Pamplona, Spain: through Irish Eyes!

Note: What follows is the entirely subjective rant of an Irishman who has spent the last 8 years in self imposed exile in Pamplona, Navarre. All prejudices & observations are the author's own and not intended to cause any offence to his Navarran, Basque, Spanish Iberian hosts or whatever they may chose to use.

Spain is football loco, and this year's Champions League promises to be eagerly watched in homes and bars the length and breadth of the Iberian peninsula with fans of the 2006 CL winners, FC Barcelona, holding their breath as they take on the reigning champions Manchester United. In domestic football, there was recent controversy in the King's Cup (Copa del Rey, the Spanish equivalent of the English FA Cup) final between the Catalan titans, Barça, & the Basque Country's own Athletic Bilbao when the national TV broadcaster avoided screening the national anthem at the game's kick off due to the supporters of both clubs being notoriously nationalistic (pro Catalan/ Basque independence). In the end, the TV Station's Director General was the one who got the boot for screening a version with the whistles and jeers airbrushed out at half time and only using shots only of the few supporters standing to attention to the lyric less Marcha Real.

The effects 30 years on of a Madrid based centralised dictatorship still are felt acutely in this self proclaimed "State of Autonomies". Indeed, Spain is one of the most decentralized countries in Europe boasting 17 autonomous communities with a pair of North African autonomous cities for good measure. Politics aside, both sets of fans, in sporting terms were the real winners with the rare spectacle of them applauding each other and their teams despite the Culés ("the bums", so called due to the fact that the fan's derrieres protruded from the upper tiers of their old stadium's stands) 4 –1 thrashing of the all Basque side. Barcelona, last weekend, have added the la Liga title to their cup win. But then they went lost the last game of the season to Pamplona's own Osasuna ("health" in Basque). All local football passion is channelled into their nickname "los rojillos" (the reds), but alas Osasuna are currently are in the process of saying goodbye to La Liga football. A hardworking team, who are finding out that they can't run on fervour alone. If they beat Real Madrid next weekend they will have another season in the Spanish Premiership, then could lightning strike in the same place twice?

Spanish Cycling has a Pamplonican chico as its favourite son: Miguel Indurain is best known for consecutively winning the Tour de France from 1991 to 1995, becoming only the fourth person to win the event five times, and the first to win five in a row. Indurain's ability and physical size—1.88 m tall and 80 kg in weight—earned him the nickname "Miguelón" or "Big Mig". His fame was truly writ in stone when archaeologists in Atapuerca circa 1992 - between digging and watching Big Mig win that year's Giro - nicknamed a Homo heidelbergensis cranium Miguelón, in his honour. His character says much of the archetypal Pamplonican poker face, succinctly summed up by his Italian rival Claudio Chiappucci "You'd see him there, attacking, with that smile on his face, and you couldn't tell whether he was tired, faking it or laughing at you." His decency and nobility and that too of his fellow citizens is encapsulated in the words of his contemporary English cyclist Chris Boardman "Indurain makes me sick because he's actually a really nice guy. You can't actually work yourself up, there's no hate involved, no anger. He's a really nice bloke and a true champion."

Indeed, the locals literally and metaphorically keep their cards close to their chest and their after dinner card game Mus, is perhaps the Spanish card game. It is played between two opposing pairs of players with the Spanish 40 card deck, without eights or nines and no jokers, which unsurprisingly has a variety of different rules in the different autonomous regions of Spain. The game has four rounds and for this non-card playing Irishman is impossible to learn, or too much of a distraction for the post lunch digestivo & chat, the sobremesa!

Basque handball too is a favourite for sportspeople & gamblers alike, known as Pelota in Spanish, it is played with a ball using either one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat or a basket "launcher", against three walls of the court. Pelota truly took its place on the international stage when, Lenny, Homer Simpson's friend, is shown in an episode to live in a pelota court. Pelota for the Olympics anyone?

San Fermín, when for 9 days every July this out of the world festival is launched with a the firing of a rocket at noon on the 6th. Only then can the white-clad revellers dutifully don their red scarves around their necks, symbolising the blood spilt from the slit throat of the eponymous martyr, San Fermin, who headed off from the world in Amiens in the 3rd century AD. Hemingway wrote Fiesta about his time here and Pamplona, from the 6^th to the 14^th July, is the word's very definition. It is Europe's greatest knees up which prompted the late Daily Mail sportswriter Ian Wooldridge (who ran with the bulls 23 times) to note: "There is a theory that middle-aged men go in pursuit of lost youth and young men in search of maturity. That's too profound for me. I went because you are surrounded by like-minded friends at one of the last sporting hurrahs in the world." In short, the merry maker's Mecca.

As with Ireland, religion & politics are taboo subjects not to be raised lightly. While the Catholic church is omnipresent in Spanish life, the vast majority of Navarrans practise an a la carte form of Catholicism: baptisms, communions, weddings and funerals are the social sacraments devoutly adhered too, whereas weekly mass attendance is not seen as a prerequisite for what is essentially a cultural Catholicism. For those in need of a greater fix, Opus Dei are well entrenched in the Navarre capital with their prestigious private University hospital and top ranking university on whose campus's verdant banks heavy petting is frowned upon in particular. People are also tight lipped about Basque terrorism and the legacy of the Spanish Civil war: few locals will tell you, or each other, who they vote for. Mass demonstrations are as popular as the post march pintxo accompanying them (an elaborate tapa which doesn't come gratis), and people will orderly take to the streets to peacefully protest and catch up with the gossip en route as often as possible.

Bright colours aren't abundant here: with sombre greys and autumnal browns abounding. People still dress up on Sundays, but more to take the aperitif than the Eucharist and in the evening the streets of the old part become a communal cat walk. Pamplona is a middle class city in the foothills of the Pyrenees thus the casual look is one of mountain/ trekking wear rather than Olympic Village esque track and shell suits that might be seen around other British/ Irish provincial capitals. For those with more Pijo (posh) aspirations the typical horde of international labels are de rigueur to create the hybrid English country gent/ preppy American look. To cultivate an aberchale, or left wing Basque punkish style: stripes, tight Black pants, mullet hairstyle, Palestinian scarf & piercings are a must.

As the weather is best described as being schizophrenic here Navarrans usually drape a jumper over their shoulders (or bring a jacket) "por sea caso", just in case, an evening chill creeps in. Indeed the joke of how one could spot a Navarran on a nudist beach - "s/he's the one with the jumper (or jacket) hung round their neck just in case" - testifies to this.

Do:

• Kiss a señorita on each cheek, a señor would settle with a firm handshake.
• Keep saying "Por favor" & "Gracias", even though you mightn't hear them in return.
• Throw cigarette ends, the husks of sunflower seeds, napkins and toothpicks on the floor of the bar you might venture into: it is all swept up at regular intervals.
• Try the deliciously oily and salty foie pintxo in Bar Gaucho and the fritos in Café Roch.
• Remember that you can eat in Hobbit-esque fashion up to 5 times a day – beginning with breakfast (07.00 - 08.00), the second breakfast (almuerzo) around 11.30, lunch (14.00 - 17.00) merienda (an evening snack) and finally the cena, anytime after nine.
• Add coke to red wine to sample the tipple that Sanfermines runs on Kalimocho.

Don't:

• Wear an "I love Spain" T-shirt whilst bar hopping in the more Basque leaning Navarreria part of the old town.
• Think that a third Paxaran is a good idea ...
• Suggest that San Sebastian might be more likely to be selected as the 2016 European Capital of Culture than Pamplona.
• Try to going shopping between two and five.
• Try to be too punctual, you'll be disappointed.

Is best done locally with an array of family owned businesses in the warren of medieval streets in the old part of town, within a 10 minutes walk from the main square of Plaza del Castillo will encompass all the shops you might need visit. The internationally famous Kukuxumusu label has its HQ at the top of the Bull running thoroughfare, Estafeta and their irreverent cartoon T Shirt range are handy gifts. For the more discerning clothes shopper try a couple of the unique boutiques like Ruhna and Le Petit Atelier in the old part. There too you will find the latest to have opened, Minx, on whose rails the creations of local designers and dressmakers hang with chic international designs. Two English speaking designers co-own the shop and other than selling clothes & art books they regularly hold local art exhibitions on the shop's walls, a refreshing change from faceless generic globalisation .

Donezar – for artisan candles made on the premises since 1853 using wax from the owners very own bee hives.

Murillo, a wine shop you could imagine Hemingway patronising, a good place to purchase the distinctive ridged bottle containing the local sloe-berry liquor, Paxaran ...

Miquelez, Av. Roncesvalles. – vast array of antiques and local curiosities with knowledgeable, friendly & English speaking owners.

For Flea Market type antiques try the square outside the School of Languages in Calle Compañia the first Saturday of every month ...

Santa Domingo market for Fresh fruit and veg – much of which is grown within spitting distance of the market, in the fertile fields surrounding the River Arga that hugs moat-like around the city's ancient walls.

The San Fermin festival, see above. But also the churches of Pamplona's old part where on the Camino de Santiago scallop shell toting pilgrims pass through en route to Santiago de Compostela.

Schizophrenic, a jacket just in case! Warm summers & autumns with biting cold winters with a bit of everything in spring for good measure.