Greba Orokorra

Yesterday marked the second general strike in the Basque Country this year. It was called by a consortium of local unions. Although the news said that "no more than 70%" of employees chose to strike, it sure felt like everyone was out in the street. This demonstration in Donosti coincided with the annual international film festival, which was probably kind of a shock to the visitors. There were calls to reign in some of the budget cuts, (closed) banks were treated to accusations of "thieves! thieves!" There were rousing speeches by different union representatives in Basque and Spanish. There were blunt calls for independence, and singing. The protesters remained pretty focused, although some people protested in their underpants, and there were a few keffiyeh kids-by which I mean folks who display all their political sentiments at once, like a fashion of sorts. Since everything was closed, there were ample opportunities to socialize in the park and wander the 10 kilometers or so back over the hills to our apartment.

El meu aerolliscador està ple d'anguiles

We went to Catalonia last weekend to attend a wedding between a Basque man and a woman from Extremadura. The title phrase means "My hovercraft is full of eels" in Catalan, which I found on a website of useful Catalan phrases. "Useful" is clearly in the eye of the beholder, but we certainly heard lots of people speaking Catalan, and nearly all posted text was exclusively in that language. Our trip was sandwiched right in between last week's September 11th National Day and a massive public transit worker strike. There were between half a million and 1.5 million people, depending on who you ask, marching in Barcelona in support of an independent Catalan state. The picture at right is from Reuters. Catalan is sort of a mix between Spanish, Italian, and French. I would feel for a moment like I could understand what I heard and then realize oh no, never mind. Something like 10 million people speak the language and it has a very strong presence in its territory. The Catalan independence movement has long been spurred on by linguistic concerns, but has become more popular since Spain's economic crisis has caused massive employment and draconian social service cuts in Catalonia, which paradoxically has less autonomous control over its public administration and tax structure than the smaller Basque Country, which is closely eyeing the goings on, along with other places like Ireland and Scotland that have independence movements of their own. In terms of our actual trip, we stayed in a gorgeous converted farmhouse and enjoyed a pretty boisterous get together. In between, we very briefly walked around Banyoles, Girona, Borrasa, and Barcelona, and hope to spend more time in the area on another day. You can see that it's pretty pleasant from the pics below. 

Sycamore alley in Banyoles

Plaza in Barcelona

Apartments along a canal in Girona

Flags supporting an independent Catalan republic in Girona

Stateside

Beavers! Foiled again. At home in the Adirondacks.

Brooklyn Bridge

Green Mountains, Vermont

A garden at Hildene.

The very lovely Hildene, summer estate of Robert Lincoln, in Vermont.

Liberty is so far away.

A 'mander with a harbinger of fall in the Adirondacks.

Those iconoclastic Vermonters at the Northshire Bookstore

Vermont hardwoods