Galacia

So the weekend of the 11-12 of February was the second ESN trip to Galacia. After about a four hour bus ride we got to our hostel in Santiago de Compostela, which turned out to be more like a nice hotel. We had a quick wander around and lunch before we all met up for our group tour. The highlight of the tour was of course going to the cathedral and passing Saint James' tomb. The interior was fantastic, unfortunately the photos didn't come up that well though. We then continued the tour through the city until finishing up in the gardens. A group of us then went to a cafe to get something to warm us up. It was really sunny in Galacia but still very cold in the later afternoon. I got a white hot chocolate, delicious! Hot chocolates here have the consistency of pudding.

For the evening, we went out and had a free wine and tapas with the group before we all split up. At about 11pm we all met up again to go to a bar and have a typical Galician shot. It was quite possibly the foulest shot I have ever done. 

The next day we headed off to La Coruña. A seaside town, which has the oldest functioning Roman lighthouse in the world, known as Torre de Hércules. There was something really appealing about La Coruña, maybe it was the combination of nice weather and being by the sea, I don't know. We then got given about three hours for lunch before our city tour. (We always get given so much time to eat lunch as it is considered the most important meal of the day in Spain, three hours felt a bit excessive though).  

I tried the nicest drink I have ever had in Spain after lunch. It's called a Toffee, 1/3 chocolate syrup, 1/3 condensed milk, 1/3 coffee. Wow!

The tour took us through the old city while they explained the history, none of which I can remember at this point in time. Again we were given free time, which we killed sitting down by the port before getting back on the bus for the trip back to Oviedo.

The main square

Attempting to Capture the Essence of Spanish Women in Fur Coats

Madrid

Santiago de Compostela

La Coruña

Madrid!

The 27th of January was Santo Tomás, the patron saint of universities, which meant a holiday for us. Taking advantage of an extra day for the weekend the UMass (University of Massachusetts) group and I went to Madrid for the weekend, leaving the afternoon of the 26th.

Our first real taste of Madrid started with a free walking tour at 11am on the Friday (27th). The meeting place was Puerta de Sol, the centre of Madrid and the place where Spaniards traditionally eat their twelve grapes while the bells ring twelve times to usher in the New Year. We met the tour guide who was an Icelandic girl, at the Bear and Madroño Tree statue, the symbol of Madrid (it is quite subtlety all through the city, on lamp posts, drains etc). She spoke perfect English, which made the tour super easy and enjoyable for us. After seeing the main attractions the city had to offer, a group of us decided to visit the royal palace. As you can imagine, it was lavish and beautiful. The price to get in was only 5 euros with my student ID card and 4 euros for an audio guide. Not too bad.

With the same organisation, "Madride", we went to a Tapas, Flamenco and Pub Crawl night. The tapas were some of the best I have had in Spain, the tortilla was perfect, the Sangria was delicious, and the decor of the bar felt very Spanish.

     Next up, the flamenco. We had to stand in the back, but there weren't too many people in the bar so we had a really great view. This was my first time seeing flamenco and I cannot even explain how fantastic it was. The dancers were so passionate and the atmosphere was so intense. By this time it was probably getting towards 11:30pm so we moved on to our first bar. We then went to three other bars/clubs. In the third bar one of the girls got her camera and wallet stolen. That put a bit of a damper on everyone's mood and only myself and three others continued to the final bar, which was a salsa bar. The whole night cost 24 euros but was well worth it because we got a free drink in each bar. 

The next day I decided I wanted to have a wander towards La Reina Museum of Modern Art and check out the suburb around it by myself. I ended up stumbling upon the Parque del Buen Retiro. It was so fantastic I ended up wandering around for two hours in the sun absorbing everything. In the middle of the park there was a mini lake where people could hire row boats, I stood there watching families, friends and tourists alike enjoying the saturday afternoon sun. Meanwhile a group of men had gathered and were playing jazz music, just to add to the magic that this place already had. After 2:30pm on a Saturday La Reina is free. In fact a lot of museums in Madrid are free at certain times, which is so fantastic for those on a budget. So I met up with the rest of the group at 4 and had a wander through it. Some of us were so tired we ended up retreating back to the hostel rather than going on to El Prado museum. Our bus left at 12 on the Sunday. Two others and I got up early enough so we could check out the flea markets before heading to the bus station. The market was streets and streets of stalls, anything and everything a flea market could have it seemed to have. It was a great way to finish off the trip to Madrid!