If France was an 8, Northern (Basque) Spain is a 15. I don't know how to accurately describe the excitement of being here: the food, the language, the scenery, the art/culture, etc...
But I'm going to try.
La Comida (the food)
Pinchos (Pintxos in Basque) are what northern Spain calls tapas. I think we only had one sit down meal the whole time in Pamplona because of these scrumptious tiny dishes. Every bar would be lined with their daily offerings of pinchos and olives, in addition to what they have on their menu. My mouth is watering thinking about what we ate: foie gras with pineapple sauce on toast, fried goat cheese with balsamic reduction and berry sauce, olives in juice of Jamon Iberico, Iberian ham croquette, mushroom soup with poached egg and shoestring potatoes, olive skewer with anchovy and pickled sweet onions, toast with Iberian ham, Veal roast and jus over potato puree, layered eggplant and ham with sweet red pepper sauce and cheese, deboned and roasted pig feet in its juices with foie gras, salad of potatoes and prawns, wok fried chicken and veg, kidney beans with three types of sausages, squid noodles over iberian ham and toast, bright lemon sorbet, carmelized flan.
Did I mention Iberian ham (jamon iberico), foie gras, and olives? By the way, Spain produces almost half of the world's olives.
One word correctly describes the food her: RICH! Good thing the plates are small. We generally got a glass of wine each, along with a pincho to share... until the next glass ... and the next pincho ... and the next. Can you tell I'm smiling right now?!
Spoiler alert for next post: We are in Granada now and word on the street is that their tapas automatically come with any drink ordered. And guess what. THEY'RE FREE!!!
Los Idiomas (The Languages)
France was hard for me. There was a time when I was in a laundromat which was a bit confusing to figure out. Every person that came in started talking to me in French and asking questions. I didn't even know how to say, "Sorry, I don't speak French" (Je ne parle pas Francais). Audra had a different opinion about French. We had coffee with an older married couple in Normandy (Gaston and Maria Therese) and conversation was completely in French. Audra started really remembering her high school French. She loved practicing it.
So we are back to a Spanish speaking country, my comfort zone. While I don't consider myself fluent, my year in Panama helped me become more comfortable in my conversational abilities. I have noticed a few differences between Central American Spanish and Castilian (Spain) Spanish. You go to the bar and get a "caña" instead of a "cerveza" (they'd understand either). Some of their "s" sounds have more of a "th" sound. The world on the door "Hale" (pull) has become "Tirar".
We also noticed a second language in Northern Spain: Basque. You can tell it wasn't Spanish you were reading because of the k's, z's, and x's. I had known about this language before coming here, but Audra thought it resembled maybe a Celtic language (which would make Geographical sense). Basically, the Basque people had lived in the region for thousands of years, separated from the rest of Spain by the Pyrenees. When the Roman Empire came to Spain (and with it, Latin language) they didn't really gain much influence over the Basque region. Because of this, their language is still around and it is one of the few surviving Pre-Indo-European languages.
El Paisaje (The Scenery)
We came into Spain via El Camino de Santiago, where the traditional route is an ancient trail from St. Jean Pied-de-Port in France to Compostella in northwestern Spain. The entire route is about 500 miles long and should take about a month. We didn't have time for the whole thing, so we just did 3 days from St. Jean to Pamplona (around 45 miles). Day 1 of the hike will go down as one of the most unforgettable hikes of my life. It was about 17 miles long and included 4000 ft of elevation gain followed by a descent of around 2000 ft. This was the actual day we crossed over into Spain. Hiking up into the Pyrenees meant we were followed by incredibly beautiful vistas of the southern French countryside. Once on top of the mountain, we encountered a fog/cloud which made the going incredibly spooky and moving. We wandered through fields scattered with unique livestock. We saw sheep (all with curved horns), cows, HUGE pigs, and the most majestic horses ever (reminded us of the horse in Beauty and the Beast). The animals let us get remarkably close to them, which was unavoidable due to the fog limiting our visibility to around 20 feet. Most animals wore bells around their necks, so you knew you were near even when you couldn't see them. My heart is quickening just remembering this part of the hike. So cool.
After Pamplona, we took a bus from there to Granada (about 10 hours directly south). Northern and Southern Spain are mountainous, with a big hilly plain in between. There is farmland everywhere. In the north there is lots of wheat and hay and huge fields of sunflowers. The hay had just been harvested, and hawks and kites were out hunting whatever was using the tall grasses for cover. Southern Spain is completely covered with olive trees as far as the eye can see. I mean we drove for 2 hours and all we saw was olive trees. They are planted in rows, so the passing countryside made really cool patterns. I had never seen an olive tree before this. Mind blown.
El Arte/La Cultura (The Art/The Culture), etc.
Pamplona is famous for the running of the bulls, which takes place during the festivals of San Fermin in Early July. Bull motifs are everywhere, and colors red and black are prevalent. Parts of their old town (Casco antiguo) are surrounded by huge walls. The streets are stone, narrow, and winding. Bottom floors are exclusively for businesses and restaurants while residents live in the top 4 floors or so. It also just has a feel to it. I love the feel of this city. I WILL return.
Audra and I found tickets to an event where "dancers" hang from the top of the wall and dance on the face of the wall. Included in price of admission (15 Euros) you get two drinks and two pinchos. There was a dj playing music before and during the performance. The wall is lit up by a digital projector and two old school projectors. In addition to the three main dancers, the lady in charge of the projectors was also performing. She would paint abstract colors in movements that would mimic the dancers on the wall. A fishbowl with 6 or so goldfish swimming around in it was sitting on one of the projectors for one song. The dancers would sway, bounce, spin, run, crawl, and and hurl themselves around on the wall. It was so creative.