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!