Imagine a place called utopia. Being that this is completely subjective, I am sure that mine is different than yours. Then, imagine if all the persons, places, and things fell flat into your lap. This is similar to how I feel about the Basque Country. I didn´t think places like this could exist until I started falling deeper and deeper into it. It could be a person. It could be a place. It could even be a thought.
This time in Bilbò is far different than the past. I am here during the midst of the biggest festival of the year: Aste Nagusia. The streets are full of festivity as the whole city basically shuts down for 10 days to celebrate. Throughout the entire day, it is possible to see an array of different traditional Basque events. My favorite was a parade of Gigantes y Cabezuros. They are these enlarged characters that walk down the street with exaggerated Basque features. Just for fun, they whack away at the population with a strange balloon thing and everyone is running around the city frantically.
The Basque Country is known for its punk influence. Nearly the whole population is into punk music or at least aware of it. It seems to go hand-in-hand with the separatist movement. It is rather normal to see 50 year old women with hair dyed pink, red, or blue. It is also a given that all of the bars here will be blasting punk music throughout the night. During the festival, there are shows going on in the streets. The shows are far more than just music, but they are used as weapons for the movement.
It wouldn´t be an official Basque experience without a run-in with Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). The internationally recognized terrorist group has been active since the time of Franco in seeking Basque independence. While walking down a small street at the festival, we came across a gang of riot cops. I immediately became excited to see something juicy going down in the streets of Bilbao. There were choppers flying above, and a sense of tension began to become noticeable in the streets. Nothing ended up surfacing, and I later found out that all of the mobilization was due to the posting of posters supportive of ETA prisoners. Apparently, this has become outlawed in Spain. Not exactly a valid reason (in my book) to send a squadron of stormtrooper-dressed characters down a crowded street during the middle of a festival.
Finally, I was lucky enough to be in town during a match of Athletic Club Bilbao. They are my favorite futbol club in Europe because of their philosophy. They will only draw local players from the Basque Country. This is something that is extremely rare in any professional sports of today. Instead of giving into to the spectacle of franchise players and absurd salaries, they take pride in the place they are from and the people that support them. Major League Baseball should take some notes. On an important side note, we won the match 3-2. Aupa!
This time in Bilbò is far different than the past. I am here during the midst of the biggest festival of the year: Aste Nagusia. The streets are full of festivity as the whole city basically shuts down for 10 days to celebrate. Throughout the entire day, it is possible to see an array of different traditional Basque events. My favorite was a parade of Gigantes y Cabezuros. They are these enlarged characters that walk down the street with exaggerated Basque features. Just for fun, they whack away at the population with a strange balloon thing and everyone is running around the city frantically.
The Basque Country is known for its punk influence. Nearly the whole population is into punk music or at least aware of it. It seems to go hand-in-hand with the separatist movement. It is rather normal to see 50 year old women with hair dyed pink, red, or blue. It is also a given that all of the bars here will be blasting punk music throughout the night. During the festival, there are shows going on in the streets. The shows are far more than just music, but they are used as weapons for the movement.
It wouldn´t be an official Basque experience without a run-in with Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). The internationally recognized terrorist group has been active since the time of Franco in seeking Basque independence. While walking down a small street at the festival, we came across a gang of riot cops. I immediately became excited to see something juicy going down in the streets of Bilbao. There were choppers flying above, and a sense of tension began to become noticeable in the streets. Nothing ended up surfacing, and I later found out that all of the mobilization was due to the posting of posters supportive of ETA prisoners. Apparently, this has become outlawed in Spain. Not exactly a valid reason (in my book) to send a squadron of stormtrooper-dressed characters down a crowded street during the middle of a festival.
Finally, I was lucky enough to be in town during a match of Athletic Club Bilbao. They are my favorite futbol club in Europe because of their philosophy. They will only draw local players from the Basque Country. This is something that is extremely rare in any professional sports of today. Instead of giving into to the spectacle of franchise players and absurd salaries, they take pride in the place they are from and the people that support them. Major League Baseball should take some notes. On an important side note, we won the match 3-2. Aupa!
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