I lived in Spain for 5 years, and 4 out of those 5 I dated a basque girl.
Basques are really proud of their culture and specially their language that is, at the same time, highly "dialectal" (If there's such a word). My gf at the time was from San Sebastian, but lived in a small town near Bilbao called Amorebieta.
She studied in the university of Pamplona, Navarra; she had a roomate from Vitoria, the capital of Álava province (One of the 3 provinces that make Euskadi, the basque country * .) and there were many occurrences where one had to explain to the other the meaning of a word they used. They also are a bit wary of the "euskara batúa" (The "standard" basque) although it worries them more the fact that it seems the language is slowly being lost.
I picked several words along the way and I also asked her to teach me some phrases, one in particular that I still remember (although may be not 100% accurately):
Nirea da printxesen artean politena and she would scream in joy when I'd repeat that in front of her female friends.
* Navarra also has a strong basque heritage, but is not considered part of the basque country due to events in the spanish history were it would negotiate some political rights separately, and is a "principado" (principality? Princedom?).
They are also very, very tight knit families - Basques are somehow highly matriarchal - and they take proud in remembering all their "8 last names" (Specially if they all are of basque origin). Friend groups are also very tight knit, and a lot of people keep friendships they developed at an early age through their whole life.
Basques are also incredible loyal and hardworking people; but they also party like no one.
In Amorebieta a the time - ~2005 - I think there were only 4 or 5 bars, and on weekends people would go rotating constantly through them all (This was not particular to the town, but something that was normal for basques). On Sundays and holidays it was normal to find in the afternoon entire families having a drink at the sidewalk in the bars.
I know people from the UK had a certain fame about drinking, but let me tell you _nobody_ drinks & party like the Spaniards, and basques are at the top 3 of the Spanish nationalities of the list.
There's a rather entertaining book called "The Basque History of the World" [0] that claims, among other things, that the basques were also in America before Columbus and that more or less we own them the invention of salted cod that made possible the long journeys around the globe.
I left Spain 13 years ago, and to this day one of the things I miss the most is my basque family.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Basque-History-World-Story-Nation/dp/...
