About two weeks ago (March 1-3) I attended my first Sidrería and visited my first Basque city other than Vitoria, San Sebastián. And I casually went to France.
Let's start the pictures!
Well, before the pictures, let me explain a little about the Sidrería. Sidra, or cider, is the Basque tradition of fermenting apples around the springtime (february-april) to create this strangely bitter alcoholic beverage. I am not particularly a fan of it. But a sidrería is when people from all over get together at a sagardotegi (a cider house) to eat and drink for several hours. It is quite an event as there are various barrels of sidra that are all different and you taste every. single. one. When it comes time to taste the sidra, the owner of the cider house yells out "txotx" pronounced "choss." Don't quote me on that, by the way. But when this is yelled out, everyone rushes to whatever barrel he just opened and grabs a sample of the sidra.
Now the pictures!
I went to the sidrería with Laura and about 40 of her workmates from the hospital. And let me tell you, doctors and nurses can party. Like I have never seen. This lovely gentleman above was a part of our group and sang all night and entertained everyone there with us. The man in the back in the beret (txapela in euskerra, pronounced "chapela") owns the cider house and was the one to yell txotx!
The sidra is kept in barrels like this one, and there were many more varieties in the silver containers. This area was all under ground.
Our group singing and drinking.
This is a little embarrassing as I am obviously devoid of grace but this is what you do when you go to taste the sidra. You hold your glass down at the bottom of the stream and bring it up towards the barrel allowing the sidra to be aerated.
Our group singing
Part of our group! Laura (my host mom!) is in the blue.
And I met some new people along the way! One from Mexico and the other from San Sebastián.
When you think you haven't had a lot of sidra, you then take a picture like this to prove otherwise.
Our bus at 1am was still awake and ready to go!
Early the next morning (8am) after the sidrería I got on a bus to meet my friends in San Sebastián or Donostia in Euskerra. Iban's family (our new spanish friend) lives in a small village near San Sebastián and he invited us there for the weekend. It was nothing short of incredible.
After Jessica, Zinaida, and Iban's mom picked me up at the bus station we visited Playa de la Concha, the main attraction in San Sebastián.
Jessica (blonde) is from the Czech Republic and Zinaida (purple) is from Moldova!
There isn't much to explain about the next photos as you can clearly see how beautiful this place is!
The sculptures in the back are called El Peine del Viente or Wind Comb. They were created by Eduardo Chillida. The stones we are standing on are actually syphons that spout water when the tide comes in. And this is the pose we made after Iban's mom told us "más divertido!" "more fun!"
Zinaida
Group shot
Jessica
It was a very, very long ways down.
Sadly, I do not have any pictures of the rest of the day or the next day because I switched to my film camera. But I do have a few from Zinaida!Iban lives in an incredibly beautiful village called Oiartzun about 15-20 mins from San Sebastián. His family lives on a small farm and we got to see (and hear) sheep all weekend!
We also enjoyed the sunny weather (a change from Vitoria) on his patio overlooking the village.
Oiartzun looks likes this (via my friends at Google):
Our last day we hopped the border to France (only about 15 minutes away) and visited the beach town of Hendaya.
Iban, Myself, Jessica, Zinaida, and dog.
Hendaya looks like this (also from my friends at Google)!
That's all for San Sebastián and the Sidrería. Up next is my trip to Madrid!
Autumn
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