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

Food is culture. Or culture is food. I’m not the person that sits on the top of a sightseeing bus with an audio device on my ear when coming to a new city or walking through the museums or chasing churches. I prefer simply walking around, taste the scent of the air and the sound of the people, and feel the vibe of a new place. But what I love most about a new place is the food. Food will tell you everything about a society if you only listen carefully enough. Food is about taking time, about social relations and about enjoying yourself. So let me share with you some food experiences I had in the Basque country, which at the same time showed me various cultural differences and interesting ideas.

Pintxo time

Imagine, you don’t have to go home immediately after work because you’re starting to get hungry and dinner awaits you at home. The Basques found the very best solution to enjoy a “trago”, a sip after work. With counters full of plates decorated with Pintxos in all variations, one finds it hard to resist. There are Potatoe-Tortillas with vegetables, cheese and Jamón, or a delicious crab-paste. Fantasy has no boarders when it comes to hundreds of possibilities to invite small snacks.

But personally I think the Pintxos, set aside that they are simply delicious, have another meaning as well; It is incredibly social to go for a Pintxo, as this can be done with anyone – considering that you might hesitate to invite someone for dinner in your home, which for me is a far more formal and private issue, going for a Pintxo can be a nice start to get in contact. This usually leads to all kinds of groups standing (sitting is seen rarely in this country, probably because it would suggest a kind of settling down, what they usually don’t want to) in a bar and chatting about anything. It is some kind of an unwritten rule not to take two drinks in one bar, but instead changing bars after every wine, beer or mosto.

Eating hours

I don’t know what was first, the Pintxos or the late dinner, but one can’t go with the other. So obviously Basques have dinner at a quite late hour, between eight and ten I would say. Compared to the traditional six o’clock dinner I know from Switzerland, it was quite a change! But considering that everything is a little later here, I could cope with that quite good.

The importance of meat and fish

Yes, they do have vegetables and side dishes in the Basque Country. The thing is just: They don’t necessarily use it. So it can happen that you find a huge piece of meat on your plate – without anything with it. And it is quite likely that when you take the menu in a restaurant, which is quite common, that there will be Jamón or Chorizo as a starter, followed by shrimps, another fish as the often eaten stockfish, then a cutlet and finally some dessert. So they not only eat a lot of meat and fish here, they also eat a lot in general! I surely had to adjust myself to these eating habits but discovered fish again as a wonderful alternative to meat.

Sweet dreams

The Basques have a sweet tooth, that’s for sure. Having a normal croissant in a café? Almost impossible. In the around the corner for example you can have whatever pastry your heart desires; but be prepared that it will be filled with chocolate, vanilla cream or other sweet inventions. So I rather stick to Pintxos, meat and fish and leave the sweets a  little on the side. Except one, of course: the Basque Cake.

I first encountered this delicious dessert on a grape picking event near Elorrio. I think that the crispy shortpastry filled with a thick vanilla cream is a wonderful invention. So I decided to bake a Basque Cake today, so that I would be able to take something home from here. Even if it’s just a recipe, I think it is a nice idea of bringing other cultures into your own. It was pretty difficult to make it and I had my doubts about it. But eventually the Cake has come out quite nice and I’m proud of myself for having made the first Basque Cake in my cooking career – hopefully it wasn’t the last!

Share on Facebook

We tend to think that mural painting is a thing of past societies many centuries ago, who didn’t have the options of paper and pencil as we do today. But I think that nowadays the images on our walls still have a lot to tell. So let me take you on a virtual tour around the walls of Arrasate and listen to the stories they have to tell.

Music

“Do you know Sca?” Sca or Ska as we would write it is one of the most popular music genres here in Arrasate. If you go to a bar where Basques like to hang out it is likely that that’s the kind of music you will find playing. Personally I bring this style of music in relation with rebels and revolutionists and I think that suits quite well to a lot of young Basques.

Basque Prisoners

You can find this sign in various forms all around Arrasate and the Basque country. Euskal Presoak significates Basque Prisoners while Euskal Herrira is the Basque expression of Basque Country. The sign stands there for around 700 political prisoners that are behind bars in Spain, France or other prisons outside the Basque Country. A lot of Basques want these people to be transferred to prisons in the Basque Country, as their families then wouldn’t have to travel thousands of kilometres to visit them. President of the Basque Country Patxi Lopez announced these days in an interview with the Basque newspaper El Correo that “it’s time to bring prisoners to prisons near their homes in the Basque Country”. However, this will still have to be sorted out with elected Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Libyan Conflict

This Graffiti next to the “Basque disco” as we call it because there is always typical Basque music playing and a lot of locals inside, is obviously about the conflict of Libya. It suggests that a lot of bloody hands from great nations as the U.S. or the United Kingdom are taking advantage of the difficult situation there. Looking at the writing on the bottom the painters consider the international involvement into the conflict as an imperial strategy and are clearly opposed to it.

Free culture

From outside you wouldn’t guess that in here is done a lot of volunteer work. Every evening of the week one can come here to learn some Basque Culture. On Mondays for example a guy I know teaches Txalaparta – a typical Basque instrument with four sticks that two people let fall on different kinds of woods. On Tuesday there is a Basque dance lesson and so on. The house was once occupied and is now a kind of a culture house where cheap concerts and other events are held.

Independence

This wall painting shows the Basque words of Future and Independence. Most Basques that I have got to know in this time I spend here want to be independent from Spain. While a lot of parties that fought for a Basque independence or self-determination have been prohibited in the past, a newly founded party called Amaiur has achieved seven seats in the Spanish Parliament (there are 350 seats in total) in the recent elections. The painting for me stands for the wish of a lot of Basques to have an independent future.

Back to the Nature

After a long history of industrial production the Basques vehemently try to fight the high speed train that already is in construction in different parts of Spain. The train would allow people to cut travel time in between the bigger cities of the Basque Country more or less by the half. Nevertheless signs and writings of “Stop AHT” (AHT is the Basque abbreviation for High Speed Train, Ez significates No) are to find all over Arrasate. Points of critics are the destruction of nature as well as issues of money: The Spanish and the Basque Governments will pay 4,000 million Euros for the project. The works started in 2006 and are projected to end in 2013 – 2015.

Street signs

One can find many street signs made partly unreadable. It turns out that some Basques scratch out the Spanish writing on street signs and such. So if a non-Basque ever decides to travel in the Basque Country – you better know the Basque names for the cities or you definitely get lost. Here are a few hints: San Sebastian is called Donosti(a), Bilbao is Bilbo and Vitoria is Gasteiz. Not to forget: Mondragon is called Arrasate!

Share on Facebook

Tonight I had a walk trough my favourite park: La Florida in Vitoria-Gasteiz. And it was magical. The sun was going down, the sky was blue and the moon was at the sky. And in the park the mood was Christmasy. There were dolls all over in the park. The dolls were figures out of old story’s and even in a cave with baby Jesus who is called in Spanish niño Gesus.

The statues were lighted and with some you could here music. And because it was the last night of the Belén Monumental de la Florida it was very busy in the park.

Children, elderly and other people were walking, talking and looking at the statues in the park. And the park was beautiful lighted and the mood was greet. I only missed the hot chocolate.

Share on Facebook

Arrasate seems to have a special agreement: To hide Christmas from the people. There are no signs of Christmas trees, Christmas markets or any of these get-yourself-into-christmas-mood-things that usually get on my nerves at home because they tend to remind me that I’ll have to come up with presents still. But this year everything is different; for the first time my family agreed on giving a present just to one member of the six-headed-clan, so I already have a nice idea for mine and am totally relaxed. So I wouldn’t mind some snow to get into the mood already! But as that is quite unlikely I thought I would be happy with some cheesy Christmas decoration around me.. Unfortunately, that is neither the case and there is no Christmas in the air around me whatsoever. However, I was pretty amused when I had to wait for my bus one and a half hour in Bilbao last Saturday and therefore went for a walk in the city. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by hundreds of people doing Christmas shopping, the crowded streets enlighted by blue (!) lights on the trees that turned on and off all the time.. The walk ended perfectly in front of a huge and really artificial Christmas tree, which reminded me that I will be soon sitting in front of our own (real) Christmas tree in our living room – which is always very beautifully decorated by my mother and carries the light of real candles and the scent of real Christmas the way it should be..

Share on Facebook

This weekend I am working both days at eitb.com on the English website. Today, on Sunday it is a quiet day so there is not a lot of work to day unfortunately.

Working is different then I am used to. We work only with news agency’s and don’t write the new ourselves so it is just waiting on the news.

But this is working for me, because I am sitting at my desk for eight hours listening to the Dutch news, looking for interesting news. But with elections in Russia, a lot of soccer and sports, a bomb in Koblenz there is a lot going on in the world. To make my day a bit better I listen to music from Queen. That’s cheering me up.

Share on Facebook

Yesterday night was a fun night. I went to a presentation of a cd. Sometimes that can be boring. The artist gets the first edition of the cd and people clap and maybe the famous artist sings the song title of the cd and then interviews and everybody can go home again.

But this was different. The cd was one with Basque dancing music. So they played a lot of songs (I think every song on the cd because it has 24 songs) but almost every time there were dancers dancing on the music.

The dancers whore the typical Basque clothes and were dancing in different ferities. Boys with girls, only the boys or only the girls. And it was fun!

The Basque music was very happy and the boys and girls were jumping, kicking ( I never saw a boy kick so high) and twirling. A fun show.

Share on Facebook

As Markus is having visitors, I am working the whole weekend for him, which he also did before for me. Anyway, I kind of had my weekend already on Thursday and Friday, as we don’t have class anymore on these days. So after enjoying Pintxo y Pote with Markus, his Swiss friends and a lot of other people from the Basque Country and other parts of the world, we went to San Sebastian on Friday. There, we had a walk into the old part of the city, along the sea and up on the hill, interrupted by various of Donostias delicious Pintxos. Back in Mondragon, we directly went to go shopping for cooking a nice dinner at another Erasmus friends place.

Share on Facebook