At St. Louis University Madrid, a retreat was organized to visit Loyola, in the Basque Country. I have been traveling constantly for about two months straight. In other words, every weekend I go somewhere and then return to Madrid for school during the week. So I decided that going on a retreat would be a good idea. Granted, it was still considered traveling, but I thought it would be a good getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life. And boy I was right.
On the way to Loyola everyone slept on the bus. Upon our arrival, we woke up to sunshine and green hills everywhere. Loyola is a small, quiet place where even the center of town is tranquil. The reason for the retreat was to visit where San Ignatius de Loyola grew up, who is the man who founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Ignatius grew up in a wealthy family and was a reckless, prideful womanizer who was injured while fighting as a soldier in the Battle of Pomplona. Ignatius’ serious injury forced him to be bed-ridden and, during his long recovery, he only had a book on the life of Christ and a book about the life of the saints to read. This soon led to Ignatius’ spiritual conversion and caused him to become the founder of the Jesuits. During our retreat we had the opportunity to visit where Ignatius grew up as well as see what room he underwent his recovery and conversion in. We were also able to see the Loyola Basilica, which is a beautiful church with a golden interior and a chandelier hanging down from the dome in the center.
Our retreat group was lucky enough to visit Loyola during the most beautiful weather possible. We stripped down to tank tops and shorts and played in the sun like we were five years old again, making flower crowns and laying in the bright green grass. Some of us even got sunburned. It was a perfect place for me to get away from my busy, relentless go-go-go mindset of the previous few weeks from trying to visit as many places in Europe as I could.
Besides taking the opportunity to enjoy a peaceful trip to the green Basque Country, I learned that this part of Spain has an almost different nationality. First of all, they speak Basque instead of Spanish. While walking around Loyola I even saw posters written in a language that was definitely not Spanish, which was strange to me considering I was still in fact in Spain. Another interesting thing is that the Basque Country is also referred to as the Basque Autonomous Community. Apparently some people of the Basque Country consider themselves as separate from Spain. I had no idea upon visiting Loyola that I would see the more independent part of Spain (I had actually heard something of the sort before), so it was kind of exciting to see this particular part of Northern Spain.
Lastly, while on my retreat, I learned about the Camino de Santiago, which is a month-long pilgrimage route to the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela (we watched the movie “The Way” on our bus ride home). I am saying right now that no matter what happens I will hike the Camino de Santiago at some point of my life (and maybe I’ll even write about it). Just watching the movie was enough to add this pilgrimage to my bucket list.
And I will do it!
Two years later, I did walk the Camino, just as I had promised. Read about my incredible journey here.
