España!

Back to Santiago de Compostela (or S-d-C, as I like to call it). On our full day there we went to see the cathedral (surprise, surprise), and all the museums it includes. It is quite a fantastic piece of architecture, and the museums and the cloister were interesting. The cathedral was full of people--there was a line out the door at one part, and services were going on. There were also confessionals scattered around inside where people could confess in an array of languages. We tried to find a way to get to the roof (guided tour only, it turns out), but ended up just wandering around the huge cathedral. We stopped for lunch at a place nearby and got traditional spanish empanada and flan, then did as the spaniards do and took a siesta! We both decided we could get used to daily siestas.

In the afternoon I wandered back to the cathedral and went to the door that had previously had a huge line leading to it. There was no line then, so I wandered in, right as it was about to close. I saw from the signs that it was the way to the crypt, which I had been wanting to visit! I walked up some stairs and came upon a priest who asked me a question (I forget what) so I responded "no se" (I don't know). My answer must have sounded portuguese, though, because the priest then switched to portuguese and we went on to talk about iberian languages. "Are you a pilgrim?" he asked. I told him I was just a tourist, but tried to look less touristy (I refrained from pulling out my camera). A security guard was standing by, looking impatient and waiting to end our conversation so he could close up the crypt. "Ok," said the priest, "now go and hug the statue of Santiago (Saint James), go thank God and pray." I thought "Maybe this isn't the time to tell him I'm not religious" so I marched up to the gold statue covered in jewels that overlooked the whole church and gave it a quick squeeze. The security guard then signaled that they were about to close, so I hurried through the crypt, which I believe houses the relics of Saint James, but I couldn't really figure out where (it wasn't very crypt-like). I rushed outside again, happy and amused to have discovered what it is like to be a pilgrim in Santiago de Compostela. I love the places wandering and curiosity can take me.

Jackie and I had dinner at an Italian place that night, and struck up a conversation with some Irish people at the table across from us. It turns out they had come (by boat) from the same province where my relatives live! It's fun finding connections like that. That evening we headed to a pub with traditional Galician music (similar to Irish and Scottish--bagpipes, even!), which was so much fun. We came out from the cramped stone cellar reeking of cigarette smoke, but it was worth it.

Early the next morning we hopped on a bus to Salamanca, again passing through the beautiful Galician countryside. After a brief siesta in Salamanca we headed to the Plaza Mayor, a big square surrounded by archways that makes Salamanca famous. The plaza was gorgeous and bustling with tourists and locals. We walked around the archways, eating some spectacular ice cream and window shopping. We wandered from there down the street to the old and new cathedrals, which were beautiful, like the rest of the city. Many of the buildings in Salamanca are ornately-carved sandstone, and many have signs written on the stone in red ink in a beautiful old-fashioned script. We passed by many university buildings (another thing that puts Salamanca on the map). After a quick dinner we returned to our hotel to watch a bit of spanish TV and go to bed. By this time we had discovered that castilian spanish is much harder to understand than many dialects of south american spanish that we had studied. Getting out of galician-speaking areas made it a bit easier, but was still no piece of cake.

Our spirits were revived the next day when we stumbled upon Marcos, a peruvian guy selling scarves and jewelry on the street. I could understand his spanish almost perfectly, and he was certainly a talker! He asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Spain, then told us about his life in Salamanca and all the other friends he had made. Finally we bought some souvenirs and tore ourselves away from the conversation (it was fun, but it had been 40 minutes already...). We visited the inside of the cathedral, which was gorgeous, then after a brief siesta, decided to try to find a part of the university we could tour. Though the guidebook instructions were pretty clear, none of the buildings it mentioned seemed tour-able. The clerks in the university store didn't even seem to know! So we gave up and just admired the outside of some university buildings. We spent a beautiful evening in the still-bustling Plaza Mayor, then headed to Madrid the next morning!

After small-town S-d-C and Salamanca, Madrid certainly felt huge. We wandered a bit on the first evening, but decided not to stray too far from our hostel. The next day we slept in, then wandered through the streets near our hostel, stopping to buy some spanish books (mine was €2 and awfully written, but still fun). We saw the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, two big squares, then had another siesta. In the evening we walked by the Prado (museum) and past many fancy hotels in that area, stopping for a quick bite at a restaurant that was too expensive for our budgets. The next morning we had tortilla española (like an omelette) for breakfast and then followed a walking tour in my guidebook that took us back to the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, but also gave us some good info about the sights around Madrid. We ended up at the palace, where we took a tour. It was huge and gorgeous--maybe the prettiest palace I've seen.

That evening while Jackie took a siesta I wandered to the Retiro park, which used to be the park of the royal family but is now just a wonderful place for Madrileños to hang out, take a walk, or paddle around in the pond there. I enjoyed people-watching for a while, then met Jackie and walked to the Plaza Mayor for dinner. It was a touristy restaurant, to be sure, but a wonderful location to admire the beautiful plaza and watch people and street performers in the square. After dinner we wandered to an area that my guidebook had praised as a wonderful place for nightlife, but not much was happening. We also explored another square that was much less exciting than my guidebook had made it out to be. Though we didn't find much of interest, it was still fun to wander around the streets of Madrid at night.

The next morning we had our regular breakfast of chocolate and pastries, then headed to the airport. First, a quick note on Spanish hot chocolate--it is delicious. So thick and rich that it seems like someone just melted chocolate bars into a cup. It became our morning staple, and was sorely missed when we flew back to Portugal, where the idea of delicious hot chocolate doesn't seem to have taken hold.

We hung around Madrid airport for longer than we'd hoped because a luggage cart crashed into our first plane and made it un-flyable, but finally we arrived in Lisbon and headed back to my host family's house for dinner. The next morning we finally got to Careca (best croissants in the world), and then took a taxi to the airport, where Jackie flew home and I headed back to Copenhagen!

Scandinavia, part two is coming soon :)