Today I truly, deeply and really felt like a journalist. For the first time in the Basque country and for the first time in many months. I was on the road today.

Me, Markus and Rahel went on assignment to make a story and pictures about San Sebastian Food. We talked with the owner of the business, met the chef of the cooking classes, did a bit of cooking ourself  (well I did) and went to pintxos bars to see what the owner of San Sebastian Food, Jon Warren, was talking about.

And I even met a nice French Ham seller and traditional ham slicer. He told me a lot about ham. And at that moment, when he was explaining me about hams and cutting I felt like a real journalist. And a vegetarian.

Share on Facebook

San Sebastian (or in Basque Donosti) is the food capital of the Basque Country. In this city you can find a lot a restaurants with Michelin stars and the best pintxos. But if you are a tourist you have no idea where to find the best pintxos. There is a solution. San Sebastian Food is a company to guide tourist around food in the Basque Country. They offer guide pintxos tours, Basque cooking classes and wine tastings so tourist can find the real flavour of the Basque country.

In a small kitchen in restaurant Ziaboga in Pasaia, chef Alex Barcenilla is cooking a typical Basque meal: black beans called alubia. Because Basques don’t eat only one dish, he is also cooking pork, sausages, cabbage, pork chops and more sausages.

He is cooking with his cousin Christina Ibañez because to tourist group of today canceled because of the bad weather. But that doesn’t keep him from giving the report and photographers a cooking lesson. He chopping peppers and cutting sausages telling about Basque food. His answers are translated by the owner of San Sebastian Food Jon Warren who plays the translator at the cooking classes. “You have to treat the food with love”, says Barcenilla when is picking up a big pan full of bowling water and the alubia’s and spins is carefully. “You shouldn’t stir the beans with a spoon because then you will hurt them. Treat them with all the love you have.”

The cooking class tourist can attend with San Sebastian Food will teach them how to cook typical Basque meals. “Almost ninety percent of the time we will cook fish”, explains Warren with an apron on. “Because this restaurant is close to the sea we work with a lot of sea products. It’s very normal for Basque to cook with the seasons but also with local products.”

Pintxo tours

Apart from attending cooking classes you can also experience the Basque food culture in an easier way. Warren started his business with guided pintxo tours across San Sebastian. “The tours aren’t the same every time”, Warren says when is walking true the city. “We have to explore new spots and the opening hours of bars. So it is a bit different every time. Before a group comes we already have six places in mind that we will visit. I can change because somebody has allergies but usually we go to traditional and modern bars to taste the pintxos and wine.”

You pay the tours upfront (85 Euro per person) and the crew will handle all the finances. “The good thing about our tours is that we know what is good at witch bar”, explains Elin Jonsson, guide of San Sebastian Food, in an traditional pintxo bar. “If you don’t know what pintxo the best one is, you probable won’t order it so that is were we come in. I do it myself to. If I go to Bilbao I don’t know witch bar is the best so I ask my friends from over there.”

Zeruko

One of the places that the pintxo tours attends (not every time but often) is the bar Zeruko. It’s a modern and cool bar where the most amazing pintxo are displayed on the bar. “The cooking over here is very modern and molecular”, says Jonsson, pointing at the pintxos at the bar. “The cook invents his own pintxos. And what is also very special about this place is the owner. The woman is helping with serving the food but still looks stylish and representative doing it.”

In the white, clean and crowded bar you can order pintxos that are displayed on the bar but also order them from the kitchen. “They have very spectacular pintxos with smoke or flames”, according to Warren. And that is true. The hole bar is looking when somebody orders a smoking pintxos because the smoke is quite noticeable. The pintxo is a small grill with little coals under it. A small piece of fresh fish is grilling and a small mountain of vegetables and sauce on a piece of bread is just next to it. The bartender points at the pintxo and says you have to eat it in one bite. And according to the taster is delicious.

“The food looks magnificent but not all the food is really tasty”, guide Jonsson says. “But you have to try these pintxos just to see how different pintxos can be.”

Share on Facebook

The Basque Country is special. It is an own country in the country Spain and the people are proud the be different. Do not call them Spanish, they are Basque. Comparing to Holland there are a lot of big differences. The biggest ones are explained.

Social at the playground

The Basque people are always making a conversation with somebody else. On the streets you constantly hear Hola! Kaixo! Appa! People saying hello to each other and just ask how you are. Because they always come a cross somebody they know, a family member, friend, neighbour, acquaintance or their butcher.

But also after work the Basques are social. Just when they are home after a hard day of work they pick up their kids and go outside. On the playground the parents play with their kids but also meet the other neighbours with children. Just to talk about work, their children or the weather.

Opposite of the Basques are Dutch people. They tent to only have close contact with their friends. But after coming home from work they are tired and will do some shopping for dinner, cook and maybe go to the gym but that is it.

Fork, knife, spoon and…

Bread. In the Basque Country the cutlery is extended with bread. And the bread is not only to eat but also to scoop the food on the your fork or spoon. And if you are finished with your vegetables, fish, pasta, meat, soup or salad you can just clean you plate with you a piece of bread and eat all the sauce or dressing.

For the Dutch bread is also an important ingredient. Not to use at a cutlery but as meal. Dutch eat (brown) bread as breakfast and as lunch. And sometimes as a starter with herb-butter in a restaurant.

Mañana, mañana

Relax, chill, take it easy, tranquilo! Basques are easy going, don’t fuss or stress, what can’t be done today can be done tomorrow. If you have to make two dresses you don’t make three right? The Basque don’t do more work then needed, they work and go home and have fun, drink a glass of wine or beer or go and work out.

In Holland it is the total opposite. Dutch work hard and lot. If you have to do two dresses but you have time left, you will just make an other one. What else could you do? Sit around and do nothing? People in Holland are very ambitious and want to have a nice and interesting job that has nice pay or have a good goal.

Eat, eat and eat

Of course the most important subject in the Basque culture couldn’t be forgotten: food. Basque people love their own food. The typical Basque food is a lot of meat and fish. The products that they use are seasonal and from the Basque nature like mushrooms, those are picked in the mountains.

And what about the pintxos? In the Basque Country you can’t find tapas but pintxos, little snacks with a wine or beer. This a special event the pintxo pote. Every week there is one evening you can buy a drink very cheap (around one Euro) and get a free pintxo. And every bar has a their own pintxo so you can taste a lot of different ones.

But except their own food, Basques don’t eat a lot of foreign food. You don’t see a lot of foreign restaurants.

In Holland there live a lot of different cultures together. And all those cultures want to eat your their own food. So you can find Dutch, Italian, Afghan, Moroccan, Turkish, Chinese, Indian, American, Portuguese, Spanish and a few others.

So as you see the Dutch and Basque cultures are very different but what is better? The Basques who love their own food, take their time and love to hang out with other people. Or the Dutch who love their work, like to taste different cuisines and eat a lot of bread. Who will say. The only thing that is clear that people love their own culture.

Share on Facebook

The city’s and villages are decorated with lights, stars, pine trees and fake snow. It is (almost) Christmas. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ generally it is celebrated on the 25^th of December. But now a days it’s also very normal to eat large meals with family or have gifts.

America and Britain

The most famous way to celebrate Christmas is the English or American way. In their homes they have a big Christmas three that is decorated and sometimes people hang lights on their homes. The Americans and Britain celebrate Christmas with the family and some people go to church on Christmas Eve. They often celebrate Christmas Eve also with a special Christmas dinner “turkey and Christmas pudding”, a Christmas pudding is a pudding in large part from raisins is further plays Santa a big role.

Santa

Someone who plays a big role in celebrating Christmas in English and American country’s is Santa Claus. He bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours on December 24: Christmas Eve. Santa was founded from the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, which may have part of its personality in tales about the historical figure of gift giver Saint Nicholas.

Dutch Sinterklaas

In Holland Christmas isn’t celebrated that big. On the 5^th of December the Dutch people celebrate Sinterklaas, the figure who is the founder of Santa. On the night of December people are together with family, drink hot chocolate milk and sing special Sinterklaas songs. Then with a lot of pounding on the door Sinterklaas and het Zwarte Pieten (Black Pete’s) are coming. Sometimes they just leave presents in a big bag in front of the door or in the house, but they can come and visit you. The ask you if you are nice and they will check it in the big book of Sinterklaas.

Christmas in Holland is eating with the family or going to church. But a lot of family’s have a Christmas three in their homes and it becomes more usual to also have gifts. The Dutch celebrate two days of Christmas, witch are also free days for the hole country, on the 24^th and 25^th of December.

Basque Olentzero

In the Basque Country they don’t have Santa but Olentzero. According to Basque traditions Olentzero comes to town late at night on the 24th of December to drop off presents for children.

One story’s about Olentzero is being one of the jentillak, a mythological race of Basque giants living in the Pyrenees. Legend has it that they observed a glowing cloud in the sky one day. None of them could look at this bright cloud except for a very old, nearly blind man. When asked to examine it, he confirmed their fears and told them that it was a sign that Jesus will be born soon. According to some stories, the old man asked the giants to throw him off a cliff to avoid having to live through Christianisation. Having obliged him, the giants tripped on the way down and died themselves except Olentzero.

Olentzero doesn’t look like Sinterklaas or Santa Clause (who both have red clothes, a white beard, red hat and helpers). Olentzero weirs a txapela ( a typical Basque hat), has a scarf, a black shirt and blue pants and he doesn’t have helpers.

But there is one thing that Sinterklaas, Santa Claus and Olentzero all have in common: they are old men with white beards who give good children presents.

Funny facts

• The colors red and green are used a lot at Christmas but have a relation with Jesus Christ. Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus, which was shed in his crucifixion, while green symbolizes eternal life, and in particular the evergreen tree, which does not lose its leaves in the winter.

• Jews don’t celebrate Christmas but have Hanukkah. It is also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

• In Mexico, Christmas begins on December 16^th. Until December 24 there are the “posadas”. These are processions of children and adults, with statues of Mary and Joseph are carried. It is acted out how Mary and Joseph were looking for a place to stay. On the last day carried the baby Jesus, at the end of the evening is laid in a manger.

• In Italy, the Christmas witch “La Befana” presents around on Epiphany. She is looking for Jesus Christ and brings good children candy, naughty children get coal or dark candy.

Share on Facebook

Today is a special day. I had my one and only exam today, about Production on TV. A special exam because there were only five questions and it was my first exam with open questions.

A special day because today the real Countdown’s begun (like the song from Ozzy Osbourne, one of my favourite artist). It is only one week and then I am back in Holland. And there is a lot that I have to do.

I have to work all weekend at eitb.com, write reports for my blog,finish my other school work and documentary, buy gifts for my family and myself.

And in the mean time do some things I have done before. Like eating a MaxiBom. I think I will start with that tomorrow.

Share on Facebook

Today I was sitting in the bus from Eskoriatza to Vitoria. I usually take the bus at 19.15 o’clock but today I only had a meeting so if had the bus from 16.15 o’clock.  And (because everything is different here in the Basque country) the bus took a different route because that changes around here.

This time the route passed the lake Ulibarri but not through Landa and Ulibarri-Gamboa but an other one. And because I was very active and it was not dark yet I could see everything. It was nice to think what will come around the corner, and every time it was something else. I saw cows, sheep, people in the vegetable garden, bikers, hills, valleys, mountains and other traffic. This is one of the things I will miss the most when I am at home. The beautiful view from the bus, every day different and now traffic jams.

Share on Facebook

I forgot to tell you this!

This Monday was a special day, it was Saint Nicolas in Holland. That means gifts, hot chocolate, family, black Pete’s, excitement and fun. But because I was in Vitoria I couldn’t celebrate with my family, friends and scouting children.

So I celebrated myself. I bought myself a gift and baked some typical Dutch cookies: speculaas.

Thanks to my friend Linda, I could bake them because she gave me some special sugar and spices at my Going Away Party, so thank you Lin!

I shared my cookies with my Swiss friends and my family at home and they liked it too. So I have to write the recipe in English and Spanish.

And to top my Dutch week I baked some pancakes today for dinner. And of course I ate them with cheese (I’m a typical Dutch girl who loves cheese) and jam/marmalade.

Share on Facebook

In Vitoria-Gasteiz you can find a lot of museums. The almost all the museums in the Basque country are free, so you can teak a peak, every time you like. The museums are all in the center of the city so if you have a rainy day on your vacation or are really interested in art, playing cards, sacred art, arms of archeology you can take a look.

The sad thing is that all of the museums have information signs in Basque or Spanish. So for tourist is hard to understand the information that is written. Some museums solved that problem by having audio tours. Then you can chose you own language and understand the given information. But in the other museums it doesn’t really matter if you don’t understand the information, just looking and observing is fun enough.

Museum of Sacred Art of Álava is located in the Cathedral of Mary Immaculate. The collection is divers. There are paintings, sculptures, statues and stained glass windows. The collections is interesting to people who are interested in Catholic beliefs but also for not believers. The are different images and on every painting Jesus Christ is different but the real beauty is the cathedral itself. I has a lot of stained glass windows with look pretty when the sun shines trough it and there is even a small model in the church so you can see how the big cathedral looks like. But don’t forget the outside.

On the outside the catholic refugee is also very beautiful. Don’t forget to give it a second look. You can search for gargoyles close to the windows and walk around the cathedral to see all the different sides.

Museum of Natural Sciences is a very small museum. I only has two small floors and the objects you can see over here aren’t that special. The museum has a few fossils from dinosaurs but not anything worth mentioning. The collection of the butterflies is pretty but I bit sad for all those creatures who died and are in a museum.

In an hour you are done with this small museum especially when you are foreigners and can’t read the signs and information.

Museum of Archeology is located in the Bibet building. The building is the opposite from the collection it is a new modern building with three floors of old pots, pans, arrowheads and farm equipment. The museum is interactive. You can see small clips about the found artifacts. But after seeing a the artifacts a few times you get a bit bored of seeing only pots, arrowheads and farm equipment.

Fournier Museum of Playing Cards is a nice an interactive museum. Almost at every floor of the museum (it has three floors) you can watch a short movie about the cards. For example on the ground floor you have a clip about the pressing of the cards in different ways.

The cards that are displayed are very different. Of course the have the cards they use in the area but also the poker cards, tarot cards, Chinese cards, French cards, small cards, round cards and more. It’s fun to see all the different designs, pictures and sizes. Who new, that the three floors of the building could be filled with only cards.

Museum of Fine Arts in the Palacio de Augusri, in this museum you will find a fine selection of Spanish art from the 18th and 19th centuries and a collection of artworks that trace the development of Basque art from 1850 to 1950.

Arms Museum of Álava is a museum were you van find, like the name says, all different kind of arms from the prehistoric, middle ages and also more recent, from the 20^th century. There are swords, axes, shields, knifes, armors but also guns.

You can see arm from all different parts of the world like Arabia, Central Africa and Far East. And a museum with this special subject has to bee visit.

Basque Museum of Contemporary Art (Artium) is the only museum you have to pay for. The entree fee is around six euros but you get a lot for that in return if you are an art lover. The best ting about this museums is that it is also opened on Sunday’s, so if you bored on you free day you can visit a museum.

But beware, the museum is very small. There is only one floor (but it is big) with modern, impressionism art. And as an exception this museum has information in English.

Share on Facebook

On Friday I went on a only girls road trip with a few members of my Basque family. The mum, aunt and one of the sisters went to the Medieval Market in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. I was quite a trip to get there. A lot of roads were broken up, we didn’t had a route planner and I don’t think Nati (my Basque mum) had ever bin to Santo Domingo.

We arrived after a car drive from 1,5 hours. But were happy to be there, and looked forward to go up to the market. I didn’t knew what to expect, I have never been to a Medieval Market because we don’t have those in Holland.

The Medieval Market is big thing in the Basque country. The market travels from city to village so everybody can take a look. All the markets are different. In the big city’s like Vitoria-Gasteiz, the market is quite big and concentrated in one place. But here in Santo Domingo there is a different variant.

Green, red and orange

Walking along with all the other people we came in to the old part of Santo Domingo witch was decorated. The were banners hanging between the building and a lot of colorful strings of fabric too. Out in little streets there we different kind of stands. With fun typical medieval colors like green, red and orange.

But the big square la Plaza de España was even more decorated then the streets. There was a big stage with sand and a tribune for people who want to see a show. In an other corner of the court horses and a donkey were standing just minding there own business and eating hay.

Round and round

And in yet again a different corner you could find old carousel. The horses are from wood painted in sober colours and a different carousel with a cars But what was the most fun to see, was the way how the carousel got moving. There was a woman sitting on a chair and pushing down pedals with her feet, just like riding a bike. And the kids loved it.

Accept the village looking medieval the people looked medieval two. There were persons dressed like priests, knights, farm girls or boys, a fool or just common medieval people.

Eat, eat and eat

The main subject in the market is FOOD. Just like the picture I got from the Basque country, the most important thing over here is food. An that is what I have noticed at the medieval market too. There were stands with candy, like truffles, bread, jelly candy, pies or the typical roosted chestnuts.

And of course, what is a Basque festivity without wine and pintxo´s? Even in the middle ages they had that apparently. So we when to different stands to try the pintxo´s and wine, mozto or water. The pintxo´s weren’t typical medieval. We ate a tortilla patatas, mushrooms on toast and (for the meat eaters) a sausage with bacon or chorizo meat. The pintxo´s were belly warming and good comfort snack on a cold December day.

Birds in the sky

But the highlight of the day was the show on the main square from abird keeper. The bird keeper had different kind of birds who performed tricks and that showed a little how the animals where used in the middle ages. The birds (a falcon, eagle and other big one) flew up in the air and dived down for the pray, just like they do in the wild.

They use to keep the birds for the hunt and now everybody could see how hunting was all these years back. The birds had great senses because they saw their pray from miles ahead and almost caught them every time. And one of the birds even found some food in the bag a couple in the audience, that shows how good there senses are. Everybody clapped hard for the performance of the animals.

For all ages

Walking true the village you get a nice feeling. The market is not very large but it is nice to just walk around a view times because every time you see something or somebody else.

The people are nice and talk with everybody. The stands are pretty, interesting or funny, there is medieval guitar music playing and the sun is shining. At the market you can buy jewellery, from silver, stone or leather, there are beautiful home made books and notepads, scented candles or soaps, real fur carpets or toy swords and shields for children. So everyone has a nice day. Around five o’clock we left the village and went home to taste some pastries we bought on the market. And although the recipes of the cakes are might very old, they tasted great.

Share on Facebook

Yesterday I went on a road trip with my Basque mom Nati, her cunada (sister-in-law) and one of her daughters Oihana. I didn’t know were we went because my mom asked me to go with her (in Spanish) so didn’t really understand. Even with a small translation from my laguna Julene I didn’t knew a ting.

So I was in the car looking for a small placed called Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The drive didn’t went very smooth. We couldn’t find the place, had to turn back a few times and had to call our TomTom Julian (the dad). But we got there.

And what we did? That’s what you will read in my following report.

Share on Facebook