3/6/10

Hola a todos!

Here’s an update of what’s been going on in my life!

Last weekend I went with Joelle and Alexis (from University of Massachusetts) to Santiago de Compostela.  It’s in the northwest corner of Spain, near the coast.  We left Friday afternoon at 4:30 and got there around 10 PM.  The highlights of the ride to Santiago were that there was a nun on the bus and that we drove along the Bay of Biscay (Spain’s northern coastline).

We took a taxi from the bus station to the hostel, Charo II, and then after checking in and dropping off our belongings we all hiked over to the cathedral in Santiago.  Since the weather wasn’t too bad, we stayed and got some beautiful shots of the cathedral at night.  (None of my photos are yet up online.  Sketchy Internet.)

After taking photos, we returned to the hostel to plan the next day’s activities and sleep.  We decided to go to the cathedral in the morning and do all that it offered, then catch a bus to La Coruña or Pontevedra just for the afternoon.  However, when we woke up, it was raining pretty hard.  So we just decided to skip Pontevedra and La Coruña, assuming that the next day would have a similar weather outlook.  After getting ready, we decided we were hungry enough to venture out into the rain and wind (apparently we were in the midst of a hurricane) for some hodge-podge breakfast bought at the closest grocery store.  Then we returned to the hostel to eat and further plan our day.

About noon we decided that the rain had started to let up, so we again went outside, umbrellas at the ready.  This time we headed again toward the cathedral and we were in luck, because it was open and we could go inside.  To say the least, it was breathtaking.  It was a perfect example of Gothic style architecture, from the Portico of Glory to the cross-shaped structure.  The first thing we see when we get to the cathedral was the incense burner getting ready to swing back and forth, as is traditionally done only during special services and holy years.  The rest of the time it’s on display in the cathedral museum.

We explored the main floor of the cathedral and admired the architecture and the high altar, dedicated to Saint James (Santiago).  As we walked to the “head” of the church behind the altar, we saw many different cloisters with dead people in them.  Behind the altar there were a couple of lines, one to go hug Santiago (the statue on the altar) and one to go “under” the altar to see Santiago’s final resting place.  Joelle brought her Spain tourist book, which gave us a tour of the cathedral.  The book said, “There he is: in the little silver box marked by a star.”  And that’s all that it was.

After going through the two lines, but not actually hugging Santiago’s statue, the guide book led us to a special greenish door.  This door is normally shut, but because it’s a holy year, it is open.  I actually got a picture of myself in the doorway.  I feel special for seeing things that are not normally open to the public.  After checking out the main floor of the cathedral, we went toward the museums on either side of the Portico of Glory, but neither was open.  So we went to get some lunch and do some souvenir shopping.

For lunch we went to a Turkish restaurant that served Döner Kebaps.  I still don’t know what they are.  But they looked like wraps with meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sometimes cheese, and other ingredients in the tortilla-like bread.  Whatever the technical term, they were so good!

After eating, Joelle and I got the traditional Santiago almond cakes that are covered with powdered sugar except for a sword-like cross in the middle.  Liz had asked we get two for her, and Abigail had requested some cheese, but we weren’t able to find any chunks of cheese that cost less than nine euros.  Supposedly the cheese chunks were shaped like boobs.  Don’t ask me, because I don’t know the story behind it.

Once we got the almond cakes and had done some souvenir shopping of our own (mostly to get postcards of the stuff we couldn’t take pictures of), we returned to the cathedral’s museum.  I love student discounts.  While it didn’t cost to walk around inside the cathedral, the student discount for the museum cost half of the original entrance fee.  And with that one ticket, we could get into at least two other museums near the cathedral.  The museum we checked out was amazing.  It went deep into the cathedral and showed a lot more of the inside than what we had originally seen.  We also saw the cathedral’s original bells, which were replaced sometime during the 20^th century.

The other museum we went into wasn’t as cool as the other, but at least it was “free”.  It said we were going into the cathedral’s crypts, but it was just a room with much of the same information from the previous museum and a couple of movie screens.

Museums and cathedral explored to the limits, we returned back to the hostel, ready for a nap.  But no, it was nearly suppertime, so after a bit we went to a pizzeria and, yes, we did get pizza.  After eating, we went back to the hostel and prepped for bed.  We decided earlier we were going to get up early and go back to Oviedo instead of chancing bad weather out on the coast at La Coruña or Pontevedra.

Sunday arrived, and we left the hostel and went to the bus station and returned to Oviedo.  Such was the adventure of Santiago de Compostela.