You Are Here – Euskadi

Here’s an interesting release for a country within a country. Officially, it is the Basque Autonomous Community, but probably a more common name is “The Basque Country”. Starbucks chose to use the local (Basque) name for the mug, hence the title is You Are Here Euskadi.
Speaking of the language, it is very important to note, that the Basque language (Euskera) is not related to Romance languages (Latin) like Spanish or French, and is one of the oldest languages that are being spoken today. At some point in time, the language was banned in Spain and people were forced to speak Castellano (Spanish). It is nice to see that Basque has been making a revival recently thanks to integration in the education system and media.

Here are a couple of things that inspired the design of the mug:
– I believe it is the Basque Pelota game, that the designer tried to depict on the front of the mug. I can’t say he did a great job, though. The curved stick is supposedly a “Zesta Punta”, which is used to catch the rubber ball and then hurled it into the wall (for it to bounce back). Some say, that the speed of the ball in the Basque Pelota is the fastest in any ball game.
– Oma Forest (Bosque de Oma) a.k.a. “painted forest” is a work of art created by Agustin Ibarrola in a forest near Kortezubi. The figures of humans and animals, as well as other geometric shapes, are painted on the trees (mostly pines) and became a point of attraction of this region. Oma Forest is unfortunately closed now, due to pines suffering damage from diseases and vandalism.

I would like to thank the reader of this blog for providing the pictures of the You Are Here Euskadi mug.