Blogs from Basque Country, Spain, Europe
May 18th 2012
Friday This blog started as a diary to a semi-credible trip spanning several months – just the completion of the journey dictating its duration, rather than a few snatched weeks in the holiday schedule of someone stuck in more regular employ. It even had a credible strapline – “From the Fjords of Norway to the Sahara”. Still my abortive attempt at trying to limbo dance under a wire across a road whilst on the bike in Switzerland put a swift end to that. A painful, 3 hour ride on the bike back to hospital in Innsbruck, via Italy, and a couple of X-rays and CT scans later, and I was covered in more plaster than St Paul’s Cathedral. And that was that. A brief second abortive attempt to make North Africa the following Spring (after limbs ... read more
March 12th 2012
Our first trip by bus saw us cross the Spanish border. We left Biarritz about midday and travelled a winding route close the coast south towards the border. The views of the sea were beautiful. San Sebastian is a port town with a lot of history. We arrived at the bus station in the newer part of town and walked parallel to the river into the old part, where our hostel was located. The old town, on a peninsula below a mountain with a huge statue of Christ overlooking the whole city, is all narrow lanes arranged in a grid. There is an impressive central square, Constitution Plaza, in the centre. The old harbour is set into the side of the broad bay which has sweeping crescent beaches and a high wall which goes all the ... read more
Las campas de Urbía y las sombras del Aizkorri --- Urbía prairies and the shadows of Aizkorri
Published: January 29th 2012Europe » Spain » Basque Country » Guipuzcoa
January 29th 2012
SEE TEXT IN ENGLISH BELOW 28 de julio 2011 Fue un día de lo más aprovechado. Nos dio tiempo a hacer practicamente todo lo que habíamos planeado. El día antes me recogieron Marie y las chicas. Habían venido a pasar el día a Burgos, y a eso de las 8 pasadas tomamos la carretera rumbo a Zarautz, donde estaban pasando unos días. Llegamos un poco tarde a la casa de Zarautz, pues no tomamos en Vitoria la salida correcta. La casa estaba en el mismo centro de Zarautz, muy cerca de la playa. Ésta es la playa más grande de todo el País Vasco, y una de las más concurridas. Esto es así desde que la reina Isabel II empezó a veranear en el siglo XIX. Siguiendo a la reina Isabel, veraneó también la reina Maria ... read more
Navidades en Donosti, Christmas at home in San Sebastian, Noel Bayrami memleketimde
Published: January 11th 2012Europe » Spain » Basque Country » San Sebastián
The Basque Region - Spanish, Gallego and now Euskera!
Published: December 30th 2011Europe » Spain » Basque Country » Bilbao
December 30th 2011
Pais Vasco – Bilbao We arrived to Bilbao with little time to spare before the rental car was due. We ended up having to return it at the airport since it was a holiday but when we got there we asked if we had time to fill up the gas tank and where we could find a gas station. She was very kind and said we could return the car at the other location in the city, which worked out way better for us getting to our hotel and not being charged an arm and a leg for gas. When we finally made it to town much later than anticipated, we still had a bit of a walk to our hotel. Luckily that nice woman had given us a downtown map. It was a rather lengthy ... read more
November 2nd 2011
Editor's note: this post is late due to limited wireless access at the end of our trip. My apologies... Well this is it, folks. We have come to the end of our journey. Before I start into the final few days, on behalf of the Choral Project, I would like to thank all of our supporters, financial, spiritual, and emotional. Without you, this trip would not have been possible, and we are all grateful. On the morng of the 31st, we rose early to rehearse for the last time prior to competing. We spent a bit over 2 hours working on ironing out the last few kinks in the music. We wanted every piece to be better than it had been before. After rehearsal, we adjourned to the hotel for lunch and a brief rest before ... read more
November 1st 2011
This morning, we woke up and found that only three people from our group could attend the closing ceremonies for the Tolosa Festival, so we took a vote and decided to just come directly to Bilbao. Our hotel, Hotel Hesperia, is really quite nice. It’s another contemporary space. Very clean and nicely appointed. And FREE WiFi that works! Since we arrived early, we got an earlier admittance into the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. The same guy who designed the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles designed the building. It’s really cool. There is a statue of a slightly abstract spider outside. The spider is thirty feet tall, created by a lady named Louise Bourgeois. On the audio tour thingy, it said that she named the spider “Maman” (Mommy) because she saw her ailing mother in the same ... read more
October 31st 2011
Tolosa, Spain. Monday, October 31, 2011. We woke today with butterflies in our tummies. We had breakfast and a last rehearsal before the competition. We took lunch in the hotel, went to our rooms for a little rest and preparation before heading into Tolosa. We got there and almost immediately went in for our warm-up, which was a 15-minute event to touch each piece to make sure of sound and where we are standing. Then there was a lot of waiting. Hurry up and wait. The polyphony round was first. We sang Karimatanu Kuicha (Ko Matsushita), Sanctus Benedictus (Josep Vila), Kyrie (Tomas Luis de Victoria), Irish Blessing (Daniel Hughes), and finally Veni (Knut Nystedt). I feel that we did well. There was some more waiting and then we went in for the Folklore round. We sang ... read more
October 31st 2011
This weekend I went to San Sebastian with my friends Leslie and Ally. We took a night bus from Barcelona to San Sebastian and arrived in San Sebastian at 6:10 A.M. after driving over 7 hours. San Sebastian was a beautiful city with amazing views of the beach from the two hills in the bay: Mount Urgull and Mount Igueldo. When we arrived in San Sebastian we immediately made our way from the bus stop to the beach in the pitch black morning. We couldn't check into our hostel until noon so we decided to hang out on the beach and explore the city. We first walked to the river that empties into the Atlantic Ocean as daylight began to peer from behind the Pyrenees Mountains. Afterwards we hiked up Mount Urgull. We were amazed with ... read more
October 30th 2011
The Choral Festival here has booked us in outreach concerts all around the area. Sadly, two of these are somewhat far flung. Last afternoon, we boarded the bus for a 2.5 hour ride to Polanco, a little hillside town (population 5500) almost directly west of here. On arrival, we had a quick rehearsal. In the church where we were to perform (originally a Roman temple, now restored after a fire during the Spanish Civil War). From there we walked over to the City Hall, where the vice mayor welcomed us to the town and presented us with some small gifts to commemorate our visit. As it turned out, we were the final performers in their annual choral concert series. When we got back into the church, the local choir had performed a few pieces, and the ... read more
