Herri Feats

I recently happened on a neighborhood festa. Each city/town has its own festival, but many individual neighborhoods also have their own separate ones. These affairs usually involve rides, food, live music, and demonstrations. This demo featured several herri kirolak txapeldunak-or country sports champions. This one is aizkolari-the guy chops notches in a log, inserts boards in the notches, climbs up the log on the boards, and chops from the top down, all within a very short period of time. Sounds boring/is actually surprisingly suspenseful.

 People gamble on some of these events, though this one was just for show.

In this event, people compete to see who can pitch a bale of hay the highest.

There are several different variations in which the guy has to lift a big stone, or several guys lift something heavy and cart it around within a specific time period. There is usually a very animated announcer.

Jai Eguna

The magnificent, ear-splitting, rain-soaked, debauched parade of inventive homemade floats, drunken street-dancing, brass bands and costumes of questionable ethnic stereotypes that is carnaval came around a couple weeks ago. Here is our report, from Tolosa.

A group performed a choreographed dance outside their slot machine float.

The "greenhouse" portion of this float contained planter boxes with actual leeks.

Jaunty 18-19th century brass music will make even the soggiest heart cheer.

A 'priest' blesses the throngs with a toilet brush.

Some of these floats are liveable.

Fly the friendly skies.

It is traditional to dress up your balcony with colored sheets and balloons.

Biergarten

Can never have enough brass.

I don't even know.

Smurfs are quite popular.

A Tuna (not the fish).

Trojan horse

Tolosa Carnaval

Just in case.

The Orangemobile, alas, is not self-propelling.

The original Vikings could have been even more successful if they had waterproofed their ship. And had PacMan on board.

What does the fox say? This group also had some choreography.

FarmBorns

Animal behbeh time! When I was a kid, I waited for my NatGeo Worlds with breathless anticipation in part because of the ZooBorns section. Since the function of the internet is to propagate cute animal pics, I suppose we must all do our part. There are lambs everyeverywhere right now. Alas, I did not get a photo of the 7 perfect piglets, better than Pig Mania! and kitten-like, or the hysterically bawling little goats, but well. You likely have your limits. 

Ardi beltz! (Black sheep!)

I have an inexplicably large number of sparrow-MMA-in-the-rain pics.

#catholickingsmademedoit: make my own bagels. With non-kosher sea salt. What next? Potato latkes for the whole parrish, you say?

Baaa!

PAUNCH™ by Adarraga

From

http://www.fotolog.com/edermac/35536303/

 Today I was included in a luncheon that finished with this phantasmagoria here on the left, the Adarraga cake. Near as I can tell, it originated from a bakery in the nearby town of Hernani, and it is specific to this area. Each of those squares is a brick of puff pastry that is baked, brushed with honey, spackled generously with vanilla pastry cream and on the top, ON THE TOP, that squiggly part, IS BUTTER. No pretense of frosting or nothing. A sweet cream butter that is whipped and piped on straight up. IT IS RIDICULOUS. This cake has its own Facebook page. No matter that I was finally, with the aid of my walking shoes, starting to recover from almond paste intoxication. Those packets on the left? If you see one? Eat it. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, just eat it. Chocolate-covered marzapan-like an almond joy, but just more. Bwa. Sugar fast...starting tomorrow. This time, for real.

Salamankan

Salamanca is a 5-6-hour train ride away from us. The city has been a major university center since the 1100s, with theology (Catholic, seeing as how there is no other kind...) and law being the main attractions. Today, it is a popular destination for foreigners seeking to learn Spanish.

These extremely detailed sandstone carvings are everywhere. This one is at one of the entrances to the Plaza Mayor. I suggest clicking on the photos to get a better idea of the extremely detailed nature of these works.

Salamanca, like much of Castille, is all about the pig. Ham legs and cured meats of all kinds are everywhere, and in every food. Given the quite blunt statements that we heard on our cathedral tour (in perfectly clear, easy-to-follow Castilian Spanish) about the unvarnished good of the Muslim expulsion (over 500 years ago), the casual observer would almost look at the extreme concentration of pork goods as a talisman against the non-pig-eating brethren who used to be here...

Detail from what was the old university library, which is now a public library.

A plateresque facade at the university. It is a fairly over-the-top experience to look at this in real life. I couldn't guess how long it took to make. Among all of this, you are supposed to find a carved frog atop a skull. Originally intended to symbolize the deadly sin of lust, it is now supposed to bring you luck to find it.

The lower section of the facade.

Ok, here's the frog. There are people all over the place hawking toy frog souvenirs. There's some statement about the modern world in here I suppose. Being a UNESCO world heritage site, Salamanca is not just a tourist trap-it's a swirling tourist vortex. I've never seen anything like it.

Back when going to college was a bigger deal, students at the university had to defend their licenciatura (kind of like a bachelor's degree, but usually longer) in a doctoral defense-like ordeal. The people who passed had their names chalked on the walls, and you can still see some of the writing.

A statue of Fray Luis de León in front of the university facade. The friar was a poet and a scholar.

On winter nights, the fog comes down over Castilla and freezes, which gives everything a sculptural quality, and it doesn't disperse until the clear, cloudless afternoon, the light of which favors all this sandstone stuff. Although there wasn't any precipitation (there rarely is), the weather this time of year is fairly unpleasant and clingy. I recommend long johns and wool, lots of wool.

I'm going to admit that I lost track of all the different churches.

A Roman-era bridge that brought people from the Silver Route into the city. People from Salamanca are Salamantines. The city was, at one time, called Helmantica and was populated by Celts.

A view of the main cathedral of Salamanca. We took an exhaustive tour of the 30 or so private chapels, the chambers around the outside of the cathedral, the choir area, and the towers. It was a very special privilege to see all of the art up in there. Check out the link if you are so inclined.

 

From the cathedral tower.

It's all about inspiring awe, folks.

 

Why yes, there were some gargoyles.

 

There is one of these guys between every. single. arch in the Plaza Mayor. This is Cervantes.

Plaza Mayor. I do mean every single arch.

If you don't eat Iberian ham now, when will you?