Peregrina Soy y A Santiago Voy

When Andrew and I arrived in Galicia we found ourselves staying at the most homey little hostel. It probaly felt that way because it was a home. An elderly Spanish couple lived in and rented out the large apartment. The man sat each of us down with maps which he highlighted and marked with Xs and straight lines. He even knocked on our door one night to offer us some homemade sweets. We knew we'd like it immediately, though the city and area itself didn't prove to be wonderful til we dug a little deeper.

We made it to Santiago de Compostela. It's the Cathedral at the end of the "Camino de Santiago", the pilgrimage during which brave people begin in France and trek across all of northern Spain. For as incredible as I think it must feel to accomplish something of that magnitude, I am sure I am not the person for it. After walking 30 minutes to the bus station with my heavy backpack I was already asking "Are we there yet?" For as impossible as it sounds, it is rare that I go through a single day walking the streets in León without seeing one or two determined pilgirms with walking sticks, backpacks, and shells hanging off of their gear.  

This Cathedral is really impressive, but the view from this park here was surreal. This photo looks photoshopped to me, and yet they didn't have a single postcard with any of the views from the park. The city was small, so my friend Andrew and I had plenty of time to go in EVERY single tourist shop looking for this postcard. Dear photographers of Santaigo de Compostela: take my advice, the park is where it's at.

 

This is my glass elevator to my hill top home. It looks straight out of the movie 'The Incredibles'. I hope somebody agrees with me on that. This took us up to get a lovely view of the coastal city of La Coruña in Galicia. Being on the Atlantic Ocean for the first time ever from Spain was a strange feeling. It honestly smelled like home. It was weird knowing that if I were to go straight across the water I'd hit home.

We stopped off to play on this "baby beach". It reminded me of the one in 'The Notebook'...remember the part where she is wearing that ridiculously old fashioned bathingsuit and runs through the water saying "Say you're a bird...say it". Well if I didn't know better I'd think they filmed it here. I asked Andrew to hold my purse for a minute and he insisted on putting it on and wearing it as a satchel. He was far too concentrated on how he looked with the bag to notice the wave that came crashing in on him, soaking his feat. And so, here we sat for quite a long time drying him out while I got to learn about his past life as a child toy model.

I have some strange obession with this park, but I only ever wanted to walk through it at night. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I'd felt like I'd been there before. After insiting we walk through it for the fourth time, I realized I'd dreamed about this park- a long time ago. It was a random dream and I don't remember much of it. I was living in a neighborhood where houses weren't too close together and this park was in my backyard and I had to cut through it, running on the paths in my little pink lacy dress to get to my friend's house on the other side. Always at night. It felt like home for no good reason. I would go all the way back just to feel the way I felt when I walked through the park. If you don't believe my obsession with it- just ask Andrew how many times he had to walk through it with me. And also. The picture does it no justice.

Here I am on the top of the mountain. If you look behind me you can see the thin strip of land and then on the other side, more ocean. The city of La Coruña is a really strange fan shape with a skinny neck attaching it to the rest of Spain.

 

Here we are again in Santiago, stopping to smell the roses. Who doesn't want a rose tree growing in their front yard?

Here is one of the coolest parts about La Coruña. The hedges for the year and month are real. We touched the little leaves making the 4 and those felt fake. But that takes some serious dedication to change the date in the garden daily. We were so impressed, in fact, that we made a special trip by here each day just to make sure the gardeneres were doing their job.

This particular night, Andrew tried to convince me to hide out in the park to catch them changing the date at midnight. It sounded like a great idea until about 11:30 at night when the park filled up with teenagers dressed in costumes drinking and yelling obnoxiously. So as much as I love this little park and wanted to sit there endlessly, I rested well knowing that the man would change the date, whether I was there to supervise him or not.

Galicia was beautiful. We ended up seeing the entire city of La Coruña on foot and I could give you directions, places to eat, shop, get gummies, milkshakes, see the best views, and sit on the beaches. The things I am still not able to do are: speak in gallego (though we could read almost all of it), and tell you where to go to eat their specialty fish and octopus. I avoided eye contact with any food that was capable of holding eye contact.

La Tierra de los Cazurros

Back to my little city with Jennie. I walked her all over and saw things even I had never seen. These are some of our old walls made with those windows with tiny openings on the other side. It's so they could shoot arrows out the big side without getting hit by arrows coming in their direction.

Of all the graffiti in León (and there's a LOT), this is possibly the only one I appreciate. Well actually, someone made a huge red heart on the sidewalk for Valentines that said "I love..." and some girl. That one I rather enjoyed as well, though I think there are less destructive ways to tell someone you care. On paper, for instance.

That's me on the Spiderweb. I have always wanted to play on it, and this certain day there happened to be no children in sight. Surely they were all still in school. So if you're ever looking for me Friday mid-day...you know where to find me.

Possibly my favorite Jennifer quote from the whole trip. Said very seriously. "The problem is I can't go through the squares, I have to go through the octagons." Her eyes may or may not be closed in this photo. Either way, it's great.

Welp, I'd never gone into this "Palacio de los Guzmanes" which is ten minutes from my house. The man at the desk was telling us to come back for a "tour" in 20 minutes and as he was looking at Jen saying this he suddenly stopped and looked at me. "She speaks no Spanish, huh? Looking at me with that face." And Jen was, indeed, cluelessly smiling at him. 

Learned that the palace was sold by the Guzman family and the government bought it...for 600 euro. I could afford that after less than a month's stipend over here. Too bad I wasn't around a century ago to buy it. Anyways, the family crest was a basket with snakes coming out of it- not really feeling that.

For no reason. The sun looked cool. And I'm next to the Cathedral.

The walk down Calle Ancha from the Cathedral to my house. Gets a killer sunset. And I do mean killer because you can hardly keep your eyes open.

On my little tour I learned a few cool things. Whereas Jen kept busy taking the pictures. The woman told me that because León is both the city name and the province, they have to differentiate somehow with the symbol. Both are, obviously (or not so obviously to some) a lion. Without a crown it is the symbol of the city and with a crown, he is the symbol for the whole province.



And....we paid to go into the cloister (not sure if that's the correct translation...but those of you who know anything about churches will understand). I had never gone into the middle of the cathedral and it gave such a different view. We were surrounded on all sides by the old walls and towers but you could still see the sky. Worth my 2 euros and having to wait for the 60 year old plus tour group to vacate the area.

Then we spent a solid hour at the gift store. The woman who works there must know who I am- I think I am the León resident who visits the gift shop most frequently. I am like a vessel for guests. I am single handedly holding down the León tourism industry. They should pay me back by letting me climb the towers in the Cathedral. Fell free to write letters to them, telling them you agree. 
León Cathedral
Plaza de Regla
León, España

Una Pequeña Ciudad Fortificada

Toledo was much more beautiful than I had expected. Immediately after walking up the (very) steep hill, we saw old architecture everywhere, from old walls, to an entranceway into the city.

We took a little train around the city so that we could get a more distant view from the other side of the river. It was unreal. Somehow it reminded me of Harry Potter with the bridges, the river, and the castles.

Toledo is up on a hill and all the buildings (in true Spanish style) are very close together, leading to awesome views if you can get up high enough.

Not a terrible amount of things to do in Toledo, but it was worth it just to see the buildings. They have such a well preserved city that was taken over by so many different groups and you can see the Jewish synagoges, Catholic cathedral and Roman architecture. Worth a stop.

This is one of the many Spanish babies I've added to my collection since September. Possibly the most adorable as well. And the easiest to snag seeing as how his parents are nowhere to be found.

Cervantes! The oh so famous writer. This is one of our only pictures together from the whole trip, and Cervantes is hogging all the attention. What can you do.

A cool little park on the way out of the city. There was a house made of sticks in the middle of the park and it almost looked fake. But I would so live there with my cat, Simba, and speak Spanglish for the rest of my life. Luckily "Simba" is still the same in Spanish so my lovely cat wouldn't get too confused.