I had to take a week of from my blog last week because I wasn't in Quintanar on Tuesday. But before I get ahead of myself, I'll pick up where I left off.
During the week of April 11, I didn't do anything too exciting. I went to my usual classes in the high school, and then I was with 5th and 6th grade in the primary school. I love the older kids, particularly because a lot of them have a very high level of English, and that makes them easier to teach and easier to interact with than my younger students (I'm looking at you, infantil). We played one of my favorite word games, where you have to work your way through the alphabet at a market (I went to the market and I bought apples, bananas, carrots, dates, etc.). Usually, I play with strictly food, but their English teacher Pilar said it would be easier if we did anything, so the things they bought included both a mom and a dad, an astronaut, an elephant, and many other strange things. Apparently this market had everything under the sun.
When the weekend rolled around, I spent most of Friday in the library, either applying for jobs post-Spanish adventure or finishing the family tree I started working on last month before I went to Ireland (It is complete now, for the record!). I attempted to go to bed early because I was taking the 5:00 bus in the morning to meet up with a group that was going to Galicia.
Galicia is the northwesternmost province of Spain. If you look at it on a map, it looks like it should be part of Portugal because it's directly north of it. In Galicia, they speak a dialect of Spanish called gallego. Gallego is so distinct from Castilian Spanish that many people think it should be it's own language. Now that I've visited Galicia and heard it for myself, I could see and hear the obvious similarities with Spanish, but people who speak gallego can have a complete conversation with people who speak Portuguese because they are so similar. Lastly, gallego uses a ton of x's the way that Basque does, so really, it's just a mishmash of many different things. I'm always excited about being exposed to new languages, so that was my favorite part of visiting Galicia.
I made it to Madrid with no problems and got on the bus to make the six-hour drive to Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia and our first stop. When we stopped at a rest stop, I was thrilled to discover a lovely couple that I'd met on my trip to Basque Country last month was on this trip, as well. Their names are Peter and Natalie, and they were traveling with their friend Marco, who I had never met. Since I was traveling solo, I was really happy to see familiar faces. We ended up spending most of the weekend together.
I was excited to visit Santiago de Compostela, because it's an important place for Christians to visit. El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is a major pilgrimage taken by many Christians and hikers (and Christian hikers!) which ends in Santiago, at the shrine of St. James the apostle. The pilgrimage takes several weeks or months, depending on where you start, so to say it's a big deal would be an understatement. Santiago is a variation of James in Spanish, so the city is named after the apostle, whose remains are supposedly buried beneath the cathedral. Considering all this history and such, I was really excited to see the city.
I have to admit that while I wasn't disappointed by Santiago de Compostela, it would be fair to say that I was underwhelmed. Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting, but I thought it would be grander somehow, considering it's illustrious history. The cathedral is cool and everything, but it wasn't anything to write home about. Furthermore, the city only has about 100,000 people, so aside from seeing the cathedral, there wasn't much else to do. The weather also didn't help, because it was a rainy and dreary day, so I'm sure that affected my opinion.
Cathedral selfie! (The constant rain in Galicia means the cathedral requires regular restorations)
One side of the cathedral
Other side of the cathedral
Fountain near the cathedral
Inside the cathedral
My favorite discovery of the day. Spring itself!
Cool monastery we discovered by accident
One thing I really thought was cool about Santiago was that azabache, a type of jet stone, is native to the area and it is believed to offer protection and good fortune. We saw a lot of azabache jewelry while we were walking around (And although I was tempted, I didn't buy anything, for the record).
Azabache jewelry
We had a delicious dinner and we were staying in a lovely hotel (Not a hostel, for once!), so I wasn't sad that I decided to call it an early night because of the rain. In the morning, we were driving to the coast to visit A Coruña.
When I woke up on Sunday, I already had a good feeling because the sun was shining. The good weather kept up during our drive to the coast, and I'll admit that was part of the reason that I enjoyed A Coruña so much more. But in addition to the lovely coastline, A Coruña has 250,000 people, meaning it's much bigger than Santiago and there's a lot more to see and do. Our first stop was at el Torre de Hércules, or the Tower of Hercules, which is the oldest Roman lighthouse still in use today. According to legend, Hercules killed a giant and then erected the lighthouse the same size as the giant. When we got off the bus, I could see why our tour guide made a joke about visiting "the Ireland of Spain."
Tower of Hercules lighthouse
Coastline in a Coruña
"The Ireland of Spain"
We then ventured into the city center to explore and have lunch. There was a marathon going on, which was cool to see.
Marathon route
Downtown A Coruña
Colexiata de Santa María
Posing with city hall (And ambulances standing by for the marathon)
We also wandered around along the port, and Natalie and I were surprised to see some really unique architecture. A lot of Spain looks the same, but many buildings in A Coruña had a wall of windows with many tiny panes in them. It's not something that I've seen in Spain, so with Galicia being so close to Portugal and not too far from France either, it was interesting to see something different.
So many windows!
Our last stop was at Mount San Pedro, which has a science museum and a beautiful overlook. I didn't visit the museum but I loved seeing the overlook and exploring the surrounding gardens.
View from Mount San Pedro
So much happier than in Santiago de Compostela
Coastline
Gardens nearby
Lovely pond near the overlook
When we had our fill of the lovely views, we got back in the bus and headed back to Madrid. Just because my life is always interesting, the bus broke down three different times, so we didn't end up getting back to Madrid until 3am on Monday morning. This was particularly fun for me because, while most of the people in the group had work in the morning, I had to get back to Quintanar first and then go to school. What a joy. But I took the first bus back, got into Quintanar around 9:30 and barely made it through the day before I fell into bed. I needed my rest because, to add to this big joke, I was going camping with the primary school on Tuesday.
Tuesday arrived, and it was time for me to get back on a bus. We were going to an adventure camp that was all in English, and there were 50 kids and 5 teachers going, including me. Getting to the camp took three hours; it was pretty isolated in the mountains of the province of Madrid. The camp was chock full of activities for the students, including a zipline, a (small) rock wall, a high ropes adventure course, horseback riding, hiking, and several indoor activities focused on learning English.
Main cabin of the camp
Rock wall
Zipline
High ropes adventure course
Nearest town, Bustarviejos
Unfortunately, the weather was a huge bummer, because it rained every day. However, the kids were really good sports about it. The dragged out their rain coats and tromped out into the rain. They did all of the activities anyway, despite the bad weather. Teachers were invited to participate in the activities, and although I was tempted to do the zipline and the high ropes course, surely everyone must know by now how clumsy I am, so I thought it was better not to tempt fate by slipping and zipping in the rain.
One thing I did, however, was horseback riding. I've loved horses since I was little (I was mildly obsessed with them during most of my childhood), but I'd never really ridden one before. I'd been on a pony in a corral, of course, but this was different. It was still very lowkey but at least I was on a horse! I know from my horse-obsessed childhood that horses are a lot like dogs; they can tell when you like them, and any time that I've been around them in the past, there's usually one horse that takes a liking to me. This time was no different. The horse in question was a pretty one named Müra, and I fell in love the first day we met. I spent a bunch of time with her on Tuesday, and the stable proprietor told me she's usually standoffish around strangers, which basically made my whole day.
When Thursday rolled around, there was another opportunity for the kids to go horseback riding. I went with them in the hope of seeing my new friend, and she was excited to see me, but not so much to see the kids. The stable guy remembered me from two days prior, so whenever the kids had to get on or off the horse, he'd ask me to hold her in place and keep her calm while he helped the children. The kids wouldn't stop laughing at me for telling her stories and singing to her, but I'd like to point out that none of them got bucked off while they were trying to get on, either. So basically I got to hang out with my new horse friend for several more hours, and I can't say I was mad about it.
We got back to Quintanar on Thursday evening and I went straight home and went to bed early. I used the weekend to have movie marathons and catch up on my rest for another full week of school. I always need it because another trip is never far behind. This weekend, I'm looking forward to going to the beach!
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