Welcome to Basque country..now leaving Spain

Hey guys,

Today we drove to San Sebastián. It was a pretty long bus ride, but thanks to my severe sleep deprivation I was knocked out most of the way. We stopped in Bilbao to tour the Guggenheim Museum. Not only am I sick to death of museums, the Guggenheim is really abstract. I don’t really get abstract, especially when the explanations behind the pieces are in Spanish. I was about ready to get out of there. We ate lunch at a Turkish restaurant, and I had some more doner kepap (pita, lamb meat, combination of ranch and Catalina dressing, lettuce, tomato). The U.S. is missing out, I think that will be my contribution to American history. I will bring that back with me to the States.

San Sebastián is in the Basque country (same as Barcelona), on the northern coast of Spain. The drive was up into the mountains, quite a change from Madrid, which is on a high plateau. Catalán (the Basque province) wants to be independent from Spain. They speak Euskera instead of Castellano (Spanish), so I don’t understand most of the signs. In Euskera, the city is actually called Donastia. People generally speak Spanish if they know you are foreign—which they do with us, because we stick out like a sore thumb—but there is a lot of nationalism involved so some people refuse.

It’s really easy to see the tension, between all the pro-Basque political graffiti or the fact that the Basque blue-and-white flag is above the Spanish one on the town hall. It was really evident at the Eurocup game last night. A bunch of us when to old downtown to watch it at a bar, and we were pretty surprised to see many people wearing German jerseys instead of Spanish. A few in our group wore the Spanish flag tied around their neck for the game in Salamanca, which isn’t Basque. People were celebrating in the streets after the win, it was great. When we tried that here, we were told to take it off because, “We aren’t in Spain anymore.” After Spain won, some people were celebrating in the street. All of the sudden, people started opening their windows from upstairs apartments and egging them.

Because of all the tension, it wasn’t very fun to be here when Spain won. I wish we could’ve been in any other province for the game. Those sentiments will continue for the rest of the trip, however, as Barcelona is also in Basque country. Other than that, San Sebastián is absolutely gorgeous. It is right by the ocean, with mountains in the distance. Every residence has flower boxes in the windows, and the buildings are very ornate. There is a huge statue of Jesus on the hill, and all the streets are cobblestone.

Since we didn’t want to get egged, we played it cool last night. We grabbed hamburgers (with egg on top…different) and ice cream, then got a couple of bottles of wine and hung out in the hotel. I don’t know what we were doing, but we didn’t go to bed until 4:30 AM again. Our sleep schedule is so random now that I don’t even know. I guess that’s what midday naps are for!

Hasta luego,

Becca

P.S. I posted a video of the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca during the Eurocup game. Check out my previous posts.

P.P.S. I feel like I'm posting to no one. I'd love a comment...throw me a bone here!