Most of my visitors are foreigners, mainly from English speaking countries (US, Australia, Canada, Britain,…) and sometimes the information they have about our way of life and culture is not very comprehensive. So I´ve received a lot of questions about the Basque Country, and some of them have been very funny:
- “I do know that marriages in the Basque Country have always been arranged by the parents, but do you still keep this habit? Your marriage was also arranged, young man?”
My answer was: “No madam, it was only until we joined the European Union, then they prohibited this ancient custom, much to our regret”. - (On a wine tasting experience, when tasting red wine): “Oh my God, mine is not sweet!!, I must have taken the wrong glass”
- More on wine tasting in the Rioja region: “Oh, so you don´t offer California wine here?”
- (asking for a coffee with milk -café con leche- in a cafeteria in San Sebastián): “Do you pasteurize your milk?” And on seeing my puzzled face… ”Hum, you may not know what “pasteurizing” means, sorry” . And then she explained it to me.
- “So this is an anchovie, look Diane, it´s actually a FISH!!!”, on looking at a spectacular anchovie pintxo with a real anchovie on it (he thought of them as that weird thing they put on pizzas.
- “Do you pay taxes or is everything government owned and paid?”
- “I can pay with US Dollars everywhere, right?”
- “Do kids go to school every day?” (a very kind lady, I answered “yes, except on weekends, summer and Christmas….”)
- “I´d like to see the running of the bulls”…”Yes sir, but that is in Pamplona on July and it´s September”. “Oh, I thought they ran all year round…”
- “On Mondays (day when many restaurants are closed), you don´t go to work because you can´t eat anywhere, right?”
- “Why can´t I pay a glass of wine with a VISA?” (most bars in Spain don´t accept credit cards, and you never ever leave your visa to the bartender in case they do…trust is the word). Important to know that a glass of wine in Spain just costs 1.50eur approx…
- “How come there´re so many kids on the street? Shouldn´t they be home watching TV?”
- “Wow, a glass of water with no ice on it!! How can you drink it?” (or a Coke, mostly served with just an ice cube or two)
- “I can´t eat cheese” “Well, you should have told me earlier, you just had two pieces of Idiazabal sheep cheese” “Wow, that was cheese?? I meant pizza cheese, I didn´t know there was hard cheese!”.
And so many others that make this job a very exciting and interesting one!
