Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Sun Also Rises, From Hemingway's Room



The Hostel Burguete, Where -- in the 1920s -- Hemingway, Hadley & Friends Stayed Several Times and in the Fictional Account Known as "The Sun Also Rises"
July, 6th, 2013, Burguete, Spain -- I write this post from the very same room that Ernest Hemingway stayed in and later wrote about in great detail in "The Sun Also Rises". I am up early on the morning of the Saint Fermin Festival's first day, writing in the same room that EH wrote in, looking out on the same unchanged landscape.


Hemingway's Room Number (Photo by Drew Smith)


Hemingway's Window at Sunrise: "When I woke in the morning I went to the window and looked out. It had cleared and there were no clouds on the mountains" Excerpt from The Sun Also Rises
This is indeed turning into my own Woody Allen nostalgic "pinch me" tour. I am also writing this at the same time Ernest himself would have written, at the break of dawn, with roosters crowing outside my open window, which looks out onto the Irati Forest and valley -- the mountains in silhouette against still dark skies.

Below is the Courtyard where once there "were some old carts and an old diligence..." 

"It was cool outside in the early morning and the sun had not yet dried the dew that had come when the wind died down. I hunted around in the shed behind the inn and found a sort of mattock, and went down toward the stream to try and dig some worms for bait. The stream was clear and shallow but it did not look trouty." The Sun Also Rises
From out side the window in the picture above you can see the old shed (pitched roof and black door), still standing and still paddocked as it must have been in the 1920s. The brook where he dug for worms is down a path behind this shed about 200 yards, about where the treeline meets the brown pasture.

Hemingway's Room" "After supper we went up-stairs and smoked and read in bed to keep warm. Once in the night I woke and heard the wind blowing. It felt good to be warm and in bed." The Sun Also Rises

It was cold, but not viewing-my-breath-cold, as it was in the novel. The Pyrenees are in the background, the same ones that Drew and I hiked yesterday in preparation for our Kilimanjaro hike later.

"There were two beds, a washstand, clothes-chest..." The Sun Also Rises

"and a big, framed steel-engraving of Nuestra Senora de Roncesvalles." The Sun Also Rises
It is hard to describe this feeling for you. The room is just as he described it himself in the book on his visit to the village of Burguete. There is a picture of him outside the door marking this as his room.

The Famous Photo of EH outside the Entrance
They serve trout from the Irati river in the cafe, and the downstairs is just as it was, with the piano, the same prints, and all the rest as described in the book. On Trip Adviser and in a NY Times article about this hotel it mentioned that the good thing is that "nothing has changed" and it does not seem to be a tourist mecca or have been spoiled at all by -- lets be honest -- people like me. It also mentions, however, that the sparseness of the room suggests that it really has not changed any at all. Of course, that is exactly as I would have it.

The Downstairs Entrance: "It had a stone floor, low ceiling, and was oak panelled." The Sun Also Rises
The owners of the hotel spoke little to no English. My Spanish speaking son had to interpret for us. As with my post entitled "Midnight in Barcelona" this experience gave off a similar eerie feeling. It was if we really had gone back in time to the 1920's. Like the book, we practically had the place to ourselves. They charge a little more for the Hemingway room than the others, but still it was very cheap to stay here. Hemingway's favorite room in Pamplona costs thousands to rent per night and is booked years in advance. This one, arguably more interesting, is a steal.

The old woman who greeted us had to be the granddaughter of the woman in the book..."The fat woman who ran the inn came out from the kitchen and shook hands with us..." There is a small photo of an old woman on the door to the kitchen who looks a lot like this woman... could it be?

We did not have time to go fishing, nor to stay longer than about a half day and a night.  But Drew and I did go on a hike that followed much the same route as in the book, down to the Irati River and back, as Dad rested in the Inn.


The Village of Burguete, in the Navarre Hills of Northern Span: "As we came to the edge of the rise we saw the red roofs and white houses of Burguete ahead and strung out on the plain, and away off on the shoulder of the first dark mountain was the gray metal-sheathed roof of the monastery of Roncesvalles." The Sun Also Rises (Photo by Drew Smith)


"We went up the street, past the whitewashed stone houses, families sitting in their doorways watching us, to the inn." The Sun Also Rises (photo by Drew Smith)

"The houses of Burguete were along both sides of the road. There were no side-streets. We passed the church and the schoolyard, and the bus stopped." The Sun Also Rises (Photo courtesy Drew Smith)
"'We have to follow this road along the ridge, cross the hills, go through the woods on the far hills, and come down to the Irait valley,' I pointed out to Bill. That's a Hell of a Hike.'" The Sun Also Rises (photo courtesy Drew Smith)
"We started up the road and then went across a meadow and found a path that crossed the fields and went toward the woods on the slope of the first hill. We walked across the fields on the sandy path. The fields were rolling and grassy and the grass was short from the sheep grazing. " The Sun Also Rises (photo by Drew Smith)
"The cattle were up in the hills. We heard their bells in the woods." The Sun Also Rises


The path crossed a stream on a foot-log. The log was surfaced off, and there was a sapling bent across for a rail. In the flat pool beside the stream tadpoles spotted the sand. We went up a steep bank and across the rolling fields."

"Looking back we saw Burguete, white houses and red roofs, and the white road with a truck going along it and the dust rising." The Sun Also Rises (photo by Drew Smith) 

"Beyond the fields we crossed another faster-flowing stream. A sandy road led down to the ford and beyond into the woods." The Sun Also Rises (photo by Drew Smith)

"Way off we saw the steep bluffs, dark with trees and jutting with gray stone, that marked the course of the Irati River." The Sun Also Rises (photo by Drew Smith)
"The road came out from the shadow of the woods into the hot sun. Ahead was a river-valley. Beyond the valley was a steep hill. There was a field of buckwheat on the hill. We saw a white house under some trees on the hillside." The Sun Also Rises

"It was very hot and we stopped under some trees beside a dam that crossed a river.... The gate was up, and I sat on one of the squared timbers and watched the smooth apron of water before the river tumbled into the falls. In the white water at the foot of the dam it was deep. As I baited up, a trout shot up out of the white water into the falls and was carried down."  The Sun Also Rises (photo by Drew Smith)

"a smooth apron of water..." The Sun Also Rises (Photo by Drew Smith)


"We found a stream with a pool deep enough to swim in. " The Sun Also Rises Local children swimming in the Irati River. (Photo by Drew Smith) 


 "It was hot enough so that it felt good to wade in the cold stream, and the sun dried you when you came out and sat on the bank." The Sun Also Rises  -- Photo of me contemplating Hemingway, beside the Irati River , after taking a dip myself. The water is still "so cold my hand and wrist felt numbed..." and it is certainly cold enough to chill wine, as it was in the book.(photo by Drew Smith) 
After Drew and I made this hike we stopped at a roadside store, purchased the kind of practical things you can never find on a trip, and walked back to the Inn. It was dusk. There were several other real hikers coming south from the French border town of Saint Jean Pied de Port. In "The Sun Also Rises" Jake also meets an Englishman named Harris who is a hiker, and who they end up befriending for five days of fishing, drinking and playing three handed bridge. We did not make friends with any hikers, but there were several.

The Only Official Sign that this is Hemingway Turf --
a Map in Spanish Outlining His Favorite Spots of the Navarre Region

Drew and Dad outside the Hotel Burguete Before Leaving for The Fiesta
If you want to visit this area, the most popular hike is the one mentioned in the book from the Monastery of Roncesvalles to Pamplona. It is a beautiful yet challenging hike, mostly on what are today paved roadways. The Pyrenees are just as scary and steep as they look on TV.

"We started up the road into the woods. It was a long walk home to Burguete, and it was dark when we came down across the fields to the road, and along the road between the houses of the town, their windows lighted, to the inn." The Sun Also Rises

Headed for Pamplona and the first day of "The Fiesta" as the snow melt runs through the town's gutters. (photo by Drew Smith)
I wish I had more time here. It is a real village experience. There was one literary type I saw sipping wine and reading, jotting in her journal, at the side cafe next to the hotel.  Dad rested up after a long day of travelling across France the day before. We all hate to go now... but it is time for the Fiesta!

"Come on to Pamplona. We can play some bridge there, and there's going to be a damned fine fiesta." Jake Barns to Harris, the English hiker. The Sun Also Rises

NEXT WEEK: The Fiesta Kicks Off -- A Party Like No Other You Have EVER Seen-- I Promise






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