Hi! Time for yet another belated blog post!
I was going to update on everyday stuff too, instead of just my January trips, but that made this already long post unmanageable, so I’ll save that for later when I don’t have anything super fun to report on.
So, Galicia!
I went from January 20-22, heading straight to the airport after work that Thursday. When I got in, signs and stuff were already in Galician, with Castilian and English in small print, which was super exciting for me because I’m a huge nerd. In the cities, everyone speaks Castilian, and lots of people prefer it for everyday use. Plus their Castilian is WAY easier to understand than Andalú, so that was a wonderful treat.
Fun graffiti: “Galicia is not Spain.” Alrighty then.
This was my first sans Julie Couchsurfing experience, and it was great. My host was a guy named Ger, who I can’t remember if he was from Santiago or Pontevedra, the capital of another province in Galicia. He has apartments in both since he goes back and forth so much, so I actually got to see both (plus my own trip to A Coruña one afternoon). Kind of like my invisible roommate María, who goes to Huelva every weekend.
Look, a picture with people!
So Ger picked me up when I got into Santiago de Compostela, and we went to see downtown, la ciudad vieja, at night. The buildings were AMAZING, namely the cathedral that’s the end point for the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage to that cathedral, where the apostle James’ tomb supposedly is.
I’m not 100% convinced he’s actually there, but it made for an absolutely fascinating aspect of the visit. There’s not much tourism in Santiago apart from that, but it’s such an important part of the city, you can see it everywhere. Literally. There are signs on the roads and little brass shells in the sidewalks every 10 meters or so to mark the way. This was most convenient for me, as it eliminated the need for a map as I was trying to figure out how to get downtown.
Here are some pictures with Camino de Santiago shenanigans:
Modern prayer candles—you text the number on the screen and your candle lights up:
The Botafumeiro—a HUGE incense thing used during pilgrims’ masses, because they used to stink up the church so bad when they got there. Ger and I just popped in and were lucky enough to see it in action. (Sorry, you have to tilt your head for this one.)
These were the guys running it. I'm guessing they have lots of training, because that thing is heavy. Also if they misdirect it, it'd hit the gold handrail and make a lot of noise. Or if it hit a person it would take them OUT.
Marianne—shells were on EVERYTHING:
I don’t know why I thought this was so cool, but look at these steps to the tomb:
Well hello there!
Anyways, that night we went to a series of bars to tapear and drink white wine. I’m not exactly a wine expert, but apparently it’s really good there. I guess they need it cause they eat so much seafood. One of the locales was this super tacky bar, tucked away downtown, but with awesome mussels. Which were spicy, which was surprising, considering most Spaniards’ chile tolerance is about the same as mine (i.e. Valentina is about the most I can handle.)
Another locale was this bar that Ger likes, filled with old guys in their old-Spanish-man uniform of tweed coats and messenger hats, and homemade wine from a barrel, made with grapes from the owner’s fields. Also in this place it was served in a little bowl thing, to be held with two fingers. Oh and everyone was speaking Gallego. But I didn't take a picture cause that would have been awkward. Use your imagination.
In both of the bars the tapas worked like this: they would just whip up a plate of something, like little sandwiches with baguette type bread and ham (lomo, whatever that is in English) and Galician cheese, called queixo de país, and then pass it out to everyone who happened to be in the bar at that moment.
Have I mentioned people stand up at bars here? Whether it's for a coffee in the morning or a beer with friends, either you lean on the bar or you lean on a table.
While I’m talking about food, I’ll mention that all the shops and restaurants in la ciudad vieja have their offerings displayed in a little window case. In restaurants, sometimes they have tanks with lobsters and eels, where you choose the one you want.
Somehow I managed to take a picture of the only not cute case:
Many included queso de tetilla ("tit cheese" cause, well, see below):
Another fun thing I saw while walking around was this random window in one of the walls of the old old old buildings. All of a sudden, Ger instructed me to close my eyes, stand with my back against the building, and point behind me. It was a little iron sculpture with different majors, and you’re supposed to use that method to decide what to study. My finger landed on geography, but it was right by philology, so we'll go with that.
All this was only the first day..haha..I’ll try to be more concise. There’s just so much to tell! So many fun things that are so so different from Sevilla. Oh, also, Dad, I know how you’re excited about our having ancestors in common…so this meant I looked super Spanish there.
Anywaysss, the next day I had ambitious touristy plans, but, shockingly, I was slow in getting out of the house. I cleaned some and made my first orange juice from a juicer. It’s really simple, but I didn’t even realize what the apparatus was till Ger taught me. I’ve since been making a glass every morning, now that I can recognize more of my kitchen appliances.
I pretty much just looked around the cathedral for ages and walked around the city lots and lots and lots.
I also got a slice of tarta de Santiago for the road, from this cute little old lady. It’s a very Gallego thing but yesterday I saw it in the Lidl. Alas.
I also went to this market that’s been there since the middle ages. I didn’t get anything, but I do love love love markets.
And the really weird stuff they sometimes have:
Thennn I took a 30 minute, 6 euro train to A Coruña, the capital of Galicia. I was debating whether I’d have time to go or not, but in the afternoon, like a good Spanish city, eeeverything shut down in Santiago for siesta, and I had nothing to do, so I went.
And got this. Eep!
And went to la Torre de Hércules, a lovely little UNESCO Roman lighthouse that’s been in use for like 2000 years. But I spent too long eating, so I had to skip the mini museum at the bottom and basically run up the steps. But it was worth it.
It was so windy it was hard to walk!
Then I walked ages and ages on the coast/boardwalk/beach back to the train station:
Mexico and Spain don’t have windows with normal (excuse the ethnocentricity) windowpanes. Or rather I hadn’t really seen any till here:
That night I took a train back to Santiago, went back to Ger’s, and we left for Pontevedra. There we made dinner, and I FINALLY learned how to make a proper tortilla de patatas (essentially a potato omelet.) I’ve been trying for months and I finally learned the tricks.
Then one of his roommates got home, who’s from California and doing the same job as me. We hung out for a bit and then went for drinkeypoos, then came back and made a couple pizzas and went to bed. As the sun was coming up. There’s Spain for ya.
The next day I had to leave in the afternoon, but we got up in time to walk around some. It was beautiful!! Also, apparently I got incredibly lucky with the weather because Galicia is known for being really, really rainy, and I didn’t see a single cloud!
This is what most of Pontevedra looks like (la ciudad vieja in Santiago and A Coruña look about the same: cute, narrow streets, stone...)
Sunday breakfast:
