As I said, Bilbao is a city of umbrellas. So much so that pretty much every bar in the city (and there are many hundreds) has hooks underneath the bar on which you can hang your umbrella. Neat, eh? And they’re getting a lot of use at the moment…
¡Felicidad a todos los de esta casa!
venimos llamando,
de puerta en puerta como una vieja costumbre
con intención de renovarla este año.
No somos muy ricos en dinero,
ni en zapatos.
Pero andamos con la garganta sana,
y tenemos ganas de cantar.
Estamos en víspera de Santa Águeda
día de Euskal Herria,
El día que hemos elegido
para llenar las casa de alegría cantando.
Querida Santa hoy hemos cogido
a nuestro amigo del camino.
Con su ayuda podemos llenar
de esperanza este día.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j4ZZ4gJHwo
In the morning, a group of children from a local primary school sang outside our flat. This was fascinating because it was an extraordinarily multicultural group, presumably from the area round the corner from the Casco Viejo where many immigrants live. There was hardly a Basque face amongst them – mostly South Americans and West Africans – but they were all singing the hymn of Santa Agueda in Euskera and wearing smocks and berets.
And it's not just choirs that do it. Here are the firemen ('bomberos') of Bilbao singing the Santa Agueda hymn:
http://www.eitb.com/es/videos/detalle/1246744/video-santa-agueda--los-bomberos-bilbao-cantan-santa-agueda/
This was the view from our balcony last night as the Bilbainos came out in force to dance and sing and drink.
Hasta luego, chicos y chicas!