This past weekend we had the privilege of hosting friends from Kansas City, Missouri. Cindi, a former colleague of Shana’s and AUSA extraordinaire, and her husband Mitch visited us here in San Sebastian. They are hardy travelers, coming in the dead of winter. But 45 degrees and rainy here certainly beats 0 degrees in KC! We had a terrific time showing them the sights and taking them to our favorite restaurants. It didn’t take them long to figure out why we live in San Sebastian.
Although the weather left something to be desired – and Cindi and Mitch got an opportunity to use those large umbrellas we wrote about – there’s always something fun going on here. And this past weekend, it was the Caldereros crews, who announce the arrival of Carnival. The Calderero crews are groups dressed as Hungarian travelers who bang pots and pans to the rhythm of the melodies written by Raimundo Sarriegui (who also wrote many of the tunes we heard during La Tamborrada). They are accompanied by the Queen, the ladies-in-waiting, the director and his assistants, a bear, bear cub and handler. The original Caldereros crew paraded in San Sebastian the morning of February 2, 1884, to celebrate the Catholic festivity of Candlemas.
When we left dinner on Saturday night, we heard live music being played. As I explained to Mitch, in San Sebastian, when this happens, you head towards the music. We encountered the crew and listened to the music and singing, which was enthusiastic. We did not see a bear or bear cub, but our Spanish teacher informed us on Monday that we would only have seen people dressed as the bear and bear cub. (So, we didn’t miss an actual bear.) It was tremendous to have one of these typical Basque traditions happening while we had visitors!
The next day we encountered a creative Basque artist who was creating art in the sand of La Concha, the main beach here.
The moral of the story is . . . come visit us in San Sebastian, you never know what you’ll see,
Shana (AKA Julie, your cruise director) and Jeff (who does not go by Gopher or Doc)
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