Every so often when I used my credit card during our stay in the Basque beach town of San Sebastian I would learn a new little tidbit of information about my heritage and the name Ulibarri from the person swiping my card- as you can imagine this made overspending a problem as I was eager to fling my credit card all over the place to see what else I could learn.
During one of these spending endeavors we learned there was actually a village named Ulibarri and without missing a beat husband and I looked at each other and said we have to go! At that moment I was determined to get a photo next to a sign with my name on it.
From there we set out on our adventure. We drove for over 2 hours up and around through the mountains grinning ear to ear at the scenery, enjoying the breeze from our windows and the rhythm of the salsa music coming from our speakers.
We drove through century old villages- or a more accurate description would be; we got lost in century old villages, driving down streets that certainly did not look like streets, giving onlookers definitely something to ponder. It was quite obvious that outsiders are not a normal occurrence. After circling around a few times, driving down an uncertain dirt road, and our GPS completely giving up on us, we figured we'd better ask for a little help.
We came across a group of older women, that seemed to be very amused by us and we asked for a little guidance. They gave us a funny look and asked what Ulibarri are you looking for? This whole mountainous region is Ulibarri. As exciting as it was to learn that an entire region shares my name- the land of Ulibarri as my husband likes to call it- I was disappointed to learn that I may not get my picture.
After spending a few more moments letting the locals be entertained by us we did learn that within the land of Ulibarri, there was indeed two villages with the name Ulibarri. Yes! I was going to get my picture after all and off we went.
After another hour in the car, there it was. My sign. But wait! They got the spelling all wrong- there were two "L"s in this sign, my heart sank a little but decided it was close enough and I'd snap a quick few pictures.
After talking to a few more locals, we learned that the other Ulibarri village has the correct spelling and that this village was given two "L"'s to differentiate between the two villages.
Looks like our adventure wasn't over just yet....
1 comment:
That photo is beautiful and what a great story! You write so well, and this story you should save if you ever have kids. It's a little did bit from your like and would be a part of their heritage.
Can't wait to see you with YOUR sign!!!!!
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