Santander...

I went to Santander yesterday with some others. Santander is a port city of 184,000, located in the mid-north and is based a little on tourism and very heavily on banking. Located in the territory of Cantabria, it is outside of Basque Country so I can actually read the street signs. The beaches there are very beautiful. There the rocks are black, the sand is white, the shells are purple and the starfish are green. I also visited one of the king's palace (wasn't allowed inside) and got to check out his zoo, which is open to the public. The zoo is small and centers around Antartic creatures - penguins, seals, etc... Unfortunately almost none of the medieval buildings survive: in 1941 a tremendous fire burned for two days and destroyed the old sector.



And now for something completely different. The native (alcoholic) drink of the Basque is called Bacharan, made from fermented blackberries. On its own it has a slightly thick consistency similar to Kahlua and tastes like licorice. The drink is popular at parties and is most often mixed with Coca-cola. Bacharan's flavor changes quickly when mixed with other drinks to create surprising new tastes. For instance, the licorice taste of Bacharan is completely lost when mixed with coffee (which is easily my favorite mix) and becomes a very rich treat suitable to accompany deserts. The new taste that is created from mixing the two tastes like a tart form of chocolate (very odd to think about, and very unique), and is so strong that it is served in very small quantities as drinking anything more than a sip would be overkill.

Orson Welles, who loved the Basque land, made a documentary of the place. And for those who speak Euskera: Orson Welles Euskal Herriari buruz egindako dokumentalaren zati batzuk. If you would like to watch this interesting documentary, see below...