Wednesday was the Dia de Santiago, when Vitoria celebrates Spain´s patron saint, Santiago de Compostela with music, dance, typical dress, (drinks), and strings of garlic. We had lunch at home around 2:30pm, which was steak filets, fried and breaded octopus (really good, like calamari), and pork pate on crackers. For dessert we tried a mango flavored, flan-like cake.
After this all of us went out to the main streets to see the parade. Small bands playing typical music and people dressed in traditional Basque costumes marched through the streets all day, with breaks here and there (the bands were paid).
We took lots of pictures, and even posed with a guy in costume at one point. We walked through "old Vitoria", which is higher up in the city. SO beautiful!
After some more walking and sightseeing, all the while looking for shade from the hot sun, Nuria and I left to meet some of her friends at their "lonja". It´s very popular for teens to rent a furnished room together (kind of like a garage) to hang out in. Different groups have their own. It´s kind of like a private meeting place.
I saw some of Nuria´s friends´ Americans again - a small group from a Catholic school in Idaho happened to be visiting with their international exchange students too. : ) It´s been fun meeting them all.
We went to see some of the guys join the parade (dressed in the typical costumes), but lost them in the crowds, so we went back home. There we ate hamburgers (so good, with ground beef from the local butcher! best everrrr) with ham added in, and their local white melon (so sweet, fresh).
Learned that Basques immigrated to the United States many years ago to meet a need for shepherds. Who knew. : )
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