For our third and last excursion with our program, we went to the biosphere called Urdaibai in Northern Spain, not too far from the Basque country trip we took in the South of France a few weeks ago. The UNESCO named this place a biosphere reserve. It is mostly forests and wildlife, and a few very important little towns. We stoped in Gernika in the reserve, which is the historical capital of the basque country. The little town, Guernika was bombed the 26th of April in 1937, during the Spanish civil was from 1936-1939. The town was in complete destruction.
We got to go to the Peace museum in the middle of Gernika, which exibited photos and remains from the bombings. We saw videos of people who actually lived through it and retold the story recently. It was a great musuem, there was one exhibit on the meaning of peace and quotes from famous people.
This was one of my favorites: "No hay caminos para la paz, paz es el camino" meaning there aren't any roads to peace, peace is the road- by M. Ghandi
"If I thought the world was going to end tommorrow, I would still plant a tree today." - Martin Luther King
It was great to see Gernika the town and experience / understand a little bit more of the history. We went to the Casa de Juntas, like the political headquarters of the town and of the Basque country. Every four years the Basque country President comes to this place to be sworn in. It is amazing how small the area is, but how huge the historical significance is. Oak trees are very important here, representing strength, and life after the war. There is a preserved oak tree over 300 years old near the Casa de Juntas that has been very important throughout history. It is funny to think these crazy spanairds have this huge attachment to a tree, but the more I think about it, we silly Americans have the same wierd attachments and sayings.
When I was in Madrid, I went to the Reina Sofia Mueseum and actually saw "Guernica" by Picasso, painted in 1937. He was commissioned to paint it right after the bombing which caused even more commotion and drew much more attention to the attrocity.
So after lunch we took the bus through windy wooded roads (not ideal when you have to pee) and stopped at this beautiful lookout over the Spanish coast. I ran off the bus to pee in the bushes and luckily I had a buddy with me, cus when the whole group got off the bus they came my way...not good, but they stopped so I could pee. One of my friends who went pee too was like "this is the closest you can be to Spain or Spanish nature rather..." Funny! Then we all hiked down the mountain to the ocean and then up stairs to this church on a rock far out on the coast. So it was about an hour and half downhill then up about 300 rocky stairs uphill to this church. I was thinking, before I started the trek, oh the stairs on the USF campus at Lone Mountain are about 150 I can do twice that no problem, ohhh my gosh!!!! All I can say now is that my butt has never hurt this much! We made it to the top and it it was so beautiful, you could see the blue ocean along the coast for miles and miles. We were perched up next to this church looking at the mountains and ocean, with the wind in our hair, you can just imagine...
Then we hiked back up trying to catch rides up from the few cars and picking flowers and taking breaks and looking at slugs. So all in all it took us about 2 hours to get back up. We then headed back on the bus and less than an hour later we were back home. Very tired last night I just passed out, plus I think I am getting a cold. My body was so achey. I told Conchi, my host woman, and she was like oh well then you need to drink this hot milk with like 20 teaspoons of honey in it. It was so sweet, but according to her it with cure your cold and aches. So I drank it and I am still a little achey and sick but maybe it will kick in later. I tell ya wierd spanish traditions!
Well, this morning I woke up and took the metro to the bus station and the bus to the airport. I know what you are thinking, where could she be going now? No No No, I went to pick up my friend Stephanie coming in from London at the airport. She lives in Denmark and is studying there this semester and is here to visit me this week. It was very nice for a change to go to the airport and not go anywhere. Traveling is great, but taking a break everyother weekend is a must! So we took the bus back and rested a little and now we are going to go out tonight so she can meet all my friends and the basque boys. It will however, be interesting since Steph speaks no Spanish! We go to USF together and have lived on the same floor the last two years in the dorms. She is great and so energetic so this will be a great week!
Hasta pronto....
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