Sept 20-27: hiking, week 2 Spanish, film festival, and art

Sunday hike

Another gorgeous weekend here in San Sebastian.  Drew, Jessica and I set off on a hike from San Sebastian to Pasaia.  We ascended the lush forested trail on Mt Ulia that is part of the Camino del Norte trail system.  I read that this pilgrimage trail originated as an alternative route to the more popular southern French route sometime in the middle ages because of danger to pilgrims during the time of Moorish dominance in northern Spain.   The trail follows the coast.  The views are incredible.  There were people running biking, walking dogs, people of all ages out for exercise.  One guy had twin infants…one in a front pack, one in a backpack.  Everyone says “hola”, or “apa” (not sure how to spell it, but that’s the “sound”…it’s Basque).  I got into a little conversation with a friendly man named Miguel, and we walked together the entire rest of the way.  He spoke to me in Spanish on an array of subjects including the environment…global warming (politics). He told me that though he was born to 2 Basque parents, he never learned to speak it because he was 40 by the time Franco died.  Franco prohibited the Basque language from being spoken (as well as Catalan).  Many children go to Basque language school here, like people go to Hebrew language school in the US.  He pointed to a tangle of greenery and said that this was the way to a

fabulous rocky outcropping that professional photographers liked to use for photo shoots.  He used his cane to knock back the thorny brush for us.  Wow!  It was gorgeous.  We never would have found it without him.  Onward we went…he pointed out a pipe from which spring water flowed.  He said in the old days people would come with big jars to carry the water from here…best water in the whole area.  There were stone ruins that were of unclear significance.  He said that they were left over from a war.  They looked more like little aquaducts.  Miguel was 72, but said he felt 25!  All in all, I figured I caught about 70% of the conversation.  The last bit of the trail into Pasaia was a steep long curved length of stairway.  I was glad to be going down it, and not up it with a backpack, as were the “peregrinos” that we passed.  We said our goodbye’s to Miguel and headed into the Alboala Boat Museum, where I had been the week before.  Drew and Jessica enjoyed the tour for the first time…and I for the second.

Week 2 Spanish

Spanish class…our German girls left and were replaced by a group of 6 Italians.  They, of course, understand everything and I am wondering why several of them are in this class, and not a higher level class.  We lost our delightful teacher Nora, and instead got Angel, who has a more political bent, and is really entertaining.  We got to keep Carolina in the morning.  She is also a very good teacher, very organized and clear.  We are studying preterit indefinido, and preterit perfecto this week.  I did a ton of extra work over the weekend to learn the irregular preterit indefinido verb forms which has totally paid off.  I have learned that this 50yo brain needs more “soaking” time than my 25yo brain needed, to catch on and retain things. 

The 2.25 hour hike from San Sebastian to San Pedro...then hop on little
boat for 70cents to arrive at the adorable village of San Juan.  

Wed

Film festival and commune

The Kursal Cultural Center lit up for film festival

The San Sebastian International Film Festival is in full swing.  The locals doll themselves up to go stand in front of the hotels and theaters where red carpets and barriers separate the throngs from “los famosos.”  The only names I recognized were Denzel Washington, Orlando Bloom, and Antonio Banderas…star watching is not my thing, but it has been entertaining, to watch the locals of all ages out with their friends star hunting.

Throngs of local coming out to see "los famosos"

Wed night we were invited to the Galisteo’s for dinner with their special guest, a movie producer from Poland. She alternated between perfect English and perfect Spanish…she also speaks a handful of other languages.  I was told that in general eastern Europeans have a great capacity for learning new languages.  Hmmm, this intrigues me, I wonder if it is true and if so, why?  OMG, we laughed through the night, and feasted on gullas, bread, red peppers stuffed with bacaloa (cod) in a béchamel sauce, all covered in some kind of flavorful red sauce (Basque).  I brought homemade hummus and a quinoa tabouli salad, both of which they had never tried before (which was my goal, to bring something they were not familiar with).  One of the problems I have here is finding ingredients.  Thanks to Peter, I did find a store called Sentido Comun in Parte Viejo run by a commune called 7 Tribes who believe we are in the last times (based on the dreams of Daniel in the bible).  I can get GF bread, bulk GF muesli, tahini, quinoa, and other hard to find things here.  They give out free kombucha, which I had never tried before.  There is a surprising delightful lush green outdoor patio to be found down stairs with quiet tables.  They invite people to come share a meal together at their commune to get to know them.  They gave me a booklet that lists all the places where they have communities, many of which are in the US and tells a bit about their beliefs, which I have yet to read.  They mostly speak English to each other because people in the community come from all over the world.  From what I could surmise, they try to live as “god” intended prior to the “fall of Eve” in the Garden of Eden. They don’t consider themselves Christians but obviously believe in the biblical God in Genesis, and Daniel.  

Thursday

Art

The school organized an outing to an art exhibit at Kursall (the cultural center here).  We watched a documentary in Spanish with English subtitles on the life of sculptor Chillida (died in 2002), then went to see an exhibit which included an oration by an actor personifying Chillida.  The work itself doesn’t interest me, but the philosophy and manufacturing processes that he had to invent to make his sculptures was pretty interesting.  Even more interesting was the story told by Angel the next day in class.  The story goes that Chillida had a rival who was his contemporary.  Their works greatly resemble each other (ultra modern and abstract metal sculptures).  Each has a sculpture situated on the waterfront, Chillidas at Ondaretta, and the other situated by the aquarium…at opposite ends of the bay.  So even in death they remain rivals, mocking each other from a distance. 

I got a further dose of art when I met up with Ana the director of Tandem after the Chillida event, for our first language exchange.  We visited an art exhibition at a private gallery belonging to her friend.  It was coincidently, immediately across from our new apartment.  When the gallery owner Christina asked my where I was moving to, I simply pointed up at the apartment a few feet away.  So, I have already met a new neighbor!

Friday

Apartamento

After school, we walked to the “Alquiler” agency from whom we are renting our new apartment expecting to be handed the keys, thinking we could do a leisurely weekend move.  The agent had never fully explained the process to us, and we made wrong assumptions as to how the process would work.  It turns out, we have to meet with the owner, demonstrate that the money has been electronically transferred to his account (show proof) and then do final paperwork on Monday at 5pm.  After we left the office and tried to do the electronic transfer we realized we needed more information than just his account number, which was the only thing that the agent gave us; thank goodness we were able to contact her after business hours to obtain the additional information.  Looks like we will have to wait to move till Monday night…and Tuesday after class.  Lesson:  always work in a time buffer.  Writing checks, though a Luddite way to move money, feels so much more concrete and secure than punching a 20 digit account number in your computer and hoping the money goes to the right place. 

Sat

Zumaia/Getaria

zumaia

What a gorgeous day for a little road trip with Ander.  We explored a bit of Zumaia, and Getaria on   These are charming seaside towns to the West of San Sebastian.  Zumaia has protected geological rock formations that give the coast its interesting look.  Tables of uplifted sedimentary rock form sheer rock faces that appear jammed into the sea at 70ish degree angles.  Getaria is small and quaint with a cute little port, home to clusters of little cafes.  This area recently became well known after the best selling movie "Ocho Apellidos Vascos" (making fun of Basque culture) in Spain was filmed here. Prior to that is was best know for it’s two most important native sons.  1.  The famous fashion designer Belenciaga (museum), and 2. Juan Sebastian Elcano, the first explorer to circumnavigate the world.  He took command of a mission to the West Indies at some point after Magellan was killed in the Philippines by native tribesmen.  An interesting bit of trivia is that he was actually arrested prior to Magellen’s death for mutiny and sentenced to death, but was spared by Magellen after 5 months of hard labor.  Based on what I read, Elcano may have had good reason to mutiny in the first place. Only 18 of the original 241 sailors who set out on the voyage actually made it back to Spain.

    I’m beginning to see that most places have the same salad menu: 1. mixed (tuna, corn, egg, potato, an asparagus spear), 2. Russian (tuna/egg- super heavy on the mayo) with other veggies 3. Goat cheese (usually with nuts, sometimes with bacon).  Now and again we find some other salad variation…but whether we go to a cheap restaurant or an expensive one, they typically offer versions of the above salads.  We saw some people dressed in traditional Basque outfits.  Ander explained that when Basque people get married, they often have people dressed in traditional garb dance in front of the church when they exit the church.