APZ TOUR 2002   VITORIA – GASTEIZ (SPAIN, EUSKARA)

September 4th: TRAVELLING THERE:

Departure at 10pm.
Italy: Trieste – Venice (Mestre) – Verona – Viccencia – Brescia – Piacenca – Alessandria – Genova – Arenza – San Remo – Ventimiglia
Monaco: Monte Carlo
France: Nica – Cannes – Aix en Provence – Arles – Montpelliere – Narbone – CARCASSONNE- a short stop for a visit of a town within a Mediveal fortress.
Toulouse – Tarbes – LOURDES- a longer stop where we admired the evening candlelight procession. We had a sightseeing tour, partly on foot and partly by a road train ( very interesting and exciting-at the end the driver drove quite wildly in circles!).
A stop by the road for a few hours of sleep. Time to start snoring…

September 5th:

Pau- Barritz
Spain: San Sebastian – Eibar – Basauri – VITORIA  - MURGIA. We have finally settled in a small village Murgia. Our big bedrom was in an old college. The first shock for some of us: we all shared one bedroom. The second shock: we shared three showers and six toilets with a choir from Bulgaria (about 50 people altogether). We took a walk into the nice village centre, tried some coffee (cafe con leche) and a liquor named Patxaran, recommended by our conductor Primož.

A choral rehearsal with all the choirs that were attending the festival. We rehearsed the songs for the final concert in Vitoria.

An evening concert in a village of  KONTRASTA ( 60 km SE of Vitoria). It was a pleasant concert for us in a little village church and the audience seemed pleased.

Then time for the first dinner came:
Appetizer: lettuce with tuna fish, onion, tomato and asparagus
Main course: fish in tomato sauce or beef with potatoes
Desert: lemon sorbet, goxua, Rioja wine.

A very nice evening. We and our hosts sang until 1.30am.

September 6th:

We meet our local guide Marjan.
All the choirs went to Vitoria to sing in a church of Snow Mary, the town patroness.

A midday concert in a village PIPAON (it has got 36 inhabitants). We got a wonderful reception with little Slovene flags and firecrackers! We have met very warm and hospitable people to whom we enjoyed singing.

Our hosts took us to lunch in a village Lagran with a beautiful park, children's playground and an interesting bench with a mosaic ornament.

We were served: potato goulash with a sausage, Rioja wine, stewed beef with asparagus, mushrooms, artichokes, grilled potatoes. For the desert we got gouxa, coffee, Patxaran and cigars (the room looked as someone had just thrown a smoke bomb in it).

After lunch we visited an ethnographic museum in Pipaon.

The evening concert was held in a village ULLIBARRI – JAUREGI. It was another pleasant village with hospitable people. The concert was o.k., children brought us badges. Outside, the storm had broken. We took a bus to a big garage, arranged for our dinner.
We got: Lettuce with tuna fish, saffron rice with meat, beef with mushrooms and peas, goxua desert and again Rioja wine, Patxaran and coffee.

Some of us tried to communicate with our hosts-we spoke a bit of Spanish, they spoke a bit of English and we used the napkins to draw what we could not express with words.

We reached our beds early in the morning.

September 8th

Breakfast with butter, marmalade and rolls.
We converted one of the wardrobes in the room in a Mary's chapel in honour of our member Mija Mravlja, whose name day was.

A midday concert in MENOIO KEXANA .The villagers took us by cars up the hill where we got the bread and cheese reception. Delicious! Quite a big audience gathered in a big chapel. They were pretty enthusiastic!
For us, it was interesting to observe their folklore dancing performed by children and some traditional customs. They had a feast day.

Lunch: paella, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, a desert, coffee and Rioja wine. We enjoyed ourselves during lunch, while our hosts were a bit reserved.

In the evening all of the choirs attending the festival held a short concert for the other choirs. There were choirs from Bulgaria, Brazil, Chorea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal and Czech Republic.

After the concert we got a »delicious«meal, packed in plastic bags to eat in our bedrooms. We decided to visit a village pub, where some of us tried their snooker skills, while the others watched basketball on TV.

September 9th

It was a time for our first trip.

GERNIKA (Guernica is the Spanish name, Gernika the Basque) is a town where the oath-taking ceremonies of Basque kings took place over the history under the old oak tree which is a symbol of Basque Country (Euskara). We visited the Basque parliament and sang a Basque traditional song Agur Jaunak.

We continued our trip into some fishing villages.

MUNDAKA is a village with an estuary and a famous left wave for the skilled surfers.

BERMEO village- they were having a fishing festival where all the people were dressed in blue with small blue and white scarves. Some of us bought them too. We spent a wonderful late morning there.

We also visited an island connected to the mainland with a wall and 231 steps. On top there is a small church named San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.

We passed BAKIO village on our way to the Basque capital Bilbao. We were driving through Bilbao and had a short stop for the famous Guggenheim museum and took a photo in front of a famous cat made of flower arrangements.

The evening concert was in a village MAESTO. We were a bit tired and so was our performance, but the dinner had been delicious.

It contained smoked ham, a delicious lettuce with tuna fish, shrimps, beef steak or fish and a wonderful cream cake for desert. Of course, liquors and cigars were obligatory.
The village pub was a wonderful place too and we again fully enjoyed the hospitability of the local people. The Basques are the hosts that anyone would wish for.

September 10th

We went for a morning shopping in Vitoria. We tried to find souvenirs for ourselves and presents for our families. We came back at lunchtime to enjoy some rest. Some of us made contacts with the Philippines who translated the lyrics of Waray Waray song for us (It is always helpful to know what you are singing about and until then we had absolutely no idea what that song was about- it turned out that Waray was a very strong –in – spirit feminine character from their soap opera).

The evening concert was in SALINAS DE ANANA. We have visited the salines, pretty much abandoned but now under refurbishment again. After the rehearsal we put on the bright red shawls for the first time. Our guide Mirjan said that we looked very Spanish.
The concert was wonderful, very energetic and warmly acceppted. Some members did try some new song arrangements, but luckily the others knew what they were doing!
Dinner was served in an open place and was as delicious as always. Sausages, grilled pepper, roasted chicken, crisps and of course lots of drinks. We left home a bit earlier than the other nights due to the chilly weather.

September 11th

A time for our second trip.

First stop in PAMPLONA, Navarra, where every July there is so called Fiesta del San Fermini, a run in front of the raging bulls.

Then we took a walk along SAN SEBASTIAN, a beautiful seaside town that is also called the Spanish Rio de Janeiro. The bus took us to Monte Igeldo, a hill above the town with a beautiful view of the town. Some of us took a stroll along the coast, the others went shopping or eating. One group had a wonderful and VERY cheap lunch due to a very confused waitress. Well, we did ask her three times if the bill was OK and she was absolutely positive!

The evening concert in ARAMAIO village-a beautiful hillside village with absolutely wonderful people-we have met the truly Basques. The village church was wonderful with a huge dome in the middle.
Our performance was very well done and the audience was fascinated. So were we during our dinner, where we could enjoy a real Basque music and dancing. What wonderful people we met!

September 12th

A morning stroll and some shopping in Vitoria again.

In the afternoon we departed for the most Southern village on our tour-ELCIEGO.
We crossed the Ebro river and arrived to Rioja country, known as the country of delicious red wine.
We made a stop in a village within a fortress-LAGUARDIA. We have visited its church of Queen Mary with a wonderful stone portal.
From the walls we could see a wave-shaped vine cellar made by the American architect O'Garry.

Finally we arrived to a village on top of the hill ELCIEGO.. It was very quiet as they had a fiesta the night before and the inhabitants were resting.
The concert was in a big church, the biggest on our tour.
Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious dinner and sang a lot.
 

September 13th

The day was very »free«.Lots of time for resting and packing. Some shopping again…
The practice with the orchestra was quite short. We got some instructions about the evening concert-the closing concert of all the choirs and the orchestra.
At 6p.m. we departed our dormitories all dressed up for the concert and with our luggage as there was no return in the evening.
The concert was held in a big concert hall in Vitoria, Teatro Principal Antzokia.
Each choir had a solo performance (ours was at the opening). Afterwards we occupied the cafe across the street where we waited for the second part of the concert where all the choirs sang together with the orchestra under the conductor Sabino Salaberri.
We had some time to try some tapases ( dellicious sandwiches ) and tortillas.
After the concert we kissed and said goodbye to our new friends from all over the world. The lady from a hillside village came to watch the performance and brought a forgotten jacket for our member Stane who therefore lost all his hopes of buying himself a new one at home.
A farewell to our guide Marjan and we hopped on the bus which was our home for the two following nights and one day.
Of course we changed our clothes on the bus which is a very interesting thing to do…

September 14th

Travelling with half an hour stops. Most of us were watching the video tapes-The Full Monty was the winner of the films-on-tour.
We wished a happy birthday to our tenor Zlatko and got some whiskey in return.

September 15th

We passed Nice, visited the perfumes factory on the hill above Nice and made a longer stop in Monaco.
We went sightseeing-the royal palace, the casinos, the Formula 1 route…

September 16th

After long hours of driving our chauffer Janez Zidank brought us safely home to Kranj early in the morning. We were of course warmly welcomed in our homes…