CEA had organized a few trips for us so we could experience Catalunya and Spain. The first of these was to the Pyreenes. Riding by bus en route to the town of Taüll, we stopped at the town of Pont del Suert (Catalan for “Lucky Point”) for lunch. My friends and I found a place called Bar Pepito that served tacos (see album), and feeling deprived of Mexican food, we decided to give it a whirl. The chicken tacos seemed a bit caro (castellano for “pricey”), but well worth it – the combination of spices and other ingredients created a really unique taste, and I almost ordered a second one. They were also reasonably filling, which was refreshing to see in the context of Europe’s infatuation with natural-serving-size meals (read: snacks).
We arrived in Taüll later in the afternoon, and the view into the Boí Valley was absolutely gorgeous. Besides the location, the town is famous for its two churches, the Church of Santa Maria and the Church of Sant Climent, the latter of which is a World Heritage site.
We still had plenty of time before dinner, so a few friends and I hiked up a trail leading up the hillside. We had no idea where it ended, until it abruptly opened into a large field. I enjoyed the hike for the mountain stream and the surprise we saw on the way down: a herd of sheep!
That evening, CEA bused us down to the neighboring town of Boí for dinner. The fun part here was dessert – one of the options was “melón.” A few of the others ordered it, and received a huge slice of cantaloupe cut the long way; yum! At night, there was an FC Barça game, and we watched it at Bar Sedona, a place run by a man from Arizona. The TV was nice, the ambience cozy, and the owner is more than happy to see fellow Americans.
The next day, after breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. “Aigüestortes” means “winding waters” in Catalan, and “estany” is “lake” in this context. To get there, we took our bus to the entrance and rode up to the trailhead in jeeps, which are worth it considering the distance and altitude of the route. Both of our guides were very experienced, but what struck me most was their Spanish. Natives of Barcelona switch fluidly between castellano and Catalan, although they prefer Catalan; residents of the Pyreenes (and other rural parts of Catalunya), however, make castellano’s “second language” status more noticeable, as they have less occasion and need for speaking it. One of the guides was more comfortable with French than castellano, which makes sense given the geographic and linguistic closeness of the Catalan Pyrenees to France. The trail through the valley was enchanting, a seemingly endless sequence of beautiful landscapes, wildlife, and flora.
Showing posts with label Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trip. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
viatge a Sant Sebastià 2 - trip to San Sebastián 2
After being drained by traveling and walking around all morning, it was time to hit the refresh button. A 3-hour siesta did the trick; not only were we rested, but the sun graced us with its presence. Starving, we wandered around old town trying to find pintxos, the snack-sized dishes that the Basque country is famous for (the “tx” combination in Euskera is said like a “ch”; i.e. “Chicago” would become “Txicago”). We finally found some, and the pricing was reasonable; the pintxos tend to be 1.5-2 euros each, and we had 3 for 5 euros. One could think of pintxos like a smaller version of tapas – oftentimes they’re held together by a small skewer (the namesake of the cuisine), and may be served on bread slices. During the course of the weekend, some of the ones I had were octopus with olive, chorizo, and seafood pastries. At that restaurant, there were all sorts of pintxos available on platters, which could be eaten as is or heated up upon request (almost everything is better hot). But, a local at the bar told me that the best pintxos are the ones that you have to order from the kitchen – having ordered one that evening, I concur.
The next few hours were spent at the Zurriola beach. Despite being the “surfer” beach, it was pretty solid for sunbathers too. Only gripe is that the water was full of seaweed, perhaps because of the tide and because it’s directly exposed to the Bay of Biscay; La Concha and Ondaretta are both somewhat shielded by the harbor. That evening, we walked along the main beachfront (La Concha + Ondaretta) to try to go up the funicular and get a cool view of the city, but it was closed by the time we got there. We did make it to the far edge of the harbor, though, and the eclectic sculptures placed along the rocks there compensated somewhat for our troubles. That night, our group split into smaller groups to do dinner. Mine wanted to get pintxos, which was perfect because the street our hostel was on (Fermin Calbeton) was full of great and inexpensive jatetxeas, (Euskara for “restaurant”). We wandered from one to another, getting a pintxo at each one. To anyone who visits San Sebastián (if you’re studying in Spain you MUST make it there for a weekend), be sure to stay in the “Old Town” – the streets are all intended for pedestrians and it’s full of restaurants, stores, and culture.
Saturday was mostly uneventful, but the main thing we did was visit the park “Monte Urgull”, which was atop the other main hill in San Sebastián, and featured the Castillo de la Mota (a large castle) and the statue of Jesus. Entrance to the complex is free; they have a nice museum built into the castle and there are plenty of areas where one could picnic if desired. The best part about it was the view from next to the statue – note that to get to the same level as the base of the statue, you need to go into the museum and up its stairs; there are no stairs up from the outside. One could see not only all of San Sebastián, but also many nearby small towns; the photo of me below gives you an idea of the view:
On the way back, we ran into a performance of what one of the musicians described to me as the “Seven Saints Dance” – people dressed in big-headed, folksy costumes did a circle dance to a repeating song played by a band of percussionists and pipe players (it might have been a txistu ensemble, as suggested by the photo in the Wikipedia article on Basque music), and at the end of each chorus they would jump once, then twice, etc. all the way until 7 times. There were also four giant statues posted. The dancers were all carrying strangely shaped balloons made from some sort of organic material (perhaps some part of a pig), and after the dance was done they walked into the crowd, whacking certain people with the balloons. For whatever reason they made a beeline for our group and each of us received a good helping. Apparently the practice is not condoned because locals around us told the dancers to desist, because we weren’t from San Sebastián.
This weekend was also in the middle of the Euskal Jaiak festival, an annual festival that falls in the middle of September and celebrates Basque culture with dances like the one we saw, outdoor concerts, and a famous regatta. In this particular regatta, the eight top teams (as established by the results of other regattas) compete to see who is truly the best. Because of the festival, the streets were brimming even more than usual with tourists and – starting on Saturday – with fans of the various regatta teams. Each team has an associated color, and so walking through the streets we would see groups of people wearing a particular team’s uniform.
One part of the revelry seemed to be jumping off the port into the harbor; a few people from our group did it and had a blast. While we waited at the port for our divers to return in bathing suits, my roommate and I each bought a paper cone full of fresh shrimp – they were a bit small and of course salty, but a good snack nonetheless. The most interesting part of waiting for them, though, was that there was a group of kids treading water in the port, asking bystanders to throw them coins to dive for. It seemed like they weren’t making much from it, but one kid who came back to street level had quite a haul.
Sunday was the day of the regatta, and though the guys missed most of it because we insisted on getting lunch first, we caught the tail end of it and most importantly, the atmosphere. Monte Urgell, La Concha beach, and the port were all packed with spectators, and we wished we could have stayed in San Sebastián one more night because the whole town was going to be celebrating:
After a brief lazing on La Concha beach, we packed up and took the bus back to Barcelona. This weekend was such a good time some of us were wondering if we should come back…but despite how awesome this weekend in a contender for “European Capital of Culture” was, we realized that much of Spain (and Europe) remain to be explored. These next few weekends are already tied up with other trips – this weekend I’ll be in the Pyrenees thanks to CEA, the following one will be the celebration of the festival of La Mercé in Barcelona, and the first weekend in October I’ll be visiting my parents in Berlin. Beyond these, CEA will also be taking us to Girona and Figueres (home of Dalí and the museum in his honor), Tarragona and the Torres winery, and Seville, and I want to try to go to Marrakech, Lisbon, Florence or Rome, and Granada. If every trip is even half as good as San Sebastián was, then these next few months are going to be phenomenal.
The next few hours were spent at the Zurriola beach. Despite being the “surfer” beach, it was pretty solid for sunbathers too. Only gripe is that the water was full of seaweed, perhaps because of the tide and because it’s directly exposed to the Bay of Biscay; La Concha and Ondaretta are both somewhat shielded by the harbor. That evening, we walked along the main beachfront (La Concha + Ondaretta) to try to go up the funicular and get a cool view of the city, but it was closed by the time we got there. We did make it to the far edge of the harbor, though, and the eclectic sculptures placed along the rocks there compensated somewhat for our troubles. That night, our group split into smaller groups to do dinner. Mine wanted to get pintxos, which was perfect because the street our hostel was on (Fermin Calbeton) was full of great and inexpensive jatetxeas, (Euskara for “restaurant”). We wandered from one to another, getting a pintxo at each one. To anyone who visits San Sebastián (if you’re studying in Spain you MUST make it there for a weekend), be sure to stay in the “Old Town” – the streets are all intended for pedestrians and it’s full of restaurants, stores, and culture.
Saturday was mostly uneventful, but the main thing we did was visit the park “Monte Urgull”, which was atop the other main hill in San Sebastián, and featured the Castillo de la Mota (a large castle) and the statue of Jesus. Entrance to the complex is free; they have a nice museum built into the castle and there are plenty of areas where one could picnic if desired. The best part about it was the view from next to the statue – note that to get to the same level as the base of the statue, you need to go into the museum and up its stairs; there are no stairs up from the outside. One could see not only all of San Sebastián, but also many nearby small towns; the photo of me below gives you an idea of the view:
On the way back, we ran into a performance of what one of the musicians described to me as the “Seven Saints Dance” – people dressed in big-headed, folksy costumes did a circle dance to a repeating song played by a band of percussionists and pipe players (it might have been a txistu ensemble, as suggested by the photo in the Wikipedia article on Basque music), and at the end of each chorus they would jump once, then twice, etc. all the way until 7 times. There were also four giant statues posted. The dancers were all carrying strangely shaped balloons made from some sort of organic material (perhaps some part of a pig), and after the dance was done they walked into the crowd, whacking certain people with the balloons. For whatever reason they made a beeline for our group and each of us received a good helping. Apparently the practice is not condoned because locals around us told the dancers to desist, because we weren’t from San Sebastián.
This weekend was also in the middle of the Euskal Jaiak festival, an annual festival that falls in the middle of September and celebrates Basque culture with dances like the one we saw, outdoor concerts, and a famous regatta. In this particular regatta, the eight top teams (as established by the results of other regattas) compete to see who is truly the best. Because of the festival, the streets were brimming even more than usual with tourists and – starting on Saturday – with fans of the various regatta teams. Each team has an associated color, and so walking through the streets we would see groups of people wearing a particular team’s uniform.
One part of the revelry seemed to be jumping off the port into the harbor; a few people from our group did it and had a blast. While we waited at the port for our divers to return in bathing suits, my roommate and I each bought a paper cone full of fresh shrimp – they were a bit small and of course salty, but a good snack nonetheless. The most interesting part of waiting for them, though, was that there was a group of kids treading water in the port, asking bystanders to throw them coins to dive for. It seemed like they weren’t making much from it, but one kid who came back to street level had quite a haul.
Sunday was the day of the regatta, and though the guys missed most of it because we insisted on getting lunch first, we caught the tail end of it and most importantly, the atmosphere. Monte Urgell, La Concha beach, and the port were all packed with spectators, and we wished we could have stayed in San Sebastián one more night because the whole town was going to be celebrating:
After a brief lazing on La Concha beach, we packed up and took the bus back to Barcelona. This weekend was such a good time some of us were wondering if we should come back…but despite how awesome this weekend in a contender for “European Capital of Culture” was, we realized that much of Spain (and Europe) remain to be explored. These next few weekends are already tied up with other trips – this weekend I’ll be in the Pyrenees thanks to CEA, the following one will be the celebration of the festival of La Mercé in Barcelona, and the first weekend in October I’ll be visiting my parents in Berlin. Beyond these, CEA will also be taking us to Girona and Figueres (home of Dalí and the museum in his honor), Tarragona and the Torres winery, and Seville, and I want to try to go to Marrakech, Lisbon, Florence or Rome, and Granada. If every trip is even half as good as San Sebastián was, then these next few months are going to be phenomenal.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
viatge a Sant Sebastià 1 - trip to San Sebastián 1
This past weekend, I went with friends to San Sebastián , a coastal city in País Vasco (the Basque region of Spain). It was a great first trip and an amazing city to visit; the weather was nice, there were 3 beaches to cater to surfers and sunbathers alike, and it was quite cultural. Here's how it went down:
Thursday, September 10 (DAY 0) - We bought tickets for the 11.10pm bus on Thursday night, so we could arrive at a dreary 6.40am Friday morning in San Sebastián and have a full day ahead of us. Taking the bus from Barcelona to San Sebastián should have been extremely simple; we had already bought our round trip bus tickets with the company Vibasa and the Barcelona Nord bus station is practically next door to our residence (Residencia Onix). Vibasa had 3 buses leaving at the same time that would all stop in San Sebastián at some point; one was an express and the other two would finish in other cities. Now, a modern computer system should be able to recognize that some people are headed to San Sebastián, others to other cities, and seat them in the appropriate bus at the appropriate fare. But that night, something was amiss with the booking process, because some seat reservations were double booked (i.e. my roommate and another guy were both assigned Bus 2, Seat 5)!
The night got off to a good start when the bus drivers insisted on directing us to the wrong bus, until finally I realized that they were looking at the bus number on our return ticket instead of the outbound one. After shuffling between buses for 10ish minutes, we finally settled down in the right one. When more people boarded at Barcelona Sants station, though, there was a problem. Vibasa had 3 buses leaving at the same time that would all stop in San Sebastián at some point; one was an express and the other two would finish in other cities, and we were taking one of the non-express buses. Now, a modern computer system should be able to recognize that some people are headed to San Sebastián, others to other cities, and seat them in the appropriate bus at the appropriate fare. But that night, something was amiss with the booking process, because some seat reservations were double booked (i.e. my roommate and another guy were both assigned Bus 2, Seat 5)! So, some of our group had to switch to the other non-express bus to make things work.
After 7.5 hours in a cramped bus, we arrive in San Sebastián, still before sunrise. We gathered our group together in a park before moving on. The park was my first encounter with Euskara, the language of the Basques. As these signs show, it’s much more separated from Spanish than Catalan is:
The Wikipedia article on Euskara suggests that it’s not even of the Indo-European family, but the last pre-Indo-European language that is around in Western Europe, a linguistic isolate with no family members. The only reason for faint resemblance to Romance languages is because Euskara adopted a fair number of Romance words through contact with Latin, then Gascon, Spanish, and Aragonese (words like the Euskara “Parkea” for Spanish “Parque” and Euskara “Kalea” for Spanish “Calle”). Any reputable website one searches will agree that the true origins of Euskara are unknown; as an example, one can consult this page from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for Basque Studies. Signage tended to be in both Euskara and Spanish, and just like in Catalunya (with Catalan and Spanish), people spoke both languages. Some Catalans may aspire to have an independent Catalunya one day, but the Basques could be regarded as more fervent in their desires for independence, considering the existence of the terrorist group the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which translates to “Basque Homeland and Freedom”) and demonstrations of solidarity with other autonomy/independence movements like the one in Tibet (see photo in the post about Saturday). The clash of identities is even present in the town’s official name, “Donostia-San Sebastián” – “Donostia” is the Euskara name for the town and “San Sebastián” the Spanish one; residents are called donostiarras in both languages, NOT san sebastinos.
That morning we walked to our hostel, in the “Old Town” area, dropped off our bags since it was too early to check in, and walked around. San Sebastián has a lot of neat buildings, and even in the dreary cloudiness of that morning (the only extended cloudy period that weekend; the rest was all sun!) they looked pretty cool.
It also has 3 beaches - Ondaretta and La Concha for tanning/swimming/etc. and Zurriola for surfers. Trying to find a bite to eat, we headed over to the area by Zurriola beach, and found this exhibition of sculptures by Manolo Valdés that was sponsored by La Caixa:
Bored by the cloudiness and needing to kill 2 hours before check-in, the guys in our group went to see the Aquarium, recommended by www.sansebastianspain.info as one of the top ten things to do in San Sebastián. Entry was pricey (8 euros for students, 12 for adults), but the Aquarium was a jack-of-all-aquatic-trades: it included an extensive section on the naval history of San Sebastián; an aquarium with walk-through tunnel, tropical specimens, sharks, etc.; and an exhibition of mixed-media art by Alfred Bikondoa inspired by Paul Valéry’s poem “El Cementerio Marino”. The auditorium there is also one of the sites for the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the 57th edition of which runs from September 18-26 this year. The album below includes photos from all 3 sections of the Aquarium:
I continue describing this trip in the next post.
Thursday, September 10 (DAY 0) - We bought tickets for the 11.10pm bus on Thursday night, so we could arrive at a dreary 6.40am Friday morning in San Sebastián and have a full day ahead of us. Taking the bus from Barcelona to San Sebastián should have been extremely simple; we had already bought our round trip bus tickets with the company Vibasa and the Barcelona Nord bus station is practically next door to our residence (Residencia Onix). Vibasa had 3 buses leaving at the same time that would all stop in San Sebastián at some point; one was an express and the other two would finish in other cities. Now, a modern computer system should be able to recognize that some people are headed to San Sebastián, others to other cities, and seat them in the appropriate bus at the appropriate fare. But that night, something was amiss with the booking process, because some seat reservations were double booked (i.e. my roommate and another guy were both assigned Bus 2, Seat 5)!
The night got off to a good start when the bus drivers insisted on directing us to the wrong bus, until finally I realized that they were looking at the bus number on our return ticket instead of the outbound one. After shuffling between buses for 10ish minutes, we finally settled down in the right one. When more people boarded at Barcelona Sants station, though, there was a problem. Vibasa had 3 buses leaving at the same time that would all stop in San Sebastián at some point; one was an express and the other two would finish in other cities, and we were taking one of the non-express buses. Now, a modern computer system should be able to recognize that some people are headed to San Sebastián, others to other cities, and seat them in the appropriate bus at the appropriate fare. But that night, something was amiss with the booking process, because some seat reservations were double booked (i.e. my roommate and another guy were both assigned Bus 2, Seat 5)! So, some of our group had to switch to the other non-express bus to make things work.
After 7.5 hours in a cramped bus, we arrive in San Sebastián, still before sunrise. We gathered our group together in a park before moving on. The park was my first encounter with Euskara, the language of the Basques. As these signs show, it’s much more separated from Spanish than Catalan is:
The Wikipedia article on Euskara suggests that it’s not even of the Indo-European family, but the last pre-Indo-European language that is around in Western Europe, a linguistic isolate with no family members. The only reason for faint resemblance to Romance languages is because Euskara adopted a fair number of Romance words through contact with Latin, then Gascon, Spanish, and Aragonese (words like the Euskara “Parkea” for Spanish “Parque” and Euskara “Kalea” for Spanish “Calle”). Any reputable website one searches will agree that the true origins of Euskara are unknown; as an example, one can consult this page from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for Basque Studies. Signage tended to be in both Euskara and Spanish, and just like in Catalunya (with Catalan and Spanish), people spoke both languages. Some Catalans may aspire to have an independent Catalunya one day, but the Basques could be regarded as more fervent in their desires for independence, considering the existence of the terrorist group the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which translates to “Basque Homeland and Freedom”) and demonstrations of solidarity with other autonomy/independence movements like the one in Tibet (see photo in the post about Saturday). The clash of identities is even present in the town’s official name, “Donostia-San Sebastián” – “Donostia” is the Euskara name for the town and “San Sebastián” the Spanish one; residents are called donostiarras in both languages, NOT san sebastinos.
That morning we walked to our hostel, in the “Old Town” area, dropped off our bags since it was too early to check in, and walked around. San Sebastián has a lot of neat buildings, and even in the dreary cloudiness of that morning (the only extended cloudy period that weekend; the rest was all sun!) they looked pretty cool.
It also has 3 beaches - Ondaretta and La Concha for tanning/swimming/etc. and Zurriola for surfers. Trying to find a bite to eat, we headed over to the area by Zurriola beach, and found this exhibition of sculptures by Manolo Valdés that was sponsored by La Caixa:
Bored by the cloudiness and needing to kill 2 hours before check-in, the guys in our group went to see the Aquarium, recommended by www.sansebastianspain.info as one of the top ten things to do in San Sebastián. Entry was pricey (8 euros for students, 12 for adults), but the Aquarium was a jack-of-all-aquatic-trades: it included an extensive section on the naval history of San Sebastián; an aquarium with walk-through tunnel, tropical specimens, sharks, etc.; and an exhibition of mixed-media art by Alfred Bikondoa inspired by Paul Valéry’s poem “El Cementerio Marino”. The auditorium there is also one of the sites for the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the 57th edition of which runs from September 18-26 this year. The album below includes photos from all 3 sections of the Aquarium:
I continue describing this trip in the next post.
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