Aditu Field School Days off (Yipee!)- 18-21 Aug 2017











Donostia:
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. 

 In good traveler spirits I tried the blood sausage as I milled around the grounds. Overall it was not very flavorful and a lot less salty than the blood sausage that I had in Ireland last summer. I finished my day by petting a donkey and taking photos of the sanctuary, finally acting like the tourist I was. We finished the weekend off with a lively viewing of “She’s the Man” and an early night in bed to get ready for the final days.



Comments

Popular Posts