Do you speak Euskara?

Last weekend 4 friends and I headed north to El País Vasco or, as those of you in the states may know it, Basque Country. For the most part I am not planning my own journeys around Spain because the program takes us to almost every region, but the Basque Country is one place where we don’t go. My theory is they’re scared of terrorists (there is a small radical group in Basque Country known as ETA who wants independence from Spain and are willing to be violent to make their point) but my friends and I didn’t see any suspicious characters while there. In fact, the people were incredibly kind and I loved the two cities we visited: San Sebastian and Bilbao (rhymes with cow). Every region of Spain is distinct, but there is particularly strong regional pride among the Basques. One thing that keeps this pride alive and well is the fact that they have their own language – Euskara. It’s possibly the oldest language in Europe and no one knows its origins. Cool, right? It was a short trip, only one night, and my friends and I left early Saturday morning by bus. The bus wasn’t exactly cheap, but we all felt better about what we paid once we realized the bus had a stewardess and snacks! We were a little over-excited if truth be told, but college kids are known for their love of “free” food.

We went to San Sebastian first and after a slight mishap with the city bus (we accidently got on the bus in the wrong direction and rode the entire length of the city and then had the bus driver make fun of us) we arrived at our hostel. San Sebastian is right on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea and has its busy season in the summer months when tourists from all over flock there for the beautiful beach. It was 50 degrees or colder the whole time we were there so it’s fair to say that we were definitely in the off-season. This became clear to us when, at the hostel, no one answered the door. We called the owner and she informed us that she was on vacation, but that her son would be coming shortly to let us in. It took him a little while to arrive, but we entertained ourselves by taking bets on the potential age of the son. When a 40 year old rode up on his bicycle, we were all a little disappointed. The hostel was on the fifth floor and it was clear that not too long ago it had been someone’s personal residence. There were some very, very funny signs in English asking us to “Please take quick showers. No washing allowed.” The son let us into our room, which was super cute and we enjoyed our bocadillos (sub-like sandwiches) packed for us by our host moms on the balcony off our room.

After lunch we set out to explore the city. We were staying in the Parte Vieja (old part of town) which undoubtedly has the most charm of any barrio in the city. The city has a large crescent-moon shaped beach and at one end of the crescent is a large hill with a statue of Jesus at the top. My friends and I walked to the top and had a lovely time ambling up the path. The views from the top were incredible! After that we headed back down and decided to walk barefoot along the beach. It was cold, but the sun was out and it’s really just a beautiful spot. Plus, now I can say I’ve been to the beach in October! This whole climbing, walking, chatting process took us several hours and we finally decided we were getting frozen (let me just remind you here that we were feeling frozen because we’ve been spoiled with the lovely Madrid weather. In reality, it wasn’t that bad with a light jacket) so we found a café and had colacao con leche caliente (basically hot chocolate). We then went on a semi-epic hunt to find an ATM and returned back to the hostel to change for dinner.

Spain is known for its tapas (small, hors devour like foods) but El País Vasco is supposed to have the best tapas in Spain and my guide book told me that within El País Vasco everyone says San Sebastian’s are superior. They call them pinxtos (pin-chos) and my guide book didn’t lie. They were delicious! Instead of dinner we did a pinxtos/bar crawl. Both my friend Harriet and I had guidebooks and we created a list of recommended bars and headed out. In the first bar the countertop was covered with pinxtos. It’s hard to describe, but image an entire bar covered in big white plates with different funny-looking foods on toothpicks. It was actually a little overwhelming and I not only did I not know what I wanted, but I was also confused on how to order! Turns out it wasn’t so difficult. The bartender handed me an empty plate and I just picked up what I wanted. I decided the best way to get the real San Sebastian pinxto experience was just to guess. I avoided anything that looked particularly fishy and also anything that I could immediately identify. I tried three different things and although they were like nothing I had eaten before, they were ríquisimo! After eating, I went back to the bartender and he counted my toothpicks and told me how much I owed. They're a very trusting people in San Sebastian. They next bar was a clearly more metropolitan and it was packed. We fought our way in and then paused, since we had no idea what to order. In the first bar, everything had been laid out for you to choose, but here the pinxtos were made-to-order. It was clear from looking around at what others were eating that the place was famous for its cooked meat. We all ordered ribs and received a beautiful little piece of steaming deliciousness. Seriously, it was so good. Plus, we split a bottle of red wine which just added to the experience. We finished up our night in a less-crowded bar where we had one more round of pinxtos and chatted until the early morning. Finally, exhausted, we headed back to the hostel to sleep.