Snap and Scribble

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This is part two of the story of my life in Basque Country, in 1984. Part one is here…

I had a great time, living in Vitoria, during the summer of 1984. The Basques in general are among the friendliest and most interesting people i’ve come across during rather a lot of international travelling. They’re all very political – and, mostly, make British people, for example, look ultra-conservative (which i suppose they are, really, anyway).

According to a book i’m in the middle of reading at the moment (a review will come later), British people are mostly descended from the Basques – if you go back enough centuries, that is. But i don’t know what happened along the way, because the British are mostly like sheep, whereas the Basques don’t tolerate being pushed around at all.

Anyway, i made a few friends and quite a few acquaintances during my stay in Vitoria – although, sadly, i haven’t managed to keep in touch with any of them. I went out pretty much every night to “dar un paseo” or three. “Dar un paseo” literally means “go for a walk” but, as far as i remember, it was used to refer to the slow wander from bar to bar – mostly along Calle Cuchilleria and Calle Zapateria  (two narrow streets in the old part of town, where i lived).

In the day time, sometimes a few of us would drive out of town to the pantano (reservoir), which was a few kilometres away, along the road through Gamarra. The pantano was a popular swimming spot for young people from Vitoria. Most people swam naked – which surprised me in a way, as British people would never have dreamt of doing that.

While i lived there i went to several of the fiestas which are big annual events in all the towns of that region. These fiestas usually ran for about three days, during which time the whole town – and people from miles around, too – filled the streets with one massive party. There were always txoznas (stalls selling food, drink, etc) set up in a park, stages with bands playing, and people drinking kalimotxo (pronounced kalimotcho).

Kalimotxo is a mixture of wine and coca-cola, usually drunk from a litre or so plastic jug, which is shared between friends in the streets. It’s the only time i’ve ever seen Basque people drinking alcohol from anything larger than a small tumbler – and the only time you ever saw anyone drinking on the street. You’d hear shouts of “kalimotxo!” constantly during the fiestas – it seemed to have an almost mystical significance. People didn’t generally drink it at any other time, as far as i could tell.

Two bands i remember seeing at the fiesta in Vitoria were Radio Futura and Hertzainak – there were others, but i can’t remember who they were. Radio Futura were a sort of slightly punky, slightly ska-influenced, “latin rock” band.  “Hertzainak” is the Basque word for “police”, and they were a very popular local punk band. They came from Vitoria, i believe. I bought LPs by both bands while i was there – but they were stolen from a house in Sydney four or five years later.

As well as the fiesta in Vitoria, i went to the Bilbao fiesta, the fiesta in Gernika (aka “Guernica”), and the fiesta in Donosti (aka “San Sebastian”). The Donosti fiesta was the first time i ever saw a proper large-scale fireworks display – this one took place over the beautiful curved beach. I’ve seen loads since then – mostly in Brisbane, which must be the world capital of firework displays as there seems to be one most weekends there!

I can’t remember the name of the guy who drove us to Donosti that day, but i think his girlfriend’s name was Inez. Anyway, when we went back to the car to leave, we found we’d been parked in – there were only small gaps between our car and the ones in front and behind. The guy who was driving was mildly pissed off, but not too concerned. We all got in and he just drove hard backwards and forwards until he’d bumped the other cars out of the way enough to get out. It still makes me laugh to think about it!

This is part two of this story – part three will be along soon…

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