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Published: June 23rd 2008
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Wind Farm
Phil, Morgan, Nails(the dog) and Clothilde beneath a huge wind mill. The wind farm was visible from our truck. We spent the afternoon and evening on the train from Briatico to Rome. From the trainstop we had to take a shuttle to the Ciampino airport. We arrived just after midnight which is when the Departures area of the airport closes. we ended up sleeping on the concrete in a corner of a construction area, but we at least had some shelter against the rain. When the airport opened, we found our gate and flew to Spain. We thought we bought tickets to Barcelona but the truth of the matter is that Barcelona(Girona) is actually an hour north of Barcelona. We took a bus to the Girona train station and reached Barcelona over an hour later. our destination was Tortosa, a small city 2 hours south of Barcelona. Phil, the farm owner, met us at the train station and took us with him to shop for food. Phil, from england, runs the small almond farm in the rocky mountains outside Tortosa with Clothilde, born in france but for all intesive purposes English. They had just returned from three months in southeast Asia and in Australia mainly on a campaign to help save old growth forests in Tasmania from destruction. a corrupt
Our Home
We lived in a truck on the side of a mountain in Spain for a month. company is destroying these forests with some of the largest hardwood trees in the world for pulp at nine cents a ton which is then made into paper. There is a group of activists there trying to protect the trees by nonviolent means. They risk their lives building small platforms hundreds of feet up in the trees supported only with cables that block the roads so that the logging companies cant get through until they careful retie all of the cable supports out of harms way and remove the activist from the trees. Another means of hinderence is burying activists in concrete tubes that will collapse if the loggers run their heavy machinery over the section of road. These activities stop the destruction for a few days and must be repeated regularly and jailed activists must be replaced. for more information go to
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/tasmania/
Phil and Clothilde earn money working in England at large festivals working on sets and helping with events. The strong English Pound lasts long in Spain, where they spend winter and spring. They have had some involvement with free parties around europe, where they show up in a field with lights and a sound system
Our Bathroom
Our Outhouse was only a 5 minute walk down the side of the terraced mountain. and attract tens of thousands of people. these parties are free but illegal. the sudden arrival of vast crowds prevented any interference from small police forces. This all ended when one year a party reached nearly 40,000. the next year police planned ahead and arrived in force with clubs, shields, tear gas and rubber bullets. Phil and Clothilde, professional squatters during their months in expensive London, struck paydirt when upon being evicted from a squat helped to remove some artwork of perhaps the most famous graffiti artist, Banksy. After Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie showed interest and appreciation for his graffiti, the art became very valuable. The proceeds from the auctions has been split amongst the squatters, with some of the moneys going to donation.
The Almond farm where we worked for a month is on the side of a rocky mountain outside of Tortosa. We were dropped off near the top of the mountain at a truck that was to be our home. The house is a five minute walk down steep switchbacks. our outhouse was located near the house, down the mountainside from our truck. We bathed with a mug, a bowl, and water heated in a
Terraces
The almond farm where we worked in Spain was on the side of a mountain that had been dry stone-wall terraced hundreds and hundreds of years ago. We spent a lot of time rebuilding fallen walls. kettle on a burner. Our first night in Tortosa was spent at a spanish rock concert and an afterparty exchanging youtube favorites until 6am. We spent the next afternoon in a windfarm whose windmills are visible from our truck on the side of the mountain. At this farm we worked five days a week for as many hours we were willing to work each day with the weekends off. i started out strimming(weedeating) for the first week. most spanish farmers are very fond of herbicides to handle their land, but being organic requires more work, no poison. i levelled off a terrace rutted by a tracked excavator during rainy weather. morgan began pruning the slightly shaggy almond trees. of course this created my next job which was to gather and burn all of the cuttings from this year and last. i started to rebuild a large terrace wall above the house which morgan continued and the two of us finished together. We also dug and poured a reinforced footer for a workshop and began to build, reinforce, and fill the cinder-block wall. i also spent a lot of my time helping phil and clothilde build a sun room onto the
Day at the Beach
Evie, Morgan, Clothilde, and Rob at the beach for a day. Phil was swimming and Nails wasn't allowed on the beach. existing house. i mixed loads of cement and lugged it around. morgan and i rebuilt a few compost piles and moved building materials like 6 tons of gravel and stacks of cinderblocks down the difficult to navigate mountainside. we did a few other jobs that dont bear mentioning.
We had to go to an internet point in Tortosa for phones and internet. The distance was inconvenient but the frequency at which phil needed to connect made it ok. one sunday morgan and i walked through the mountain roads to Tortosa and explored the cathedral, the river and the castle at the top of a hill overlooking the city. we were invited along with our hosts to a neighbors home for dinner. miguel, a catalan mechanic, and his kazakhstani wife treated us to a wonderful spanish meal. along with miguel, we became acquainted with many of our hosts' friends through parties and barbeques. we became especially fond of a young English couple that owned a small olive farm nearby. Rob loves to build with concrete and Evie majored in broadcasting. We spent the night at their house one night when a party ran really late and got to know them
Sunset
Morgan, Phil, and Clothilde at sunset after a long day of work. pretty well.
the last several days we spent in tortosa was part of a week-long party for friends of phil and Clothilde who were getting married. I dont really know when the party had started but we joined in on saturday when the wedding was to be held. It was ironic that wedding guests from rainy england travelling to sunny spain actually left unusually sunny and warm weather in england for a constant downpour in spain. most of the guests were supporters or adherents to a countercultural nomadic lifestyle; it was mostly caravans parked on the spanish mountain. our host were absorbed into the mob. luckily for us evie and rob hung out with morgan and i. As a group we clicked. Morgan and i got along with Rob and Evie better than with any couple we have spent time with. not that we havent enjoyed many other individuals we have come into contact with, but as a group of four noone was ever left out. i could easily have an interesting conversation with evie while rob and morgan talked then i could get into a conversation with rob if morgan and evie began to talk to one another.
Photoshoot
Miguel, Evie, and Rob at the "Activist Holiday" photoshoot to promote spending vacations doing the world some good. usually morgan knows or clicks with a couple and i am left to listen or i know a couple and morgan is left out or morgan and i know one member of a couple better than the other and the other is left out. the four of us just sincerely and painlessly got along and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. so instead of passing out in a muddy ditch Rob and evie took us back to their finca in the mountains, gave us a bed to sleep in, and made us pancakes in the morning. we spent the next day and night with rob and evie as our hosts were still at the wedding party. our last day with our hosts was then spent setting up a party to put an end to the week-long wedding festivities.
From Tortosa we took a train to Barcelona to spend a few days before heading to Ireland. Barcelona is a fun and lively city. it is the capital of Catalonia. Barcelona was influenced by contemporaries Dali, Picasso, and Gaudi. We stayed in a hostel very near the Picasso museum and close to las Ramblas.
We spent time in the Picasso museum
A Haven of Peace
Rob and Evie's home in the mountains of Spain. which highlighted the artists work in Barcelona. We spent one day on our own Gaudi tour. we visited several of his busy, melting architectural accomplishments including the Cathedral which is still under construction called Sagrada Familia(Sacred Family). and we ended our tour in Guell Park which was designed by Gaudi. We walked to the sea and listened to some street music on our last day.We made our way back to Girona on our way to dublin trying to sell or give away unused metro tickets leftover because it is so easy to walk around Barcelona.
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Nathan Quinn
non-member comment
Spain
Cant wait to see Ireland! Nice job Josh.