I just returned from a romantic Valentine’s Day weekend to the La Rioja region of Spain, which borders the region I live in. La Rioja is famous worldwide, or at least Europe-wide, for it’s wines and so my roommates and I traveled to the quaint little towns of Logrono and Haro (capital of the wine country and home to almost all the vineyards in Spain). Maybe romantic is pushing it, but it was Valentine’s Day, so we made it as romantic as possible: we stuffed 6 people into three beds at the hostel, walked everywhere with oversized American backpacks, and played camera-happy tourists. As our first real travel excursion out of Pamplona, the trip went well – we definitely learned a lot even from this small trip though, so I think it is good that we started out small. We found out that the bus station will give up your seats if you are not there “early enough” (we still don’t know how early that is) even if you have tickets, we learned how tasty fried lambs ears can be, and we learned that sometimes in Spain the bread they put on the table is NOT free.
La Rioja was a gorgeous place to visit, with winding streets wide enough for only one car at a time, wine and bread shops on every corner, and miles of open vineyards. I am sure it is spectacular to see in the summer when grape season is at its full height. We tasted different wines from the area and they were all tasty, we also lucked out on a cozy family-run restaurant where we tried fried lambs ears (a La Rioja delicacy), tortilla de patatas (one of my favorite Spanish foods that luckily you can get almost anywhere, it is basically like a potato omlet, but more potato-y than egg-y), stuffed boiled peppers, and of course more wine. It was all very tasty and the great thing about Spain is you can try so many things because the culture is set up to sit and linger and take little bits of everything. Lovely! That night, we also found…dun, dun, dun…THE MASKS! This is perhaps my favorite memory so far in Spain – we found a really funny store that sold all kinds of cartoon bull-paraphernalia for the Running of the Bulls, really ridiculous things like sexy movie star bulls and bulls with swords in hand to take on the humans in the arenas. Anyway, we opted for the less-pricey and more hysterical kid version and four of us bought these masks – there is just no describing them so take a peek at the pictures right now. I am pretty sure we terrified this one little boy who couldn’t decide whether to call us “vacas” or “chicas.” It was just so fun posing and running and walking around being silly, it made me feel like I was at home! J And, just to set the record straight, this was before the wine! The pictures look so photo-shopped by I assure you they are real, and I am sure that the mask will be re-appearing in other blog posts as the semester wears on.
The next day we took a day trip to Haro, which is the capital of the region and where all of the wineries are. We missed the earlier bus, so we only got to spend about half a day there, but we were able to tour the Bodega Cune, known as “the best winery in Spain,” by a travel-guide book and later confirmed by several locals. The tour was really interesting and it was fascinating to see the huge vats and storage containers for all the wine. By far the most memorable part of the tour was when we went deep into the old wine cellar. Bodega Cune has been open and producing wines since 1879 and they have several hundred bottles saved from every year since then, needless to say that is a ton of wine right there. So, we crept through the rest of the winery into a dark, dank, dungeon-like cavern. The walls were made completely of stone so it can stay cold all year, the lights were dim and far between so that they wouldn’t negatively effect the wines, and everything (floor, ceiling, walls, and wine bottles) was covered with a two-inch thick film of mold, dust, mildew, and dirt. Our tour guide said that this “natural” condition of mold and musty mildew provide the best protection for the wine and keep the flavors harbored the best. Even more interestingly, these wines will never be sold and will likely never even be opened and enjoyed by anyone. They are kept solely for historic purposes, to remember and have on hand “just in case,” although our tour guide couldn’t think of a single reason that would involve needing to open them. The only person who has the power to open them and the only person who will ever drink them is the King if he so desires; in case of a royal ceremony of ultimate importance or a significant Spanish anniversary or some other equally rare occasion, the King can order a special bottle of wine from a certain year, which will then be whisked out of the dank cellar and straight to the King’s door. It all sounds very medieval, but some parts of Spain still seem to function very much in that era. We were enjoying the Bodega so much, we literally had to RUN to the bus station, clutching backpacks, coats and souvenirs, so we wouldn’t miss the last bus out of Haro, but we made it with 5 minutes to spare and were on our way back to Pamplona in no time at all. One of the great parts about going on a trip was coming back, because for the first time I caught myself saying “It will be nice to go home,” and referring to our little piso (flat) near the park. And it is always nice to feel like you are at home – even if you are far away.
