Corinne CrawfordI was all decked out in my traditional outfit except I made the decision to wear my own white button down shirt and I was so glad I did. I met Igor in the main plaza just two blocks from my hotel and we walked a bit to get a coffee and wait for Belen. After a coffee, we simply wandered the busy streets where there was music and communal dancing and lot drinks and meeting up with friends. It was another gorgeous day and Igor was right, I would say about 80% of everyone on the street were dressed in the traditional Basque clothing they wear for the festival which for the men consisted of a tweed type pant, wool socks with traditional shoes that laced up your leg, a plain long sleeved linen type shirt, often with a vest, a scarf and a hat that sort of looked like a beret along with a waist sash tied at the side. As I mentioned before, the women wore long skirts with a petticoat underneath, often a shirt to match (except me :)) an apron over the skirt, and a scarf. Many women also wore the traditional sandals that tie up the leg with or without the wool socks.
It was a glorious morning watching traditional dancing in the plaza, watching an outdoor theater production in the Basque language (I was so glad Igor told me it was in Basque because I was really disappointed in my Spanish comprehension when I could not understand a word that was being said) and then met up at one of the social clubs in the heart of town for a meal with about a dozen of Igor’s friends. These social clubs are very popular and I fell in love with the concept. You pay to be a member and then pay an annual fee. It used to be that you could only be a member if your father was a member and you could not join if you were a woman but I think most of that has changed now. Anyway, these clubs usually consist of a room with rows of communal tables and a large kitchen and then the areas for all of the dinnerware and booze.
You can reserve a table or just come in and hope for the best. With a group our size and on a holiday, obviously they had reserved a table in advance. You bring your own food in and prepare it in the large kitchen and we had a meal of cheese, meats, bread, shrimp and amazing tomatoes to start followed by roasted chicken and “French fries”. The clubs all have stocks of booze, beer and wine and all the stuff you might need to make and serve a meal such as seasonings, oil, etc. When you are finished, you simply enter in how many people were there and what you drank onto the computer and you get a monthly bill for what you have used. The alcohol was a lot cheaper there than in the bar so many people do their socializing in these private clubs. They were not big or fancy but comfortable and useful when many people that live in town don’t have large kitchens or spaces to entertain.
After the meal, we made our way down the street about 1 or 2km following a small band playing and singing both traditional and non-traditional songs while a crowd followed behind doing traditional dances and simply marching their way down the street with drinks in hand of course.
At each establishment, someone is “appointed” to go get the drinks and everyone just pitches in money for each round. We did this routine for the rest of the evening and night until we all got hungry again at about 11:30pm so we went back to the club and plundered the left overs from earlier in the day. There seemed to be no sign of slowing down but I knew I was done, so after more than 12 hours from when the party started, I said my good nights and walked the few blocks to my hotel. The night went on with music and revelry coming through my window till the morning hours but I managed to get some sleep being as tired as I was. The streets were an absolute disaster with bottles and cups strewn everywhere but by the time I left my room the next morning, the city had cleaned almost everything up and hosed down all of the streets and sidewalks with very little evidence that the town was one giant party the night before. One of the neatest things that I saw was a troop of traditional performers, that although not totally Basque in nature, are common in the area and are often part of any type of heritage events. They are called Joauldun
.and they are basically dressed up like sheep with tall pointy colorful hats and conical bells attached to their front and back that make a rhythmic clanging as they performers walk in step to make them clang. Watching them seemed special and ancient and I was told that they keep the evil spirits away.
