Stuck on 'Pause'..

What a long time it has been…. if blogs have a life of their own then I must be horribly guilty of blog neglect. You stop to think a while ... and a while longer ... and then it's as if the 'pause' button has got stuck. Or maybe that's just a blogger's excuse for letting things lie fallow.

Much has happened here in Donostia since July. Amongst other things, the city is presently a contender for the 2016 European Capital of Culture award. The website, which is in English too, is worth visiting if only to watch the 5-minute video. Whilst on the subject of the Town hall webpage, they have an interesting selection of photos related to the city, which can be viewed here.

Back in October there was another very successful edition of the 19th Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, which once again I managed to miss completely (this blog hasn't been the only thing to be neglected in the last few months!). The event drew in 44.157 people, many of whom were very active participants of a kind too since this festival is all about having a good time (Not so good, however, for those who don't like staying up most of the night!). It's curious in fact how enthusiastically people here take to this film festival each year since other events, such as Carnavales, don't seem to hit it off in quite the same way.

One more thing to mention now - there is a project underway, not without a certain degree of controversy, to construct an elevated walkway beneath the cliffs of Monte Ulía, from the esplanade of Sagüés as far as the point of Mompás. In fact the scheme has brought into conflict local, regional and central government authorities as well as dividing opinion locally. It would seem that the project is to go ahead and perhaps, in time, the majority view will be favourable. A similar kind of division amongst Donostiarras was caused when the proposals for the Kursaal Congress Centre were first made public. I am sure that most people here would agree now that, apart from the obvious commercial benefit it has brought, the Kursaal has enhanced the city, both aesthetically and culturally.

Summer is a-cummin in..

Well, it came in a while ago really, at least as far as the calendar is concerned. In Donostia, St John's Eve (June 23rd) is celebrated with fire. It's really rather magical and bonfires, both large and small, are lit in many different places around the city, but especially on the seafront. There is a tradition of jumping through the flames, three times is the recommended 'dosage', in order to secure good health for the coming year, say goodbye to the ills and woes of the previous year, and so on. These days many schoolchildren celebrate the event by burning their old coursework materials - very cathartic, I'm sure! In the old quarter of the city, in the Plaza de la Constitución, there is an additional ceremony which is well worth seeing. To the uninformed tourist, as was my case may years ago, the overnight appearance of whole, living ash tree apparently growing out of the centre of this square seems quite surreal. What happens is that the tree is the centre of a special ceremony, involving a blessing and ritual dances (including the "Zortziko de San Juan" and "Gizon Dantza"), followed by the ritual 'burning' of the tree. Afterwards, strips from the bark of the tree are distributed as tokens for those who attended the ceremony to take away and endow them with good health, good luck, etc.

But, as in many parts of Europe this year, the summer of 2008 is in a constant state of coming and then going again. Those in the tourist sector have noticed the effects in the reduced number of visitors, which seems to be a phenomenon much repeated around the rest of Spain. But Donostia is not only visited for its beaches and myriad eating places - the 43rd International Jazz Festival is just around the corner and with it, the many thousands of visitors who will come to enjoy jazz on a summer's evening. Personally I find the free concerts particularly enjoyable, especially as one of the three stages is set on the beach itself.

As I write, a traditional sirimiri is gently falling outside - a fine drizzle that some find refreshing, especially those who have come from the hotter regions of Spain to visit Donostia, but not so welcome is it for those whose plans centre on lying on the beach and soaking up the sun. Tomorrow perhaps....

Postscript

Smile-wreathed faces must surely abound in Vitoria this Monday but here in Donostia, after the football match referred to in the previous posting, it is a question of "..woe, woe and thrice woe!" Sunday 8^th June was an ignominious day for La Real. With just a few minutes of extra time to go, a seemingly assured victory was unbelievably turned to defeat as first one goal, and then another, gave the day to Alavés. The life of a Real Sociedad supporter is filled with suffering these days…

Football is not really my 'thing' but if you want to be better informed about Spanish football in general I would recommend this book: Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football, by Phil Ball. Phil is also a Donostiarra and teacher too when he's not busy writing about football.

They say 'hope springs eternal' and that is all that's left for Real Sociedad supporters now - just one last chance. Will Fortune smile on Donostia and its beleaguered football team?

"By your team(s) shall ye be judged"

In case it had escaped your attention, the European Cup football competition has just commenced. Love it or loathe it, football plays a significant role in contemporary social life and it could be argued that one of the ways in which the stature of a city can be measured is by how many top-ranking football teams it can boast of. Take London for example. Donostia has one major football team, La Real Sociedad, which is currently fighting to regain premier league status. Why is this important? Because in many ways the psychological well-being of a city is integrally bound up with the fortunes of its football team. When the team loses and its followers suffer, so does the city, to a greater or lesser extent.

La Real have seen days of glory in the past but the last few years have been characterized mostly by disappointing results and a downward spiral towards relegation. The situation now is that the team is teetering on the edge of a joyous return to the Premier League or seeing themselves obliged to spend another year of uncertainty in the Second Division. Such situations provoke anxiety. To complicate matters further, this weekend La Real are playing Alavés, a team from another regional Basque capital, Vitoria/Gasteiz, and which has suffered even greater sporting indignity in the last year. If Alavés lose tomorrow, they run the risk of being demoted to the Third Division… Football is not my passion but I can't help but feel nervous about tomorrow's result.

The sharp-eyed reader will have noticed that the title for this posting refers to 'team(s)' - the fact is that the psychological well-being of sports fans from Donostia and Vitoria/Gasteiz has not only been conditioned by their respective football teams in the last week. Both cities have had cause for celebration too, this time in the context of basketball, which must be Spain's second favourite sport after football. Tau Cerámica-Baskonia from Vitoria/Gasteiz won the ACB (Premier) League title for the second time and Bruesa GBC from Donostia won promotion to the same premier league. TV news pictures showed team members attending public celebrations and 'thanksgiving' ceremonies in their respective home cities… Clearly, sport is a topic to be taken seriously in that it lies close to the hearts of many people. I only fear that some of those hearts are all too likely to be broken by this time next week. Let's hope I'm wrong!

Cooking up a storm..

One of the reasons why many people visit San Sebastian/Donostia is that it is famous for its innumerable restaurants, many of which enjoy very high international prestige. For years, Basque chefs have been in the vanguard of the world of nouvelle cuisine: Juan Mari Arzak, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Martin Berasategui are just three from a list of internationally respected chefs. Recently though there has been uncustomary turmoil in the world of Spanish haute cuisine. The source of this little culinary storm is Santi Santamaría, a leading Catalan chef himself, who provoked a public controversy with the publication of his book, La cocina al desnudo, in which he accuses many of his fellow chefs in Spain of taking things to unnatural extremes as regards the new ways they have developed for creating specialist dishes. For Santamaría, Ferrán Adrià, top Catalan chef, must be the arch culprit in this respect. Adrià's restaurant, El Bulli, regularly leads the list of 'World's Best Restaurants' but to hear Santamaría talk you might think that Adrià was the veritable Doctor Frankenstein of international cuisine. Some commentators have wryly commented on the fact that a bit of spicy controversy has been very helpful in promoting Santamaría's new book and that personal rivalry is as much a part of the clash of philosophies as anything else.

Whether you subscribe to the traditionalist approach of Santamaría or the more avant-garde style of Adrià and many of the top Basque chefs, you are guaranteed to eat well in Donostia and the neighbouring areas. Very well indeed. What's more, although it might seem expensive, eating in the top restaurants of Donostia/San Sebastian is notably cheaper than in other culinary centres of similar prestige around the world. So, the culinary storm that figured prominently in the media during the month of May is already disappearing over the horizon. As for the underlying debate as to whether haute cuisine is just for food snobs, rest assured that in the Basque Country what has never changed in popular cooking is the insistence on using only ingredients of the highest quality, cooked with the utmost care and attention. Bon appétit!

A webpage I would recommend

The intention of this blog is to comment on life and other matters in and around Donostia. It came into being almost by accident but now that it is here, like any newborn, it is hungry to be fed. Anyway, the question was asked, "What webpage would you recommend to anyone interested in knowing more about Donostia and the Basque Country in general?" It didn't take me long to think of an answer - Buber's Basque page! Don't worry though - it is in English! And Basque too….

This webpage has been around for a good while now and I can't think of a better site in terms of coverage, balance and interest than this one. The creator of this admirable work, 'Buber', is Blas Pedro Uberuaga and anyone who wants to find out about Basque sports, music, traditions, etc., or the 'Basque problem' , Buber's Basque Page is a great place to get informed.

Try it!

A picture I like

There were many other photos I would have chosen before this one really but at least I know I won't have any copyright problems this way.

I like this picture because of the colour, the somewhat unsettling strangeness and the fact it was taken on a day when there was an almost record low tide. Normally it would not have been possible to take this photograph because you would have been up to your neck in seawater! I never knew the sculptor personally but on the first occasion I visited this site I photographed him standing next to his creation without realising who he was. Subsequently, the photograph in question gave me the feeling there was something special linking me to this site.

Where is it What is it? Well, it is part of a group of massive iron structures, made by the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, which go to make up what is known as El Peine de Viento (The Comb of the Wind). The melding of such different elements as rock and iron in an outdoor work that is partly on the land, partly in the sea, set against a backdrop of cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean, makes for a very dramatic effect. The location is at the most westerly point of the shoreline in San Sebastian /Donostia. There are many web resources devoted to this site but the best thing is to visit it on different occasions, when the north-westerly gales send waves crashing over the rocks, or on a calm summer's day when the sun beats down and colours are at their most vibrant, as in the present photo, and so on.