The Dozen or so Euskara Words we Know (and Use) in Bilbao, Part 2

In 2023 Rachel and I took 3 weeks off to take a longer European summer vacation. This one nearly got ruined before we even left DC. However, by the time it was over, it became one of the reasons we cite for why we chose Bilbao for our Spanish residency.

This post is the second of a series, to view the first post where I explain “Aupa, Eskerrik Asko, Agur,” click here. To view the third post, where I cover some terms specific to the Basque experience, click here.

Our original plan, which we had (and still have…) on our wishlist for years was to visit the Azores, the Portuguese archipelago in the center of the North Atlantic ocean. We had everything booked for a full week on the islands, which would precede making our way to the mainland with stops in Bilbao, Santander, and Vienna. Our flight itinerary was to be a quick hop from DCA to Newark, then a direct overseas flight from Newark to Ponta Delgada.

Our flight for the Newark leg never took off; in fact, despite United Airlines running four daily flights from DCA to Newark, none of them made the trip for several days. Evidently, some weather event somewhere had thrown a wrench into United’s scheduling system, and despite it being clear and sunny in DC, they didn’t have the planes on the ground to make the trip. Whatever it was, on our third day of being stranded by United in DC, we opted to cancel the Azores trip and instead fly direct from Dulles to Lisbon, and start our vacation from there. Naturally, because it was “weather related,” and because it was our decision to make the change, we had to eat much of the cost. That, my friends, is the last time that we booked a flight on United Airlines (I wish I could say it was the last time we flew with them, but as I said, we never flew).

In the end, we made the most of it, and spent a few days in Nazare, a small fishing town about an hour north of Lisbon that is famous for having the largest surfing waves in the entire world. The waves weren’t extraordinary that week, though still 10-15 footers, which are larger than I’d seen anywhere else. It was a beautiful little beach town, however, and I ate the most delicious clams I’ve had in my entire life.

After a few days in Nazare, we headed back to Lisbon to catch the direct flight to Bilbao, where we experienced an event you may not expect.

Ongi Etorri

We arrived in Bilbao on July 1, 2023, which happened to be the same day as the starting leg of the Tour de France in the Basque Country. That’s right, despite not being in France (or Spain…), Bilbao was hosting the Tour de France. Unlike when we dropped into Aste Nagusia in 2019 without knowing in advance that it was happening, in this case we had some advanced warning of the event, mostly in the form of hotel rooms being more expensive, and limited transportation into the city center. We found our way to our hotel, where we started our week in Bilbao, and witnessed the start of le Tour, which was mostly a slow-speed parade of cyclists and their support vehicles through the narrow city streets before they departed for the real race through the countryside.

Ongi Etorri featured heavily in the marketing materials for the Tour de France fan fest, and can continue to be found in the racing camisetas that you can pick up at souvenir shops. It continues to be a part of the standard imagery when you arrive in Bilbao at the airport or via train, and is the default wifi password at a lot of local establishments. Ongi Etorri is Euskara for welcome, and though I don’t necessarily say or hear it every day, it has a certain prevalence throughout the Basque Country, especially in visual media.

Egun On

In Bilbao, but really anywhere in Spain, the convention when you address someone fairly early in the day is to use buenas dias (Castellano), which translates directly to “good days” (plural for some reason), but is closer contextually to “good morning.” Truthfully, we hear a bit more of hola buenas (hello good), or just buenas on its own, but the point still stands, its the standard early day greeting.

What threw us off for a while is, if the expression means “good morning,” why do people keep saying it to us when its, like, 3 in the afternoon? So we asked our neighbors, and the general consensus is that, in Spanish, “morning” is not delineated by the hour on the clock, rather, but by the meals that you have eaten. In other words, mañana lasts until the time you eat lunch, from that time until you eat dinner is tarde, after dinner is noche. Makes sense, I suppose, as long as you keep your lunch hour synchronized with your friends and coworkers.

Egun on is “good morning” in Euskara, and like its English or Castellano counterparts, makes daily appearances in normal life. I have to admit, I don’t use it a ton, as buenas dias still comes a bit more naturally to me, but its presence is apparent if you pay attention. And pay attention you must, as egun on can blend in a bit if you’re not listening, or can be mistaken for agur, which I probably do.

Gabon

Saying goodbye in Euskadi can be a lengthy process, and you should always factor in several minutes at the end of any social gathering to make your getaway.

First of all, it can be considered bad form to get up and leave if others at the table have not yet finished. If any individual still has something left in their glass, you should always wait for them to finish before you be on your way. Of course, this runs the risk that somebody else decides to order another round and start the cycle over, but that’s a risk you have to take.

Second of all, there is a whole string of words that you need to say on your way out:

• agur: I’ve mentioned this already as being the single most common Euskara word in our experience.
• venga: I can’t explain this one, venga means “come on” in Castellano but its somehow part of the goodbye sequence among the Basques. I’ve asked our neighbors, “why do you say venga when saying goodbye?” And they’ve reassured me, it means “come on,” which lends no clarity to the situation.
• hasta mañana: Another one that is a bit confusing as this is “see you tomorrow” in Castellano. In Bilbao, you always tell someone that you will see them tomorrow, not “later” or “soon,” always “tomorrow.”

The whole goodbye sequence ends with gabon, which means “good night.”

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Something interesting we’ve observed in our limited exposure to Euskara is the reuse of words, sometimes in surprising ways. We learned gabon fairly early in our first year here, as soon as we started seeing our neighbors with frequency for late nights at Bar Ereaga. It was much later, specifically in December 2024, when we learned that gabon also means “Christmas.” This one of a few cases where Euskara can make a little bit more sense if you think of it through the lens of a Spaniard. If you know a bit about Spanish and Latin American culture, you might recognize that they don’t say Christmas Eve in Castellano, they say nochebuena. That is to say, as Christmas Eve in Spain translates to English as “good night,” so too it does in Euskara.

This post is the second of a series, to view the first post where I explain “Aupa, Eskerrik Asko, Agur,” click here. To view the third post, where I cover some terms specific to the Basque experience, click here.