Galicia, Spain

A short trip to Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedrea, A Coruña, Ferrol, Pantin and Cedeira.

See the pictures or go on to read the blog.

28/03/07

Right now I am sitting here in a pub in Santiago de Compostela. Yesterday at this time I was in “our brewery Via Misa 36” to brew our new blanche. And after a short stop I am now here in front of a pint of cider and a plate of tapas. In the background there are some musicians singing Spanish songs. The world is wonderful, somehow like a small town, somehow so different. It would be wonderful to have somebody I know here with me, so I could in a language I know…but at the other hand it’s a new adventure again…

30/03/07

The 29th when I woke up, I met Barbara, a very nice and friendly Austrian girl, Shelby from Seattle, Hannu from Canada (and which was born in Finnland). In the morning we walked around in Santiago. We visited really nice spots: the squares, the cathedral, the university, the amazing market and a park. After lunch I took a nap and then I walked around on my own. I saw more nice places and went to two museums. In the evening I met Joshua in the hostel, he planned to walk from Santiago to Chile...but after 5 days he gave up because of the rain...Joshua, I hope you will make it! Keep going! Together with the others we drunk a couple bottles of cider (which is typical from Asturia), then we cooked dinner and had wine and beer. Afterwords we checked out Santiago’s nightlife. Result: students in Santiago go out from Monday to Thursday; they normally leave their houses after 12 am and are only around in the old town. For us that meant that we went home at 5 am and were really smashed (also because it is allowed to smoke in pubs).
Right now – after a really “slow” morning – I am on the train to Pontevedra, Hannu is coming with me. My sister & Ko(lja) are still in France and I will meet them tomorrow in Ferrol. I am looking through the window, the landscape is really nice: a lot of hills, everything is green and it is raining raining raining!

31/03/07

Pontevedra is a really nice city with narrow streets and a lot of “prazas” (squares). It was raining the whole time while we were walking around. After we came back to Santiago I said good bye to Hannu, which wanted to take the bus back to Portugal.  I went back to the hostel were Joshua was waiting for me. We cooked dinner and drunk a couple of beers...and then Hannu walked into the kitchen – Santiago is really like a black hole (all of us: Hannu, Joshua and me stayed in Santiago longer than expected). He wasn’t able to buy the ticket and had to look at the bus which was heading to Porto without him. We went out at 1 am and we found a really different Santiago, no students, juts local working people which went out to enjoy the weekend.
Now I am sitting in the train to A Coruña where I will walk around a bit. Then I will go on to Ferrol were I will meet finally Magda and Kolja.

31/03/07

The bus to Ferrol is really slow...we stop in every little town to pick up people. A Coruña is a pretty big city (for 200.000 abitants), I walked about 5 km. The city has some nice places to see, like the old town, the marina with the castle and the Hercule’s Tower (an ancient roman lighthouse); for the rest the city is very industrialized and many buildings have glass- façades. Wheater is changing really fast, I remeber my English roommate in Santiago: “Weather in England is better than in Galicia!” If he is saying that...

01/04/07

Magda, Kolja and Volker picked me up at the bus station in Farrol. Then we drove to Pantin, a small town between Valdovigno and Cedeira on the beach with couple houses and one bar. The house is really great; it looks really wild from outside, but is really need inside. Everything is build with stones and timber. On the main floor are the kitchen and a living room with an open fireplace and a wooden oven for bread and pizza, upstairs are the sleeping rooms, one with a hammock with a wonderful view to the sea.
Today Volker and his wife Chello came by to eat lunch with us. Result: at 5 pm we ate about 4 kg of mero, a local fish. Sooo good! It’s 9 pm by now, we are still full and it’s slowly getting dark outside.

06/04/07

Now I am sitting in the plane back to Rome. Near to me a nice girl, Jasmine from Austria, so I am not alone on this very sad trip back home. The last days here were really busy. On Monday we went to visit Cedeira, the neighbour-city. We opened our open-air office on the square in front of the public library were we could use wireless. Later on back home we had to get used to our new place, especially the smoke from our fireplace was a bit annoying. On Tuesday Magda and I went back to the library, it was then when I got the wonderful news that I was accepted at the Universidad de Chile.  Kolja started working in the meantime. Then also Volker came by and all of us had to work again. In the evening we baked some fresh bread and pizza. On Wednesday – which was supposed to be sunny, but it rained in the morning – we did a daytrip along the coast and the mountains. We visited the wind park and a small town with a really nice church. On Thursday we worked all day again and in the evening we went to Ferrol to see the Easter-processions. Today we went to the beach Doniños were we had lunch and were watching at a surf-competition. Before we left I jumped into the Atlantic with my suite and a body board. Really great!

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