Aditu Field School Days off (Yipee!)- 18-21 Aug 2017
Alas, the weekend. It had been many days of working straight and
unrelenting weather, in all extremes. But now we had three days off and
big plans to travel around the Basque region. Our first stop was in San
Sebastian/ Donostia (the Basque name). After a big sleep in to 8:30 am we
grabbed a coffee and waited on our taxis to pick us up. Thankfully it only took
an hour to get down to the mountain because we all were feeling a bit of cabin
fever. If you are ever in the Basque region I highly recommend stopping by
Donostia, it is a beautiful little sea side town with a large city feel to the
right and the more tourist-y old city stops straight ahead.
Thankfully our large groups of 12 split into many little groups so
we could all accomplish our ideal day off.
After
flitting through all of the shops in the old city, Ashley and I took a quick
stroll along the ocean side. There were little motorboats carting around children who were there for sailing camps as well as rows of sailboats and
surfers wading through the edges. The location was beautiful for a seaside
vacation- surf shops, an aquarium, and fresh seafood cafes. Ashley and I ran
into some of the girls from Aditu and joined them for lunch in the city center near
one of the larger cathedrals, the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. It was
perfect timing because we missed heavy rain showers during our lunch
inside. 
The cathedrals in the Basque
region are all of Roman medieval descent so their beauty comes in the form of
simplistic lines and arches with modest relics and scenery. Despite the simplicity it is astounding to
think that these churches still function and stand strong without much
restoration- despite being thousands of years old. The history that lives side by side with
bustling city life takes me aback every time I stop to think about it, it is
simply not comparable to anything we have in the states.
At this point we have walked both parts of the city twice
and need a pick me up. The city is beautiful and I could stroll through it for
hours but after 9 days of working straight I just needed a sweet of some
sort. In a city made of pintxos, fresh
fish, and wine Donostia was no stranger to a dessert. There were candy shops
and little bakeries on every corner, each one with a line out the door and
masses trying to squeeze upfront to get the employees attention. I could not
settle on one so I went ahead and bought two treats, after all- I think I
deserved a few extra calories.
Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture of the pastries because they
got a little mushed, so I will try and paint a colorful image for you. The roco
was a blob of chocolate-y almond-y goodness, with the consistency of a home made
rice krispie treat and the richness of entire double dark chocolate cake shoved
in 2 inches. The second treat was a
flakey pastry with multiple layers alternating between home-made cream, which
is not as sweet as it is back home, creating a good balance and allowing me the
stamina to eat the entire thing. And finishing the masterpiece off was an
almond flavored sugary glaze slathered on top. Aunt Nancy you need to go to the
Basque country because they love a good glaze almost as much as you!
It was a long day but very much so appreciated to get off the
mountain and look like humans. As much as us archaeology girls love to work in
the dirt it felt nice to throw on a dress and a little make up. If I do say so
myself I think we all cleaned up quite nicely! But back up the mountain we went
to rest up for our Saturday adventures in Bilbao.
Bilbao:
Our Saturday had to start a little bit earlier than I would
have liked to, but these are the consequences for staying at the very tip of a
mountain. Once we were dropped off at the bus station in Alsasua the bus never
showed up. We waited for over an hour before any bus showed up. This one would
take us to Vitoria-Gastiez which we knew had a connection to Bilbao so it all
worked out in the end but we lost a little over an hour of our day of touring.
Luckily we were graced with a lovely purple bus stop to get a solid photo shoot
in. 
Two of the directors are from the Bilbao area so after picking their brains
for where to go and what to eat we had a solid little list of pintxo recommendations
and a well thought out plan to pintxo bar hop. I’m sure you have heard of
pintxos before but did you know that they are a specialty of Northern Spain,
specifically the Basque region? The term pintxo is believed to be the
Basque-spelling variation of the Spanish word “pincho” meaning basically the
same thing as small snack. It is also very important to never refer to these
small snacks as tapas as this is known to be a more traditional southern Spain
treat. San Sebastian is known for having the best pintxos around and are often
made to order, despite the traditional concept that they are presented atop the
bar to be picked leisurely.
With bellies overly stuffed with fresh crab and a large
variation of meats and breads we headed
to the old city to see the beginnings of the festivities of the Aste Nagusia.
Kicking off the first Saturday after the 15th of August the 9-day
celebrations rage on after welcoming Marijaia, a plump lady with her arms
forever raised in Dance. The festivities formally begin when she rolls up on
the river and ascends to the height of the Teatro Arriaga. 
The konpartsaks (the party groups) march and dance down the
beautiful streets of the old city.
Stores shut down to welcome the groups playing instruments, pushing
shopping carts full of alcohol (mostly kalimotxo), and children spraying the
audiences with water guns. There was also a really badass feminist drum circle
that vamped the crowd up more than any other group.
But it is not all based in fun and games, many of the groups held
signs of lost loved ones and community members who were victims of the civil
conflicts between the Basque community and the Spanish government, most likely
representing the Basque National Liberation Movements. Members of the Spanish and communist governments are mocked through large paper mache sculptures and signs. The streets are littered with graffiti
stating “amnistia” demanding amnesty for the prisoners of conflict. There is so much background history to this
that I can not fit it into this blog post but may write a more detailed version
later on.
After the parades had passed we had to wait for Marijaia to
arrive so we went to the Arkeologi museoa (Archaeology museum) to kill some
time. It was a short stop located in the
center of the old city, taking roughly an hour to weave through the entirety
and with a student discount was only 1,50 euros I couldn't turn it down. I definitely recommend it if
you have a bit of time to kill while in Bilbao. It was very relevant to what we
were working on at the San Miguel site, with many exhibits on human osteology
as well as a wonderful display of a local archaeologist team discovering a new
species of hominid in the Navarre region.
When it was finally time for Marijaia to arrive we had all
bought an ice cream cone (mine was an orange chocolate) to join the masses. It
was a lovely end of the day but absolutely exhausting. My fitbit says that I
had taken a total of 18,000 steps .
On top of the mountain:
After an adventurous weekend of navigating through cities unknown it was nice to have an event going on at my new home away from home. It was the annual blood sausage festival, Lakuntzako Pertza. A thousand years ago, after an extremely embarrassing plight of the pack mule falling off the Aralar mountain and losing the sausage for the visitors, the Basque people promised that they would never be shamed again at the thought of not having blood sausage to greet its guests and has annually held a festival offering an extensive amount of sausage as well as dance and music to the people coming through the mountain range.
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