Sunday was the annual Ibilaldia festival in the province of Biscay (the province I live in). Ibiladi means 'walk' in Basque, and the Ibilaldia festival is to celebrate Basque culture and raise money to help preserve the basque language (the money goes to the basque foundations and schools in the basque country). Every year all four of the provinces in the Basque country have a festival equivalent to Ibilalbia in a different town. This year, Biscay's festival was in Galdakoa. When we (Eva, Marta, Cecilia, Itxaso, Iker, Emmanuel, Javi and I) arrived in Galdakoa we were given a map that directs you on the walk around the town. (I'm not sure how long the walk is...10 or 12 km I would guess.) As you walk, there are places to stop, enjoy food, booze, concerts, and small parades - all in Basque fashion. At Ibilaldia everything is Basque. The bands sing in Basque, the food is only traditional Basque food, the booze everyone is drinking is kalimotxo (a coke and red wine mix), and all the signs are in Basque. I learnt an important new Basque phrase "eskerrik asko" which means thank you very much.
In the afternoon, our group of eight met up with Andrea, Bizbal, Iker, and Ricardo and later Jontxu and his friends. We enjoyed some really good music - even though I couldn't understand any of the lyrics, I enjoyed the music itself. One stage was playing 'popular' english music translated into basque which was horrible. If you thought listening to 'achy breaky heart' in english is bad, you should hear it in Basque! I tried taloak for the first time (basque chorizo in a basque flat bread), and drank kalimotxo like a true Basca! The strangest thing about the festival is that you couldn't buy or find water - only booze. But, walking around in +28 and drinking coke with wine made me want water. I had to walk up a giant hill to find a garden hose to get water! Maybe water isn't traditionally Basque.
It was an excellent weekend! And it has been confirmed, I need stronger sunscreen here.
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
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