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| Town Hall, A Coruña |
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| Windy!! |
The first day was spent at the beach! Galicia is in the Northwest corner of Spain hovering right over Portugal. I flew to the northern city of A Coruña, which is on the coast with the Atlantic. As with many provinces in the north, it has its own language, separate from Spanish. called Gallego. It's kind of a mix between Spanish and Portuguese. I didn't hear anyone speak it, but all signs are written in both.
Next day was spent first walking over to the Torre de Hércules (Tower of Hercules), the oldest lighthouse in the world! The original lighthouse was built by the Romans in the first century (1 A.D.) and the structure that stands behind me is a more modern renovation from the 1700's. It was built to be a lighthouse and continues to work as such. Pretty cool, huh? You can't tell by the picture but there are bagpipes going on in the background.
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| Atlantic Ocean |
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| View of A Coruña |
The view from up-top was spectacular. I'll be honest, I was expecting less beach and more cliffs, but I still think A Coruña has a fantastic shoreline.
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| No wonder they thought the world was flat! Later that afternoon I hopped on a train bound for Santiago de Compostela, the famed city that holds the Catedral de Santiago, believed to be the final resting place of Saint James. Hence, the pilgrimage. The Cathedral is probably the most famous in all of Spain. It's the church you see on the Spanish Euro coins, so pretty important. |
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| Shell (concha) marking the camino |
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| Catedral de Santiago de Compostela |
Now for the the biggest disappointment...because the cathedral is the last stop on a very important pilgrimage and there are constantly pilgrims coming into the city, the cathedral prides itself on being open every day of the year. Except for the day I'm there. Some motherf***ing Japanese prince or some sh** like that decided that day they were going to take over the cathedral and bar the rest of us from going in. You've GOT to be kidding me! Hundreds of pilgrims, who'd been walking for days, weeks or even months, were standing around waiting for the place to never open. Such terrible timing. So there was no taking a peak inside unfortunately.
However, I take it as a sign from God. One does not simply FLY to Galicia and WALTZ on in to Santiago. Oh no, my friends. I must brave the Camino before I am worthy of entry into the holiest of holy places. Well guess what?!
Challenge accepted!!!
I have now decided what to do with my September. Santiago, Round 2! Now who's with me???
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| View of the city and Cathedral |
With the extra time I ended up having I found a cafe close to the Cathedral to have a café con leche and some tarta de Santiago, a kind of almondy cake. Good flavor, but very dry. My entertainment came from the tables next to me where there were a bunch of people with instruments singing all kinds of Spanish songs. I have no idea why they had instruments (they were also dressed in medieval garb), but it made for an interesting atmosphere. Singing and dancing, with the Cathedral right behind us. It was the best I could do with the situation I was given.
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| Coffee and cake |
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| Entertainment |
The next day was much more low-key. I walked around the old part of A Coruña which features many churches from the 10th - 12th centuries. I also walked the camino marítimo (walk along the coast) and stopped for some ice cream. I had been very fortunate up until then for sunny skies. Galicia is known for its rainy weather, which is why it's so green. My luck ran out on Sunday when it clouded up and began to rain off and on. Because of this type of weather you do not see many apartments with balconies like you do everywhere else in Spain. Instead they have these windows that jut out from the buildings to let the sun in but keep the rain and wind out. It's a very typical feature of Galician architecture and I think it looks beautiful!
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| Typical windows |
My last day was even more chill. Again, the rain came so I did just a bit of souvenir shopping and then headed to the airport. A Coruña is a small city so, naturally, it has a small airport. There were 16 gates altogether. People were either flying to other cities in Spain or London. That was about it. The airport was so small that it only had one security line, and as I went through...I noticed I was the only one there! How strange! I probably will never experience something like again, ever. I was so shocked that I accidentally sent my bag through without removing my liquids. So they had to send it back through. But it didn't matter! I was the only one in line! Ha! Crazyness.
On a side note, I was telling some friends about my security experience and someone told me that Spain has more airports per capita then any other country in Europe. There are tons of small cities that have airports. Even Santiago de Compostela has an airport! Apparently, during the economic boom in the early 2000's Spain did a lot of building (the main reason they are in an economic crisis now) so they gave their country more airports. Of course now, not many people are using them. This is probably why I went through security by myself.
Anyway, while I was in A Coruña I stayed with a girl named Raquel.She was from there but had spent time living in Los Angeles and London and other places that I don't remember. She was super nice and invited me out every evening for one thing or another. Our first night was spent at a small concert of modern music and Fado in a local restaurant. Fado is the traditional music from Portugal. I didn't take any pictures or recordings because it was dark and I was wrapped up in the music, but here's a sample of what she sang. This is NOT Fado, but everyone recognizes this song. I think it sounded even better live.
The next night I went out with her and a few of her friends, one of which was visiting from Barcelona and had brought some of her workmates: one from Madrid and one from Australia. So we were quite the group! And as it turns out, her friend's husband had studied in Missouri one summer back in 1990!! I was really curious to know where exactly in Missouri he had been so we got to talking. Long story short: he was at PARKWAY SOUTH!
Shut the front door!!! Of all the high schools in all the cities of all the states of the United States of America he was at MINE! Un-fucking-believable! So here we are talking about American high schools and how they are similar or different from the movies...he's describing his experience and I'm like...yup! yup! that's so true! Because he's describing my high school! Jeez louise. Que pequeño el mundo es!
In summary, I'm in the backwoods of Spain, out to eat with the friends of a girl that I just met the day before, and I meet someone who went to my high school, albeit 10 years before I got there :)
If that doesn't give you goosebumps, I don't know what will.
So long Galicia, I'll see you again soon enough.
~Caralyn
P.S. There were bagpipers all over Santiago as well :)
