Lierganes

Last weekend, for my B-day, Inaki and I took a night away in the quaint town of Lierganes. It's in the region of Cantabria and my love affair with the area continues to be hot and heavy. They were holding a fall festival and I've been missing the feeling of fall in pdx and Halloween, so we went to check it out. We stayed in an adorable B and B in the center of the 800 resident village. The view from our room was of the "Tetas" a pair of nubbins on top of the mountain behind the town. Tetas means tits in English and this picture will explain why they are called as such...

We asked the receptionist about hiking up there and every time she said "tetas" we couldn't help but snicker a little. We planned to cruise up the next day and walked around the fall festival for the rest of the evening. They had some booths with local goods, some traditional dancing and even a Roman era bridge.

While at the bridge, we discovered a metal statue of a man sitting on a rock. Apparently he is called "fish-man" and is part of a legend in the town. Ages ago there was a young boy who lived in Lierganes and loved to swim. One day, the river caught him and swept him away from town, down stream. No one heard from him again. Years later, some fishermen off the coast of Cadiz (one of the southern most cities in Spain) found something rather large caught in their net. When they pulled the net out of the water, they discovered it was a man... sort of. His skin was scaly, his feet and hands were webbed and he had something that looked like gills growing out of his neck. He was barely alive and by the time the fishermen got him to a hospital, he was on his last legs. With his dying breath he whispered the word "Lierganes" and the townspeople believe he was the boy who had been swept away so many years ago. Pretty cool.

That night we drank some local beers and ate mexican food, which is rare in Spain. It was great.

The next day, we were eating by 9, checking out by 1030 and on the road up to the tetas by 11. We heard that a few restaurants were doing a "mountain man" lunch and we wanted to be sure to be back for that. Here are a few photos on the way up.

It was a great hike and the views from the top were fantastic. I mean, I guess you could call it a hike, but it was mostly on a paved road. Here's the view. Off to the right of the 2nd pic, you can actually see the Cantabrian Sea.

We practically rolled down the mountain to get to that mountain man lunch. It was only semi worth it. The meal started with callos and jija. I have been able to escape callos (intestines) for the most part and decided to be a mountain man about it and dig in. I ate my half, but had an upset stomach on the way home just thinking about the fact that there were intestines in my intestines. The jija was yummy! Ground chorizo to be eaten with bread. It made for some crazy-stinky burps though and Inaki started yelling out "jija!" (pronounced: hee-ha) every time one escaped him. We thought it was hilarious.

The next plate was fabulous, mountain man stew. It was made of white beans, various veggies and spices, and all the sacraments: morcilla, chorizo and ham. Sososososossoso good!

The rest of the meal isn't even worth showing, but the first 2 courses were great, minus the tripe.

So, my b-day weekend was faba-daba-do, thanks to my sweet husby and all the love from friends and fam. Thanks guys!

San Fermin: Family style

The 6th of July, 2013. Inaki and I had been prepping for this day for almost 8 months. We'd been talking it up to my family for the last 7 years. It had to be good. Last year, I had my 24 hour goal, which I completed. This year the goal was to show my family the best damn time possible... without killing them. However, we almost made the 24 hour goal, purely by accident! Paco and Dori came through big time with some extra special touches that tourists just don't get to experience and 2013 San Fermines were my favorite ever!

The day began at 8 am. I woke everyone up with the Riau Riau, but they took a while to stir and get the heck out of bed. For me, at this point, the 6th is pretty close to Christmas Day. I can't wait to get up and open my presents (which are usually filled with large cocktails)! Everyone rolled out of their rooms, got some coffee and I went to the store to buy 10 baguettes. Stage #5 is not an option on the chupinazo. Moncho and Inaki whipped up some magras (which is slow cooked tomato sauce and ham), fried eggs, chistorra and I cut up the bread and popped a bottle of wine.

By 10, we were well fed and and ready to hit the town. We road up on the bus and went to the opening ceremonies pretty quickly. Whitney, Steve, Moncho and Inaki went into the crowd and mom, dad and I stayed on the outskirts. The crowd folks got doused with wine and got to see the 15 minute delay due to the basque flag being strung up as a political statement.

The outside the crowders were pushed back a few times by garbage dumpsters and tried not to get pinned to pillars. What is the deal? I have the worst luck when I'm in the action at the chupinazo.

We all met at the designated spot afterwards and the attitudes were all good, just some less sober than others. Mom, dad and I had to catch up, so we started on the bota bag. Shortly after, we decided they should get a new bota bag because that one was from the 70's and the plastic inside clearly wasn't holding up.

We cruised down Calle Estafeta to meet up with Dori and Lurdes. Lurdes owns and runs a bakery on Estafeta and makes the best baked goods in the city, especially the garrotes! A lot of the local business owners on the street close down for the morning of the 6th and go have a party together in one of the shops. We were so lucky to be invited to delicious snacks, cava and dancing.

We said our thank yous and went out on the street again, to take in some of the sights. As you can see in the 2nd picture here, people were so soaked in wine and hot that they begged for water from the apartments above. The party-goers obliged!

We stopped in at the Cafe Iruna, the Hemingway bar, and danced cheek to cheek with pretty much everyone else there. This is where my family learned what a katxi is, a plastic cup with around 32 ounces of whatever beverage is poured into it. Moncho and I bought a beer and a kalimotxo (ice cold red wine and coke) and the kalimotxo was definitely the preference! Everyone was skeptical, but now they're all converts!

It was about 1:30pm by that time and we started to inch home for a delicious lunch that Paco made for us. On the way we had to stop for a few more katxis of kalimotxo and some rest. Whitney busted out her money belt to add some money to the pot and found that her bullfight tickets had been torn in half from being soaked during the chupinazo! We were able to tape them back together, thank goodness.

We had lunch, about an hour nap and off we went to the bullfight at around 5. I woke up so grumpy. I now know that a nap is not the way for me to go during San Fermines. I just have to power through.

Paco got us just about the best seats ever for the bullfight. And, it wasn't just a bullfight, it was the Rejones, pronounced re-ho-ness. The bulls are fought on horseback! I'm not a person who is pro-bullfight, but I did learn some interesting things about how they score them and how you know the good from the bad this year. One piece of information that I found really interesting is that this breed of bull would be extinct if they weren't bred for bullfights. They are so angry and want to fight all the time, so they're good for nothing else. Also, the meat is used and even labeled with the bull's name in the butcher shop. Regardless, I hate seeing them die. Now, I will back right back down and off this road of politics and show you some pretty pictures from the fight.

At around 8, we walked out into the evening sun and made our way to an eating society where Paco had invited us for the evening. We passed through town and stopped at another society on the way and got some sorbette (lemon sorbette blended with cava). I'll talk about at least 3 societies over the course of the trip and they are all invite only places. Paco was a rockstar to get us into all of them!

We hung out a bit too long and had to hustle down to the next eating society. We were walking through the crowded streets and drunk teenager stumbled out of a bar in front of us. He fixed his eyes on dad and had to re-focus them a few times. As dad passed in front of him, the guy yelled, "Hemingway!" He turned to his buddy and pointed at dad again and said, "Hemingway!" The buddy nodded enthusiastically and the two friends sandwiched dad and jumped down the street with him yelling "He-ming-way! He-ming-way!" I let it happen for a while and then pulled dad free. It was so funny! Although, at the time, we weren't sure if there was going to be some kind of hazing that went along with it.

By 10, we were in the next eating society and sitting down to a huge, delicious meal, that we weren't hungry for at all. We had shrimp, white asparagus and calamari to start. Then came the whole roasted pig. Dad even got a kidney in his! Sorbete, coffee and cocktails for dessert. This society was pretty cool. It was a space that a few guys rented that had a bar, an industrial kitchen, a meeting room and a fronton court. Awesome!

Cocktails in hand, we danced the evening away.

At 3 am, we headed back home and tucked ourselves in. It was a long and great first day with 3 more to come. What a fabulous time!

Letting the dust settle

It has been such a busy summer that I have completely neglected blogging. Mom, dad, Whit and Steve were here, then we were in Oregon and now back and readjusted to Spanish life. I have been loving my work schedule with 2-3 classes a day. I have so much more patience with the little kids that it's actually been nice to be around them. I have time to focus on the needs of my students and put effort into lessons while still getting a workout in and making a proper lunch.

Those days are going bye-bye on Monday when the reality of 5-6 class days steamroll over my now mellow lifestyle. Although, this year has been easier so far, just because it's my 2nd year and I "get it" a little more. Knock on wood that the experience from last year will continue to come in handy. Regardless, I think this is a good time to reflect on some of the wonderful memories we made this summer and bask in them while I still can.

The folks, sis and her sig. other flew into town at the beginning of July. Inaki, Whit, Steve and I got to spend a few days together before mom and dad got in. We ate pintxos and ripped Steve's veggie band-aid off on night #1! We also got in a camino phase and visited San Sebastian.

Night #1 - Pintxos and sidra in Pamplona

Day #2 - San Sebastian visit

Day #3 - Work off the pintxos with a 12 mile camino phase

Looking at these pictures, I can't believe that was only 3 days worth of stuff! The next day, Inaki and I headed to Madrid to pick up mom and dad. We realized that telling them we'd pick them up was a bad decision because it meant 8 hours of driving for Inaki. We'll recalculate next time. We got home to a lovely lunch of orzo salad, bread and cheese, whipped up by Whit and Steve. The full house began with full bellies and one of the best aspects of Spanish life: day drinking.

We strolled through the cobblestone streets of Pamplona again that night, met with family, saw the bulls in their corral and got in early for a good snooze. The next morning we popped up for a hike/walk into the valley behind our condo, a visit to Eunate (a hexagonal church on the camino) dinner at Inaki's mom's house and a chance meeting with a zip-line.

Pamplona time

Valley of Aranguren

Eunate

Dinner at Dori's

Zip-line Dad

And on that note, we cruised home and tucked ourselves in for the fabulous times that awaited us the next day... the first day of San Fermin! Although I saw much more daylight than I usually do during San Fermines this year, it was definitely my favorite year so far. To be able to share it all with my family and show them what I've been talking about for the last 8 years was just priceless! So priceless that it will need it's own post later on!