Hello! Hola! Ola!
That's how you say hello in three different languages- English (of course), Spanish, and Galician. As you can tell, I am back from those fours days of fantastic travel. Galicia is absolutely wonderful; it is nothing like the Spain that we all imagine. Imagine New York and then compare it to, say one of the greenest places in the US (it was hard for me to figure out what was even comparable to what I saw). It is more of a spiritual area. It is the home to the end of "the Road to Santiago." As some of you may know, every year hundreds of people travel the road for a spiritual rebirth so to speak.
....So to tell you the truth, I started to write this the day I got back- October 4th. Unfortunately, since then so much more work has piled up that I have been unable to write as often I would have wished. Keeping that in mind, within these past two weeks SO MUCH MORE has happened! So what I will do is recount those stories in a series of posts. I still remember everything pretty clearly, and even if I don't, I know I remember the most important parts. Today I will continue with my post about my trip to Galicia as well as a brief recollection of my brithday week.
Galicia:
Well, as I was saying, we went to Santiago for the first 3 days and then we went to some country houses which were absolutely beautiful. Well, I love the way that the trip was organized for many reasons. One thing about Prof. Huergo is that he likes for the students to explore the city for themselves. We did have two wonderful tour guides who were able to explain Gallego culture. As soon as we arrived, they were waiting for us at the airport. It was quite amusing to find that after landing, we had to walk from the airplane to get into the airport- similar to those scenes that you see in movies. Well, Maria and Mika (those were their names) were waiting for us at the airport with a traveling bus that was pretty amazing...even if we only used it for about 30 minutes to get to Santiago. When we actually got to Santiago, we found out we were staying in an old monastery-turned-hotel. It was absolutely beautiful and every single one of us was completely surprised to be staying in such a nice hotel. The name of it was Hotel Monumento San Francisco and just to give you an idea, this is what it looked on the outside:
Yep, I know it is very nice. After having a "Tentenpies" meaning a small snack while standing to regain some energy for later. Afterwards we took a brief tour around the city. Then we were able to enter the Catedral de Santiago. Being there reminded me so much of my family in Mexico because it is that kind of thing that my grandmother enjoys. So being there, I did feel a bit nostalgic. More like, I wanted my family there with me so that they too could experience what I was feeling. Regardless, being there has made me set my mind in bringing my family here if only for a few days. We were able to get to the roof of the cathedral, and there was an unfortunate accident. We took the tour right after lunch and he wasn't feeling all too well. While we were on the roof of this holy and sacred place to many people, his stomach got the best of him and he was no longer able to contain his food in his system....I'm sure you know what I am talking about. But afterwards he did feel better... and well, it makes for one amusingly interesting story.
The food in Galicia is AMAZING. One thing we learned being there was that you eat well...no matter the time of day. You never finish feeling hungry. It is quite the contrary; you leave feeling absurdly full. There was a joke that being there for four days and eating all of the food, we were all going to gain 2 kilos...and I have to admit, if we didn't, it certainly felt that way. They have the best octopus and wine. If you ever decide to go, I highly recommend EVERYTHING.
Being me, of course I had to go and get lost on purpose. However, I learned so much more about the city that way. I was able to make a map of Santiago for those four days, and it was nice knowing that regardless of where I am, I can find my way to my destination. It was that way that I found an amazing chocolate store. The dark chocolate that they had was delicious. I bought some chocolate bars so that when I get back home, I am still able to drink the nice rich dark chocolate. Which, if I have not mentioned, is quite amazing with churros at 5 in the morning... but that's another story. Oh, before I forget, Galicia is known for its rain. We either are very lucky or unlucky because 3 out of those 4 days it did not rain whatsoever. We joked about it and said that the statement "It's always raining in Galicia" was really just a myth. We left Santiago on the third day to go to the country houses, and let me tell you, they were absolutely beautiful. It was one part of Spain that I never imagined existed. Here is an example of the view that I had:
Here it was all about relaxing- getting away from the incessant stimulants in the city (it is a reference to a reading that we did of which I will talk about more later). Anyways, the trip was just spectacular. I enjoyed every single moment. Not only did we make friends, but just the experience was different.
Although I know I was going to talk about my birthday week, I promise it will be coming very soon as there is so much to say. It is not until I started talking about my trip that I realized how much has actually happened and how many things I would like to tell you. Unfortunately, I still have some homework to complete. But I do promise to inform you of everything. Hope you enjoyed this! Oh! I also posted pictures of my trip to Galicia...there's quite a few but I hope you do enjoy them!
Pictures of my trip to Galicia
....So to tell you the truth, I started to write this the day I got back- October 4th. Unfortunately, since then so much more work has piled up that I have been unable to write as often I would have wished. Keeping that in mind, within these past two weeks SO MUCH MORE has happened! So what I will do is recount those stories in a series of posts. I still remember everything pretty clearly, and even if I don't, I know I remember the most important parts. Today I will continue with my post about my trip to Galicia as well as a brief recollection of my brithday week.
Galicia:
Well, as I was saying, we went to Santiago for the first 3 days and then we went to some country houses which were absolutely beautiful. Well, I love the way that the trip was organized for many reasons. One thing about Prof. Huergo is that he likes for the students to explore the city for themselves. We did have two wonderful tour guides who were able to explain Gallego culture. As soon as we arrived, they were waiting for us at the airport. It was quite amusing to find that after landing, we had to walk from the airplane to get into the airport- similar to those scenes that you see in movies. Well, Maria and Mika (those were their names) were waiting for us at the airport with a traveling bus that was pretty amazing...even if we only used it for about 30 minutes to get to Santiago. When we actually got to Santiago, we found out we were staying in an old monastery-turned-hotel. It was absolutely beautiful and every single one of us was completely surprised to be staying in such a nice hotel. The name of it was Hotel Monumento San Francisco and just to give you an idea, this is what it looked on the outside:
Yep, I know it is very nice. After having a "Tentenpies" meaning a small snack while standing to regain some energy for later. Afterwards we took a brief tour around the city. Then we were able to enter the Catedral de Santiago. Being there reminded me so much of my family in Mexico because it is that kind of thing that my grandmother enjoys. So being there, I did feel a bit nostalgic. More like, I wanted my family there with me so that they too could experience what I was feeling. Regardless, being there has made me set my mind in bringing my family here if only for a few days. We were able to get to the roof of the cathedral, and there was an unfortunate accident. We took the tour right after lunch and he wasn't feeling all too well. While we were on the roof of this holy and sacred place to many people, his stomach got the best of him and he was no longer able to contain his food in his system....I'm sure you know what I am talking about. But afterwards he did feel better... and well, it makes for one amusingly interesting story.
The food in Galicia is AMAZING. One thing we learned being there was that you eat well...no matter the time of day. You never finish feeling hungry. It is quite the contrary; you leave feeling absurdly full. There was a joke that being there for four days and eating all of the food, we were all going to gain 2 kilos...and I have to admit, if we didn't, it certainly felt that way. They have the best octopus and wine. If you ever decide to go, I highly recommend EVERYTHING.
Being me, of course I had to go and get lost on purpose. However, I learned so much more about the city that way. I was able to make a map of Santiago for those four days, and it was nice knowing that regardless of where I am, I can find my way to my destination. It was that way that I found an amazing chocolate store. The dark chocolate that they had was delicious. I bought some chocolate bars so that when I get back home, I am still able to drink the nice rich dark chocolate. Which, if I have not mentioned, is quite amazing with churros at 5 in the morning... but that's another story. Oh, before I forget, Galicia is known for its rain. We either are very lucky or unlucky because 3 out of those 4 days it did not rain whatsoever. We joked about it and said that the statement "It's always raining in Galicia" was really just a myth. We left Santiago on the third day to go to the country houses, and let me tell you, they were absolutely beautiful. It was one part of Spain that I never imagined existed. Here is an example of the view that I had:
Here it was all about relaxing- getting away from the incessant stimulants in the city (it is a reference to a reading that we did of which I will talk about more later). Anyways, the trip was just spectacular. I enjoyed every single moment. Not only did we make friends, but just the experience was different.
Although I know I was going to talk about my birthday week, I promise it will be coming very soon as there is so much to say. It is not until I started talking about my trip that I realized how much has actually happened and how many things I would like to tell you. Unfortunately, I still have some homework to complete. But I do promise to inform you of everything. Hope you enjoyed this! Oh! I also posted pictures of my trip to Galicia...there's quite a few but I hope you do enjoy them!
Pictures of my trip to Galicia
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