Week 4
Sunday July 17 th - So I met
Ertxaina and 7 or 8 of her friends at "la granja". I can't pretend to have
understood all of what went on, but they were a friendly bunch. We
left that bar after around 15 minutes and went to "el casco viejo", an
older part of town where drinks are even cheaper. Here people often go
from bar to bar at an incredible speed. I didn't even have time to
finish a drink before we moved on. Of course, you often order what
amounts to a smaller quantity of booze in a glass but still, we must have
visited 20 different bars before 2 in the morning.
Monday July 18th
- By 2 the gang was starting to break up and go there own separate
ways. Problem was that I had no separate way to go. A generous
couple, Jon and Alicia, offered to put me up for the night in another part
of town. When I woke up the next morning I found I had slept in
Txurdinaga. Man the names around here are hard to get
straight. Seems that Basque is a whole other
language.
Tuesday July 19th - Seems that I am officially staying
with Jon and Alicia. Last night we went to the "fiestas" of
Txurdinaga. Seems like every area here has their own fiesta at some
point during the year and everybody shows up for a party that could last
for weeks. There is something different here. People have a
different slant on things, and I think that I like it.
Wednesday
July 20th - Life is strange sometimes. I left Canada to tour to
support my new CD "Talk Down 2 Me" amd somehow got side-tracked. I have no
band, no tour as of this moment and I'm living in a place that I never
even knew existed. These people, these Basques, don't even think of
themselves as being part of Spain. Where am I
anyway?
Thursday July 21st - Living off the kindness of strangers.
Am I an explorer or a human sponge, soaking it all up ? Jon and
Alicia both work. They've given me a key to their appartment or
"piso" as they call it. My Spanish is starting to improve greatly
out of absolute necessity. So during the day I wander around.
Bars are open all the time so I can start with coffee in the morning (by
the way, coffee here is something else entirely, it puts Starbucks to
shame) and move on to wine by the afternoon. Later in the afternoon
I'm joined by Jon and Alicia and often some of their friends. We usually
eat in a bar and then move on from there.
Friday July 22 - You
know, my problem has been what to do during the day but I might have
solved it. Last night I met a friend of Jon and Alicia named
Alena. She lives with her parents and has no job (like so many
here). It seems that she is pretty well off and she has nothing to
do during the day which is just about a perfect fit.
Saturday July
23rd - So here I am again at the end of another week. Will I ever get back
on track. Will I ever tour again. Does anyone even care?
