I never like to think of my self as a pornographer,
but today we're doing some porno.....
food porno.
Good morning. Buenos dias, Egun on
Can't go that way.. Oh no, Marko. we're lost.
We're not really lost. We know where we're going.
We're heading from Victoria -Gasteiz to the
small but beautiful village of Hondarribia.
right on the border with France.
But first we have a little drive.
We'll tell you more about why we're going to Hondarribia
when we get there.
Maybe if we stop driving around this round-about.
Shut up.
We made it to the coast.
Ok, guys. Welcome to Hondarribia.......
in my opinion one of the most beautiful villages
on the Basque coast, in all the Basque Country.
Basically, it's on the Bidasoa River
which is the natural boundary between the
French provinces.
On the north, there are 3 French-Basque provinces
and the four Spanish provinces on the south.
We are meeting up with the local rowing team.
Rowing in the Basque Country has a very interesting history.
It's connected to their heritage as whalers.
We're going to meet up with Mikel from the local
rowing club, who's going to take us out on the water.
Well they're going back out to keep training.
Nice way to start the morning.
I would love to be on one of those rowing teams.
I think it would be great.
It's all based in A: a tradition
B: betting that you can do that sport better than
your brother or your friend.
Competitive spirit, Bro. Oh for sure.
We're going to go see the old town of Handarribia
right now. It's super beautiful.
Then we're going to go to a nice place
for a little bit of lunch, of course.
Are you ready for that?
Time to eat. Let's go.
Super beautiful
Birds. I like birds.
We're on our way to Bar Gran Sol,
in the marina district.
This is the old fishermen's quarter.
Like we said,
the rowing came form the Basque's tradition
of whale hunting.
But after they chased the whales
to Scandinavia and Iceland,
they started fishing codfish.
And that had been the most important food source
for the Basque for centuries.
But first, we're going to go to Bar Gran Sol
where a chef named Vicente Muñoz
is cooking up some amazing creations.
We're going to try some pinxtos that will just
blow your mind.
Your mind blown!
"Chin chin."
We're standing a a little wine barrel here.
A glass of txakoli, a white sparkling wine in my hand
Wow.
This is such a treat.
I don't even know where to begin with this.
We have so much amazing food on the plate.
Literally, this pintxo is covered in gold.
Here we have
a modern interpretation of codfish.
Codfish is THE fish of the Basque Country.
They fished codfish,
and then took them all the way to Iceland
and over to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
So here we are.
It's really good. Wow.
This could quite possibly be
the best pintxo on the planet.
"txipiron", which is squid stuffed with Foie Gras
over a bed of rice
that is cooked in a salsa made from the squid ink,
covered in some "aceite de perejil" (parsley sauce), a little mayonnaise sauce.
It's...to die for.
Best pintxo, hands down.
That was the highlight of my trip.
Wow what a meal.
What an incredible meal, Bro.
And what cool people.
I love how chefs were so passionate.
And Vicente was super cool.
We're feeling great. It's a Sunday.
There's what they call in Spain "ambiente."
There are people in the street.
Anyways, we're going to hop into the car
and head towards Pasaia
Pasaia is a big port on the other side of
this mountain called Jaizkebel.
Stay tuned. It's going to be rad.
I love this mountain.
Monte Jaizkebel was my favorite place to come
because I had a road bike when I lived here,
and I would just come up here and cycle.
It's a 20 km loop from San Sebastian,
and this is one of the best places to ride a road bike.
The day continues. The journey continues.
The adventure continues here in Pasaia.
Pasaia is one of the most important ports
in the Basque Country.
For centuries, it's been a major ship building center.
They constructed a huge portion
of the Spanish Armada here.
Right now we're going to be taking a boat down
to this museum where they are reconstructing
a Basque ship from the 16th century,
and it was discovered on the ground..
in an interesting fashion,
about which we will tell you once we arrive.
Do I have permission to board, Senor?
Boom
Permission to come aboard, Sir?
Permission granted.
And we're off.
After a very pleasant boat ride,
we've arrived to an interesting place.
Albaola. It's a ship building factory.
This is a really, really interesting project.
Basically, they're trying to rebuild
a Basque whaling ship
that was constructed in 1563 right here in this port.
Two years later, it went to Newfoundland
which is where some of the best fishing,
the Grand Banks is. It sank.
So when it sank,
it went to the bottom of the ocean.
And hundreds of years later,
archeologists found the remains of this ship wreck
and it was in such good condition
because the cold water preserved it
that they were able to basically
recreate the architectural design of the ship,
and now rebuilding the ship, the San Juan
that's over 500 years old, using the same
technics with wood from the forest here in Navarra.
But the interesting hypothesis that stands behind
all of this is that nobody truly knows
when the Basque went first to North America.
Did they get there before Columbus, but
they kept it a secret because
they found secret fishing grounds?
It's a pretty interesting subject.
So we're going to go meet the guys here
and find out more.
We are in Alboala
where we are building a 16th century ship.
We are in Pasaia,
which is the home port of San Juan.
San Juan was a whaling ship
and left this very important Pasaia
to go to Newfoundland in 1565
and never returned.
It was lost for more than 400 years
until the Canadian archeologist found the wreck,
and they realized that it was by far the best
preserved ship of the 16th century found to date.
15th- 16th century, Basques were leading
the world of ship building.
When the need arised going to Newfoundland
they were ready.
They had the technology.
There are many clues that Basque had been there
before Columbus,
but there is no proof.
Basque maritime identity
has been neglected,
and we are trying to revive it.
It's easy to feel proud of such a ship.
I think the coolest thing about this project
is that once they make this ship,
they're going to sail it from here to Newfoundland
across the North Atlantic.
If you add that
then you can sponsor a piece of this ship.
They're basically crowd funding
the construction of this ship.
So as you can see,
40 euros buys 12,000 nails.
If you really feel generous,
you can buy them a keel, or something like that.
Now we head to sea.
Actually, we're just going to a bar.
It's over here.
We're going to do a nice, little scenic tour,
and then go from here
Well cheers, man.
I know. What a day.
It's been a long day, but a fun day.
This village to me, I feel like when you come
into the harbor, it's like entering Lord of the Rings,
some Elven village.
There's just a huge tower,
and the whole village is just right along the coast.
Super beautiful.
I usually dork-out about things that remind me
of Lord of the Rings.
But to have you do it means
that it's got to be a very special place.
For sure. We've seen so much today,
everything from how the Bay of Biscay
was the first place the Basque went into the ocean.
They went looking for whales.
The whales brought them to Scandinavia and Iceland
where they learned how to fish codfish,
which they could salt.
and last longer journeys of the ocean all the way to Newfoundland
And then they brought it back here,
and learned how to make great food.....
learned how to make amazing food.
This part of the Basque Country is incredible.
One of our favorite little corners,
and we had an awesome time showing you guys.
So if you enjoyed this video, you know what to do:
Give it a thumbs-up, share it with your friends,
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every week. And stay tuned because the road trip
through the Basque Country continues.
In the meantime remember: stay curious,
keep exploring, and we'll see you guys on the road.