Bastida / Labastida

We continued our journey by bus from Logrono to Haro. Haro is in the centre of Rioja, Spain's wine producing region. Every year they hold a wine festival to celebrate, and this includes a wine fight up in the hills, using up much of the low-grade wine which would otherwise be sent to be made into vinegar.

We arrived Friday morning, with the festivities set to start in the afternoon. One of the first things we were greeted with was a fountain which had been dyed red... A sign of things to come. We made our way to our accommodation, which happened to look right out over one of the squares where much of the partying would take place. After sorting some supplies, we headed to the main square for some food and enjoyed a small parade heading through the square.

Slowly the square outside our apartment window between to fill with people as marching bands made their way through and the local bars tested their sound systems out. By nightfall the square was packed. We attempted to get amongst everything but couldn't get through the wall of people. It was also a touch chilly so we retreated back to our apartment and opened the window to let the music and atmosphere in so we could have our own little private party. We eventually went to bed about 2am, with the party still going full tilt out our window.

We awoke at 6.30am and had a good look at the carnage outside in the square. Broken glass and spilled drinks everywhere - but the clean up crew was in full swing. We geared up with water guns and wine and headed off in search of the buses to take us to the hills for the wine fight. The temperature was very cold (probably only 15 degrees) and Vela was shivering even though she was dry. With rain in the forecast we decided to forgo the wine fight. This was a bit of a shame as it was the main reason we came to Haro, and had the weather been sunny it would have been awesome, but it was the right call to look after our health at the end of the day.

We went back to our apartment for a bit more of a nap. Slowly the wine fighters filtered back into the square, their white shirts from the night before decidedly grape coloured now. We headed back down to enjoy the music and atmosphere and made sure to have a couple glasses of red wine while we were at it (only 1.30eur per glass!) There were marching bands, making their way around, and once they headed home there were people with big speakers in trolleys to take their place. It was a great time having a little boogie in the streets with the locals!

All-in-all, we didn't quite manage to do what we had planned, but we had a great time and would definitely come back again in the future (time and money allowing) for a second attempt!Weiterlesen