Señores pasaxeiros....

Yay for Galicia!

Shannon and I went to Galicia this past weekend and we had a great time! We stayed in Santiago de Compostela and then on Saturday we took a day trip out to the coast.

So we got in to Santiago Friday morning and found our way to our little hotel. The nicest old man ran the place and after we checked in, he made us sit down and have some breakfast before we went exploring. We walked the city all morning with our trusty map that we got from the tourism office and we saw some beautiful buildings and plazas (or prazas as they are called in Gallego) in the city. I think Santiago is about 100,000 people and it's a neat little city. We just marveled at how old everything was; there are some things still standing from the Romans!

I was actually talking to some Spanish friends the other day about how Americans are always impressed by how old things are. We will be in awe of something just for the pure fact that it was built in the 5th century while Spaniards and other Europeans will walk by and think nothing of it. Well of course, they are surrounded by many old, old buildings while in America, if something is more than one hundred years old we will stuck a historical marker next to it. Not saying that it's wrong either way, it's just funny how differently we view history coming from different countries. In the States we don't have any buildings from the Romans so I think we'll continue to be amazed by old stuff and take more pictures all the way.

So back to Santiago...we toured the Cathedral in the afternoon (above picture). The cathedral in Santiago is third on the list of must-see religious places, right after Rome and Jerusalem. You may have heard about the Camino de Santiago, which is a pilgrimage that starts in France and ends up in Santiago at the Cathedral. The bones of St. James are supposedly buried in the crypt of the Cathedral and pilgrims from all over the world make the journey on foot or on bike sometimes taking as long as a few months depending on where you start. We saw some pilgrims who had just completed the walk and there is a spot on the base of a statue of St. James where they all placed their hand. So we saw the Cathedral and I must say, for me, all cathedrals are starting to look the same. Although this one was definitely a fancy one.

In the cathedral, Shannon and I saw these stairs with a priest standing at the top and we didn't know where the stairs led. The priest motioned for us to come on up so we get to the top and we are standing behind this huge statue of St. James. Well, at least we think it's St. James; we can't really tell. The priest tells us something about hugging the statue and how you're supposed to do this after completing the pilgrimage. But we were kind of confused and didn't really know what was going on so we just just politely shook our heads and walked out of there. So we missed our chance to hug this fancy statue of someone.

The next day we got up super early to catch a bus out to the coast. We took a two and a half hour bus ride out to Finisterre. It's the end of the world! It's the western most tip of Spain and was thought by the Romans to be the end of the world. We took a very winding road through the countryside of Galicia and it was very green and pretty. It definitely reminded me of Ireland and Galicia is known for being very Celtic-influenced. So we got to Finisterre and hiked out to the cape and lighthouse at the very tip. We thought it would be about a mile hike but it turned out to be at least two or three along a two lane winding highway with barely any shoulder to walk on. But we made it! And it was beautiful! We sat and watched the waves for awhile before hiking back to the little town. We spent a few more hours in Finisterre and then took the bus back to Santiago.

















We had a good time in Galicia this weekend and it was so good to get out of the big city of Madrid for awhile. We were both kind of sad to be leaving just because it was so nice and so much less stressful than the city! But now I'm back in Madrid and it's back to work.

This weekend is our Intercambio Cafe. We are inviting all of our English groups and our intercambios to come hang out with us and practice English together. We rented a room at a cafe nearby and we're even making dozens of American cookies to share with our Spanish friends. We are having different discussion topics and it will be set up kind of like speed dating (but without the dating) where you rotate from topic to topic. We haven't done anything like this so I hope it goes well. I hope people come!