Here is a map of where we were in Spain. We flew into and stayed in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of the region. And we took a day trip to the Northern coast in the town of La Coruña.
When we landed, we headed out of the airport in the pouring rain to catch the 20 minute bus to the city center. From here, we were to find Roci's house, our couchsurfing host for the weekend. We had her address and asked around a few people to get headed in the right direction. Santiago is really small, and comprised of an old town (with the center point being the cathedral) and a new part (around the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC--I was weirded out to see people wearing this sweatshirt at first, Trojan fans?). Roci lived in the new part, so we walked a while to get to her street. When we found it, there were a bunch of young workers wearing tan jumpsuits all eating sandwiches on the stoop. We passed through and climbed up the stairs to find her door. We were welcomed by a really friendly college-aged girl who was about 5ft tall, with tons of hyper energy. She showed us around her apartment which was very small (5 people live there) and then showed us where we were to sleep. I understand the title of this organization is called COUCHsurfers, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed when our sleeping arrangements consisted literary of just a sunken in small couch with no sheets or pillow cases or anything. There was no privacy, and it was in the middle of her living room which was really messy with art projects and drying laundry. It was also decorated for a party there were having that night, in our "bedroom". We were running on no sleep, and all we wanted was to fall into a deep slumber for the next 10 hours, and this was looking increasingly hopeless. Galicia is a really humid area and always has lots of storms, so the houses are often prone to heavy mold. The smell of old wet towels permeated the house, but it wasn't until I went into the bathroom and looked up to the ceiling, to see it completely covered in crawling black mold that I jump into action mode. This wasn't going to work, no matter how nice the girl was. The three of us, Catherine, Joanna, and I all sat on the couch and discussed our options. One other girl had accepted our couch request, maybe she would still be available. There are a lot if hostels in the area. Maybe even a hotel with lowered off-season prices. While we were debating, one of the roommates, a nice German law student named Kulja came in to welcome us and talk to us about the town. He had been in Spain the same amount of time as us and seemed to be enjoying Santiago. Once we had decided to leave, we told them that friends from Barcelona had made an impromptu trip to Galicia and had extra room in their hotel, so we were going to join them. Kulja gave us his number and we decided to all meet up later for coffee. From there, we began to panic a bit. We headed back into town and tried every hostel and hotel we passed, looking for availability and the lowest prices. We found an internet cafe and e-mailed the other couchsurfer, Ros, with our phone number in hopes that she might call us back with good news. We continued to search around town, and were about to take a hostel room in the old quarter for 30 euro a night, when we received a phone call. Ros said her roommates were all out of town for the weekend, and she can still host us. A wave of relief passed over us, as we organized a place to meet for her to take us back to her apartment in a few hours. We spent the time in between checking out the city, even though the rain refused to subside. Her are a few pictures from our soggy stroll through the town.
We were meant to meet Ros on the second stoplight on the streat Rua de San Roque. This was already kind of a confusing point to meet, but we actually were waiting at the right spot until a few minutes passed and we decided maybe we were in the wrong area. We wandered around a bit until we got completely lost, and got a call from her telling us to meet at the Plaza de Cervantes. Once she finally found us, we walked back to her apartment, completely soaked. She was extremely friendly, and we all talked a little bit on the walk up. When we got there, we were so relieved and excited to see a really clean and cute apartment at the top of the hill. We had our own room, one of her roommate's which had two made-up twin beds, and one mattress on the floor. We were right next to the bathroom and the kitchen, and she was right down the hall. Here is our room:
She showed us around her apartment, introduced us to her rabbit and chinchillas in the laundry room and told us to make her home ours. We all stood and talked in the hall, and she invited us to come get tapas with her and her friends, but we were beat tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep. She understood, and we agreed to all go out the next night. That evening I slept harder than I ever have in my life. We set the alarm for 10am to make the train to La Coruña for our day trip. The coastline of Galicia has been compared to that of Ireland (simply by geographical closeness you can see why...there is actually a really strong Celtic culture in Galicia too!), and we wanted to check it out. Luckily we woke up to a sunny, warm-ish day.
We got to the train station after over an hour of public-transit follies.
From there, we found that we had just missed the train we wanted, and bought our ticket for a train leaving in two hours. Okay, well we decided to kill sometime in a cafe near by. We went to a cute little one right up the street where we sat for a little over an hour enjoying our cafe solo's and cafe con leches. On the way back we passed a very tempting shop window, with delicious bread and the famous "Torta de Santiago" (an internationally know almond delight from Santiago de Compostela which I actually made in my 8th grade Spanish class for my presentation on Spain!) We went inside and were amused by the crowd of old ladies all pushing towards the front of the line to get their hands on the last of the day's fresh-baked goodies. We each bought a slice of "Pan con pasas" (raisin bread). Here is what the store was like (very typical in Spain):
From here we went back to the train station to sit on the platform for a while with our bread while we waited for the train. When we got on, the train was completely full, but I enjoyed the short 30-minute ride looking out at the beautiful countryside and listening to Nick Drake on my ipod.
We got to La Coruña and found the bus stop to take us to the coast. We waited for a good half hour, since we ran after the one before it but just barely missed it. When we got off, we were near the port, and since we knew nothing about the town and didn't even have a map, we just started walking. Here are some pictures:
 |
| Cat nestled in some forgotten remnants of a temporary home |
We walked all along the port to the actual beach area, and were so excited when we finally saw some of the more rugged coastline of Galicia.
 |
| What we were searching for |
 |
| Some much needed ocean therapy |
The coastline was really beautiful, and we took some time just to relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy the view. We continued to walk, and found the Hercules Tower, among other monuments, and then walked around and watched an adult soccer league at practice. We caught another bus to get into the city area, and then walked around the tall buildings and narrow streets for a while, looking for a place to try the famous seafood of Galicia. Here are some photos of the town:
 |
| "Pulpo" or octopus is very popular around here |
When we looked at our watches, we realized we only had a short time until we had to catch the train again, so instead of stopping at a seafood restaurant, we went to a small cafe for tapas. Joanna and Catherine ordered sandwiches and got free tapas of potato chips (real authentic...), and Spanish tortilla (potato omelet) with their drinks, while I curled up in the cafe booth and fell asleep after a long day and wandering. We ended up being in a huge hurry to catch the train, and after a scramble ended up having to take a taxi to the station. We caught our train and headed back to Santiago. When we got back to Ros's house, we met with her friends from upstairs (two med-students from USC) and went out to see what life in Galicia is like after dark. I wanted to try the liquor Aguardiente since I knew it was famous from Galicia (I heard about it for the first time in an Antonio Banderas song...don't judge.)They took us to a small place first where there was a live Galician band playing salsa-like music to locals crammed into an ancient little bar. It was nice, but there was no room for all 6 of us, so we found another place, a small bar that had yet to be filled in with other students. We sat down at a small table and they ordered 6 "cafe-licor" which is a cold drink of Aguardiente and coffee with sugar on ice, one of the most common drinks there. They said you can find everyone drinking it, from kids to senior citizens, and that every family has their own cafe-licor recipe. It was served in a small wine glass, and went down smoothly, but everyone agreed that anymore than one glass would be over-doing it. We all talked about school, and one of Ros's friends was also an Anthropology major studying Latin American indigenous groups! I was so excited, we talked in Spanish for a long time about that, and what we plan on doing professionally after graduating with that degree. Once the bar got quite full, and the noise level steadily grew with the cafe-licor effects that were visible at every table around us, we went to find another place to talk. We went to another bar with music, and Catherine, Joanna, and I sat down by ourselves at a table in the back while the others got themselves another drink. There were some strange characters at this place. A man in his 40's or so, quite heavyset and holding a beer had a stupid grin on his face as he stood directly in front of our table staring. His friend, a younger guy dressed like the rapper Eminem joined him, along with their bearded homeless friend who had on ratty clothes that had not seen soap for years, and had mostly missing teeth. The girls came back and innocently danced along to the music. The men were getting kind of aggressive towards them, and they were politely trying to tell them to back off. Then, the homeless man started eating these little black pellets out of a plastic bag and then dancing around crazily. He came nearer to Joanna and told her to eat some of them. She politely said "No, gracias", but he persisted. He grabbed a hold of her hand to steady it so that he could pour some of the black pieces into her hand, and as he titled the bag, I moved her hand and said "Ella dijo que NO." (she said NO). His eyes opened wide as his twisted and angered face turned upwards to meet mine and his hand raised to point his long, boney finger directly at me "FEA!!" he yelled. I looked directly back at him and didn't budge. His eyes were burning as his anger grew. He reached into his bag and picked up several of the pellets and then one-by-one, threw them at my head. They hit my cheek, my forehead, and my nose, and as I grew more and more angry and frightened, I didn't move or speak a word. I didn't want to make this crazy man even more mad. "FEA!!!" he yelled again. "DIABLA!!" (devil). He threw more at me. I was fuming and my heart was beating so fast, I wanted to scream back at him, but I didn't say a word, I just locked my eyes onto his, in fear of what he might do next.
The girls were laughing, from their perspective it was just a drunk, drugged homeless guy rattling off, but to me, it was threatening and way past the line. I told them we needed to leave. The said we could sit at a table further in the back, but I told them I wasn't comfortable and needed to leave. They agreed and we headed outside. That wasn't enough, I wanted to be as far away from that man as possible. I tried to act as though that hadn't effected me as much as it really had. I just kept quiet as we stood outside of the bar while they discussed where to go next. All I wanted was to go back, to go to sleep and to end the night. They continued to another bar, and I followed behind. Catherine and Joanna knew I was upset but didn't really know how to react. I wasn't angry at anyone, but the feeling of fear and vulnerability was consuming me as we continued to walk the streets, while hearing the voices of people passing shouting remarks at us. We went to a bar nearby and they all danced along to Madonna and Lady Gaga and I stood, partially paralyzed. There wasn't anyway I could move. No one had ever spoken to me like that. No one had every responded to me that way, when nearly unprovoked. I was in a situation where rationality was out the window, when you are dealing with someone so far out of their mind that your only response can be to subdue what response feels natural--reciprocation. All I could do was leave, but he had won. I felt terrible.
I felt guilty for ruining their evening, but we soon headed back to their apartment to go to sleep. I didn't say a word, I was just so happy to close my eyes and fall asleep.
We all slept until around 1pm the next day. The wind was howling and the rain pouring. We got up and got ready as we headed out onto the street to be greeted by the cracking of lightning and the subsequent pounding of thunder that followed, telling us that the storm was right above us. We walked around the town to find the cathedral, and on the way saw very few people out. Here are some pictures of the street and the cathedral:
 |
| Tattered and torn |
 |
| Cathedral of Santiago |
 |
| You can see the moss on the church as a result of the high humidity |
 |
| Center of old-town |
We found a welcoming cafe, a break from the storm. We all ordered hot chocolate (in Spain, actual hot chocolate is the hot-pudding stuff that you use for dipping churros, so to get the kind we are accustomed to, you have to order Cacolat Caliente, or hot chocolate-milk). Then we got tapas, and a slice of the Torta de Santiago (must say, my 8th grade version wasn't far off!)
Then, once we had drowned the last of our coins from the trip on endless cups of tea, we headed back into the cold. We found a nice park that we wandered around for a bit, which had nice floweres and trees, and views over the city.
 |
| The cathedral in the distance |
We sat in the park for a while and all agreed that the trip had been somewhat of a bust. We all tried to be good-humored about it, but I suppose if you are taking trips as frequently as we have been, there are bound to be some ups and downs.
We got a call from Kulja, the German guy, and we all met up with him for a cup of coffee. We sat in the plaza for a bit first while we waited for him, and listened to a young man play on his bass guitar.
We chatted for a while with Kulja about the city, and how he likes it so far, as well as our experiences in Barcelona, and we agreed to show him around when he visits in a few months.
Once we parted, we headed back to Ros's apartment, where we made a pasta dinner for us all. With 3 euro we bought noodles and tomato paste and tried to revive it with an assortment of spices. After dinner, still hungry for something sweet, we asked Ros if she wanted to bake cookies with us! She was very excited (they don't do cookies in Spain), and was eager to help us. We made ginger chocolate chip cookies, and they were delicious. He we are in the kitchen:
 |
| Joanna licking the bowl and Ros doing dishes (she says she always prefers making crazy faces in photos than knowing that that's what she actually looks like!) |
Ros was so much fun, and so much personality. She is a German major, and told us of her time spent in Berlin. She loved the city so much, but ran out of money half way through and was forced to spend some nights sleeping on trains, or in ATM vestibules. After we finished cleaning up the kitchen, we all layed down in our room and watched "Biutiful"(yes, it's spelled that way, Dad) a Spanish movie that just came out starring Javier Bardem, which takes place on the streets of Barcelona. It was really dark and depressing and I fell asleep 10 minutes in. The next morning, I woke up by myself at 6am (the other girls chose a later flight, but I didn't want to miss class), and headed out into the rain to find the bus station. After a little hopeless wandering through the residential neighborhood with no end, I found the bus stop and headed out to the airport. In true Meghan fashion, I showed up at the airport 2 and a half hours before boarding and was the only soul in the airport.
I imagined what it might be like to have the entire plane to myself. Flight attendants catering to my every need, the endless flow of Diet Coke and peanuts. I sat by the window, my nose pressed to the glass, as I watched the two planes that landed in the small, one-runway airport of Santiago over 2 hours. When I turned around in response to the boarding announcement, I saw that all of the waiting chairs had filled up, and the flight was packed. The flight back to Barcelona was easy, and a wave of relief and happiness passed over me as we landed in the sunny city. After another 30 minute train ride back to the city center, I was so excited to be back in my apartment once again.
You can take from this trip what you will. I am sure somehow it helped me as a traveler to be put into different situations and know that it will all come out okay, all I know is, for now, there is no place like home.
Love,
Megs
