Des d'EUA: d’octubre 2010

Usually, this blog is written in Catalan, because when I decided to start writing it my aim was to keep family and friends aware of our Oregonian adventure. Now that we’ve made several American friends, I feel the need to write something in English to keep them posted about our life in Catalonia. And I couldn’t think of a better subject than the Bassegoda Fair.

Sant Martí del Bassegoda is a village lost in the wild mountains between two Catalan counties (Alt Empordà and La Garrotxa). The village was abandoned several years ago, but the Centre Excursionista Empordanès, a mountaineering club from the area has been celebrating its annual fair every year since then (34^th edition, this year). The celebration gathers around 500 people of all ages, most of them come on Sunday morning for a guided walk before lunch, but some people (mainly from the organization committee) come on Saturday night to have a good dinner, a big camp fire and lately a “cremat” contest. By the way, the cremat (burned, literally) is a drink made by rum, coffee beans, lemon, sugar and cinnamon, basically you put fire to the whole mix and let most of the alcohol burn, hence its name.

On Sunday the lunch is a traditional “paella” for everyone, usually made in two or three big pans, bread and an apple for 5€. After lunch a dance with live music is held to help the digestion, and after that a rope pulling contest with many categories (boys vs girls and married people vs singles).

I've been attending to this event since I was a kid (skipping only a few years) and it's always been very special to me, but this year has been even more special. We've been away for several months, away from family and friends, and away from this landscape we love so much. Being there again and meeting everyone has been one of the big emotions of this visit to our homeland. And we've meet plenty of “new” kids: Eloi, Marta, Martí, Rita... See you all soon!