.. Oke, we are talking about the oldest one in the Basque Country, but walking there didn't just give you the idea of walking around 300 years ago, I think we actually were! All these details they used in the architecture and design are simlpy incredible.

Now I really don't feel like returning to my study factory like university in Holland!

One lovely day in Donostia

Oke, I'm not being chronologic now but I just felt I had to tell something about Donostia(or San Sebastian). This weekend actually started with a thursday night party with my friends from Donostia that live in Arrasate. After a long night out, we regrouped for lunch and a horror movie to contemplate on the who, what, where and why. This resulted in an invitation for me to come to Donostia with them for a day. Well, Arrasate isn't the liveliest of all places on Friday, especially compared to Donostia. So we took the bus, slept like baby's and ended up having dinner with friends of them.

During and after the dinner, I found out that most people spoke some English. The level wasn't always enough for a proper conversation but a few of them were really good. Anyway, I'm the foreigner so I should be speaking Spanish or Euskera to them, whenever my five Spanish classes I had, allow me to.

We had a relatively quiet night because of Thursday's party, but it was satisfying. Meeting new people is what this Erasmus thing is all about in my opinion, and it were good people too! We died on the couch around four after a movie and woke up in another sunny October day. Well, at those days I envy people who live in Donostia even more. It's great just to wander around, hit one of the pintxo bars and have a walk on the beach. And that's what we did on Saturday.

We tried our first pintxo in a suburbian bar that's supposed to have the best pate. And it probably was! Together with some cider(I'm nearly getting good at the pouring!) it was a good start of the day! Cider and pintxo's were the key word for the rest of the afternoon. I tried cod, Iberico ham, gamba's, differtent cheeses, tuna and patatas bravas. O yeah, and some cider:-)

My time in Donostia finished after a walk in the old harbour, while the sun was going down.. You can really fall in love with a city on such days!

Traditional party in Gernika

After a good Basque weekend, pinxto's and cider in Donostia and walking in the mountains near Gasteiz, it just had to be extended. Luckily I happened to be invited by my classmate Gotzon to come to a local party in Gernika, which was supposed to be really good. So, I thought, "why not go and see?" The day started early, because the best part of the day would be the big market, where people from all over the Basque Country(including Navarra and the French Basque Country) come and sell own grown farm products such as fruits, vegetables, cheese, cider and txakoli.

The bus trip from Arrasate was interresting, I had to take three different busses to get there, but I had a great conversation in the bus with a guy who interpreted my question to speak slower wrong, he just spoke louder..

In Gernika, I went strolling over the market, and what they said was true. It was a pretty sight to see all these stands with farmers selling their own growings. The best stands for me were the sheep cheese stands, they always had something to taste, or they sold a pintxo for a Euro. I wanted to buy everything but after a big piece of bread, some chestnuts and sheep cheese, my backpack was full, but even that was bearable. I took a cider and another pitxo, while struggling trough the crowd, praying for the rain to wait a few more minutes.

Wel, it didn't, the 100.000 people that were in Gernika had to find shelter somewhere. So the streets turned in to a sea of umbrellas, too bad for the farmers, cause there was still plenty of cider to be poored.

But where there's a will.. while many people went into the bars to continue the good times and some more Basque music there, others faced the rain and rewarded themselves with a talo, a corn tortilla, usually filled with chorizo. This whole fair went on the whole day, with as a climax the voting for the best sheep cheese. The lucky winner sold his for 4000 Euro's!

After the fair, the festivities continued in the many bars the town has. I felt a great Basque spirit in the town, this was my first encounter with a friends group that actually speaks Euskera together. Even I managed to use my very very limited Basque, ordering drinks or while pretending to be a local. Besides the laughs I got, they really appreciate it when a foreigner at least bothers to speak a little Basque. I spent a joyfull night with Gotzon and his friends, visiting bars, meeting people, eating talo and drinking a cider or a less traditional Heineken. Now I really believe this is the best day to enjoy Gernika!



Still wonder where that damn tree is..

Introduction

Dear reader,

From now on I'm gonna be keeping a blog on this page about my personal experiences in the Basque Country. I've been living here since the end of August because of the Erasmus program I'm following. Our university is located close to Arrasate-Mondragon, where we live. Because we study journalism, we also work at the big media station in the Basque Country, EITB, for the internet pages in English. Hopefully you will enjoy reading on my impressions!

Tieme