Semana Grande

This week in San Sebastian is the annual "semana grande", which is basically a week long party with tons of people, parades and bands crowding the streets, free concerts and fireworks. We were gone traveling for most of the festivities, but luckily were here for the last 2 days and nights. Friday evening, we went to a free concert on the beach to watch a very famous Spanish group called, "La Oreja de Van Gogh ". I had never heard of them before, but Sean knew every song, and so did the millions of people on the beach watching. It was very pretty music, and so nice to lay in the cool sand, looking up at the stars glowing in the black night, listening to the lovely songs.

After sleeping in until noon yesterday, we threw together our suits, beach towels, smashball paddles and umbrella and headed out into the perfect 27 degree day (80 farenheit) and walked toward the beach. On our way there, we were stopped by several people, who must have noticed we were beach-ready, telling us that La Concha beach was closed because of bomb threats. There is a radical group here in "the Basque country", called ETA, who want the Basque region to become completely separate from Spain and have been known to act violently in different parts of Spain. Apparently, with all the chaos and festivities this week, supporters of this terrorist group have made their way to the small peaceful town of San Sebastian, to demonstrate and protest. The government has enforced a zero tolerance policy with this group, and any sort of propaganda posted around the city is taken down and any protests or demonstrations are immediately shut down by the police. The police are in full force and on high alert, especially with the mass amount of people in the city for the holiday. We walked over to our usual beach, Zurriola, and all seemed normal, besides the weird propaganda, and more police than normal. We spent hours in the sun, or shade of my umbrella, and swam in the wonderfully warm, but refreshing sea. It felt so nice, after all the traveling, to just relax on the sand, float in the water and soak up the beautiful day, and our beautiful surroundings. On our way home, we ran into complete chaos. We stopped to listen to a mariachi band playing on the sidewalk while the people watching danced, other odd street performers entertained the kids, parades filled the streets, millions of people were everywhere, all having a great time. We walked alongside a parade the whole way to our flat, and these crazy-looking giant-people characters ran around hitting people with big, plastic balloons. The children ran away screaming and laughing while these funny-looking giants chased after them. They hit anyone in their path with their balloons, even the old ladies watching. Everyone was laughing so much, including Sean and me, when we had to run out of the way to not get hit. The rest of the parade consisted of a bunch of rowdy, excited soccer fans dressed up in soccer gear, ready to go watch a match. Everyone was having a great time, when all of the sudden, we realized we were no longer walking with the parade of soccer fans, and children running around, and were walking alongside ETA supporters, who were chanting in their Euskera language and holding up posters of their terrorist prisoners who are currently being held. The vibe changed, and the others walking down the street with us grew concerned. The police arrived within minutes to shut them down, complete with their shields for extra protection. Sean and I turned down a side street, as I was nervous and just wanted to get home. We picked up our pace walking when we heard gun shots go off and everyone began running, covering their heads and screaming. We started running too with everyone else. I dropped my beach umbrella, Sean ran back to get it and I lost him for a second in the crowd. Finally we both ran up to our front door, opened it with shaking hands, got inside, closed the door and watched hundreds of people run by. I had never been so scared in all my life, and have never been so shaken. It felt like we were in the middle of something you would see on the news. The scary part too, was that we didn't know what was going on, and anything could have happened. It was very sad that a fun, happy event turned into something scary within a matter of seconds. We calmed down inside for a while, then headed back out. Everything was back to normal and millions of people were out having a good time. We watched the fireworks, walked downtown in the mix of all the partying and enjoyed some cold sangria. I am sure everyone in the city is resting and recovering from the week of craziness today.