I always had a thing for places in between, for islands in masses, for differences in homogeneity. This led me to explore trouble spots, minority cultures and historical divisions. It was therefore only natural to end up in another of those places, the Basque country: while the larger portion of the country lies in Spain and a smaller portion in France, the people of this beautiful and troubled land are proudly non-Spanish. They like when you speak their language that does not resemble anything we know. In smaller coastal towns, when you say Adios, people’s gesture clearly shows that they do not appreciate being spoken in Spanish. They respond by saying “Arun”, goodbye in Basque, so beware. Go practice your Spanish in some other part of Spain. Or just learn to say “thank you” in Basque: Eskerak asko. It wins big smiles.
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| Space ship Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Photo: http://www.guggenheim.org/bilbao |
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| Space ship also has a giant spider in Bilbao. Photo: Ferda Paksoy |
Our trip to Bask country started out in Bilbao, the largest town in the country. This is a town that is rising from its ashes. Not long ago, it seems to have been a rusty, polluted industrial town. But the Guggenheim Museum and its spectacular architecture (design by Frank Gehry), transformed it. The museum with its space ship look consisting of a giant shiny metal block with a huge dog in the form of flowers and a spider, attracts masses to the town. The museum really constitutes one of the most visible part of the walk along the river Nervion with foot passages and bridges leading to it. But as a witness to the town’s more prosperous days, you can go to Café Irunia beautifully decorated with ceramic tiles which gives an almost Moroccan feel or simply stop by at the train station and marvel the stained glass.
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| Stained glass at the Bilbao train station. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
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| Cafe Irunia in Bilbao. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
After a long time in the Guggenheim Museum we took off for San Sebastian. It took us approximately one and half hours by bus to get to the true star of the Basque country. The charming San Sebastian (or Donostia in Basque), lies on the pretty Concha Bay (la Concha). The town also hosts international jazz and film festivals, its cuisine is excellent and its buildings are very beautiful. As icing on the cake, we stayed at Hotel Maria Cristina, the five star hotel in San Sebastian, apparently this is also where Charlize Theron stayed when she was here for the film festival. Here comes my disclaimer about this: Although I also like travelling in style, this hotel was waaaayy beyond my league. We owe this to the generosity of a good friend (FP) who by her two choices (for Bilbao Hesperia Bilbao) made the trip truly grandiose. In line with the style of our hotel, by pure luck our rental car which was supposed to be a Renault Clio turned out to be a super nice BMW but San Sebastian is best explored on foot.
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| A view of the Concha Bay in San Sebastian. Photo: http://www.wayfaring.info/2009/09/14/san-sebastian/ |
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| The yummy pintxos in San Sebastian. Photo: Galma Jahic. |
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| View from Pintxos bar packed with people. Photo: Galma Jahic. |
Depending on the tide, la Concha is wide or narrow but is packed with people at all times. I must say after our beautiful beaches, I was not that impressed with swimming in the Bay of Biscay. But the bay hands to the city its most precious gems: fresh sea food that make into great pintxos . This is the Basque version of tapas and in my opinion much better than all the tapas I ate so far. The old city consists of little bars that deliver their customers all kinds of pintxos that are watered down with the local wines of the region, yummy! In fact, you are supposed to do bar hopping and taste different pintxos at different places. Last thing, you are supposed to throw the little napkins on the floor.
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| A replica of Picasso's Guernica in Guernica. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
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| An amnesty request for ETA members in Bizkaia province. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
Of course Basque country is not only about gastronomy and sun bathing. Guernica lies here with its superb museum that makes you re-live its bombing in 1937. This atrocity happened during the Spanish Civil War by Germany’s Condor Legion with the invitation (!) from Franco and led to high civilian casualties. In fact, the bloodiness of the event led Pablo Picasso to paint his famous art work Guernica, a replica of which lies outside the museum. The story of the bombing remains still controversial and is considered a drill of later bombings in the Second World War. Recently, it led Germany apologizing for its role in the event.
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| The people in Bizkaia province in Basque are serious about self determination. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
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| The scenic road from Guernica to San Sebastian via Bizkaia province. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
Today Spain is economically in dire straits and its political future is full with questions. It has seen a successful political transition to democracy after Franco’s death but some fear that its autonomous regions (especially Catalonia) and their ever growing powers and assertiveness over Madrid is undermining its political system. Meanwhile, the Basque people made to the streets in large sums when the Bask separatist Batasuna party was closed down for allegedly being the political wing of ETA, the armed group that fought for decades for Basque’s independence. Today, a new party, Sortu has been established and denounced violence. Despite all that, the debate about whether it is a rebranded Batasuna continues. While support for ETA dwindled in the Basque region, amnesty signs for ETA people abound especially in smaller coastal parts of the Basque such as Leketia in the Bizkaia province. These little coastal towns get by with tourism and fishing. Hearing all this should not scare you off at all, the place is pretty safe and worth seeing. We bond with Euskal Herria (the Basque country), it is after all where the club Real Sociedad is located for which our famous football star Nihat Kahveci played for so many years!
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| Ta ta!! Travelmind is happily driving the BMW for the price of a Renault Clio. Photo: Ferda Paksoy. |
