Greetings from San Sebastian (Donostia Agurrak)
Exciting day ahead today. One full day to explore Donostia and see three round of 16 games.
San Sebastian (Donostia) is a Basque Gem
Wow. Just got back from a morning exploring the La Concha beach, Urgell Mountain and the Old Town. Beautiful, beautiful place. This is somewhere I am definitely coming back to.
I'll let the pictures do the talking...
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| Euskadi (Basque Country) Flag |
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| Delicious Fois Pintxos |
Euskadi
I've always been fascinated with the Basque country. I suppose my interest in Lithuanian independence always made me sensitive to any other people who sought freedom from a "big brother". The Basques, unlike the Lithuanians, however lost a lot of sympathy due to the methods of some of their campaigners. The letters "ETA" (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) became synonymous with the "IRA" in the 1970s. I will always be proud that Lithuania, to its eternal credit, won back its independence through totally democratic and peaceful means. Not one act of terrorism, sabotage or even a strike.
It has always seemed to me that one important role of the United Nations should be to ensure that all of its members sign up to a protocol that allows for disaffected areas of members states to gain independence, if certain criteria are met.
It would not be difficult to come up with a set of "rules" which any new would-be country would have to meet, such as...
1. Have an integral and quite well defined geographical border in which the majority (I'd stress a 2/3 majority or even more) voted for independence is an unambiguous referendum that was monitored by the UN.
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| Basque Territory - well defined even though it overlaps Spain and France |
3. It would need to make a good case for economic viability.
Anyway, the Basques now enjoy a degree of autonomy from Spain but, in the context of the EU, such regions could gain more independence in exchange for some loss of sovereignty of the member state that dominates it. It would appear likely that Scotland and perhaps Norther Ireland might be doing just that now as the majority of their people voted "Remain".
Back to Football
After a bit of Basque immersion I was off to watch football. I predicted Poland to beat Switzerland 1-0, Wales to beat Northern Ireland 2-0 and, controversially, Portugal to beat Croatia 3-2.It's a Knock Out!
No more draws. From now on, it's a knock out competition.
Poland 1 Switzerland 1 (Poland win on Penalties)
I watched this match in a little bar in the old town with a small but interesting crowd. At first I had a small group of three to my left. The guy (kind of obviously) was the football fan and his two girl friends were just there to support him. He was Swiss German from Zurich and therefore supported Switzerland. One of the other girls was also German and was born in Stuttgart on the same street as the fellah, but she currently lives in France with the other girl who was a Basque but from the French side. We had a few great conversations, firstly about the Brexit train wreck, then about football and how it compares with rugby both on and off the pitch and then about Basque nationalistic expectations and the language differences between the French and Spanish areas.
On top of "eskerik asko" (thank you) I also learned "garagardo bat mesedez" (one more please) - this is a very useful phrase when you find a beer you like.
In the second phase I bumped into two American brothers. One, amazingly, had been surfing on the very beach I'd been on yesterday to take photos of Darry's work. He said he remembered it too. Both were pretty fluent in Spanish and were both interested, but not fanatical, about football.
Later still, a local Donostia guy, another surfer came and chatted with me. He teased me about the UK referendum - as did the others too. (thanks Brexit people, you've really enhanced our reputation abroad.) Buit he didn't like football and soon got bored and went.
Poland started well and deservedly scored quite early. Switzerland did not roll over and came back into it more and more. In the second half Fabianski made a couple of brilliant saves for Poland to keep the score at 1-0 before, in quick succession, Switzerland hit the bar, and then scored probably the best goal of the tournament when Shaqiri did an outrageous over head kick on the edge of the box to equalise.
Extra time could not separate the sides so it went to penalties. Basically, Switzerland missed one, but Poland did not, so it is the Poles who go through to the quarter finals, and Switzerland go home.
So, wrong score right result,.
Wales 1 Northern Ireland 0
Everyone cleared the bar at the end of the Poland match so for a while I was left on my own. I had intended to go and wear my Wales shirt but after extra time and penalties there wasn't time. I had a good seat so why risk missing anything?
Everntually a bunch of English came in to watch the first half with me. Very tight encounter with not much going on. At one point I asked one of the guys
"So, are you feeling proud to British today?"
His "yes" and smile, told me enough. Rather than get into an argument, I decided to move on to another place, the "Sports" Bar much renowned on Google etc.
I got there, just round the corner as it is, in moments. Time to see the outrageous selection of Pintxas? (tapas) on the bar. I'd read about the fried fois gras and seeing it on the menu I immediately ordered one, with a crab meat on toast.
Wow! absolutely amazing. I repeated my order and had a couple of beers as the second half progressed.
The bar was relatively packed, obviously for their delicious food, and included about ten women from Wales who I was happy to tell about Elaine Morgan.
Not much between the sides, to be honest, so credit to Northern Ireland there. But eventually, I guess, the threat of Bale and Ramsey caused a bit of extra panic in the box and Northern Ireland conceded an own goal, very similar to that conceded by the republic against Sweden.
Nothing much happened after that and Wales hung on to edge through their first ever European quarter finals and cause the Welsh in the bar to start singing patriotic songs.
On the way out I bumped into an Englishman who was very philosophical about the EU debate. He has voted remain and was disappointment with the vote but said it wasn't the end of the world.
Next up, Portugal v Croatia
Next up, Portugal v Croatia
Portugal 1 Croatia 0
I had a hunch Portugal would win this and they started very well. I watched the first half in the first bar I went to in Donostia last night. It was quiet and ok but I thought they'd have the sound on. I switched to one of the hundreds of tapas (pintxos) bars. Couldn't resist the fois on toast and I had a glass of red. The game seemed to be stuck in a stalemate and went into extra time again.
I moved on to another bar to watch the last 30 minutes and, I thought, penalties. Croatia, as they did against Spain, gradually turned the screw and looked like they would win it, as they created severa chances and hit the post. In fact it was from the counter attack that followed that Portugal grabbed their winner. 3 out of 3 results correct.
I probably won't have time to post any more for a couple of days as tomorrow and the day after I'll be frantically trying to get over to Nice, nice and early to watch the Spain v Italy game and, of course, England v Iceland.
Aljice
Donostia, Euskadi
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