Travels in Spain & More!: March 2013

Monday, March 4, 2013

Back in Galicia!

The journey back to O Barco was interesting and long. Our flight got into Santiago (about 2 1/2 hours driving to O Barco) at around 5 PM. Unfortunately, the only way to get back to O Barco in time to work on Wednesday was to take a midnight bus to Ponferrada, then take a 6 AM train to O Barco. Not ideal, but it was our only option. We spent about 6 hours at the mall in Santiago, getting Burger King and frozen yogurt, playing cards, and drinking large amounts of soda from the fountain to stay up all night.

Around 11:30, we left for the bus station to catch our bus. Unfortunately, we got turned around and ended up lost, and couldn't find the bus station in time. We finally got close, and saw our bus pull away and take the highway away from us, leaving us stranded in Santiago. We talked to the information man at the bus station, and he told us about a cheap hotel close to the bus station.

Luckily, the man working at the hotel was very nice, and our rooms were really nice, and very cheap. The only bus to go back to O Barco was at 3pm. So, we got to sleep in a bit, then went to a cafe to get lunch and kill time until our bus left. I had to miss school that day, which wasn't ideal, but I think (hope) my teachers understood.

En route to O Barco

Thursday, Sarah went with me to my elementary school. That was an interesting experience. The kids all really liked Sarah and called her doble Camille "double Camille", and kept whispering to each other (not so secretly) that we looked alike. Sarah went to my classes with me, and helped in the classroom. We gave a presentation about our friendship to the class.

The library

The kids liked to hang on Sarah

Us with the 1st through 3rd grade class!

Doing work

Friday early morning, we went back to Santiago on the bus. We checked into our hostel, then went to find lunch! A lot of places in Spain have "menu del dia", which includes 3 courses, plus bread and a drink.

As my first dish, I was feeling brave and ordered octopus with potatoes (pulpo con patatas).

A little nervous...

I could tell it was probably one of the best prepared octopus I would see, but it still tasted a little weird. Then the waiter pointed out which piece was part of the head, then I stopped eating... The potatoes were good though!

The rest of my food was good, I got tortilla (egg) with ham and tomatoes, and ice cream for dessert. I will definitely not be trying pulpo again anytime soon!

We went exploring around Santiago de Compostela. We went and saw the cathedral, the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC!)

Another USC!

Part of the University

We found the best chocolate con churros I've had so far! The churros were warm & had extra sugar on them!

Octopus on display....

Sarah flew out Saturday morning for Boston. We had a great time and I am very happy she could come visit!!

Sevilla 2013

We spent last weekend in the beautiful, sunny Sevilla! My friend Sarah from USC met us there :)

We found a cheap Ryanair flight from Santiago, and met Sarah at the airport.We got really lucky with our hostel. We paid for a 6 bed dorm, but we were the only ones for the first 2 nights, so it was great to have the room to ourselves while we could. It was a really great location as well, in the center of Sevilla.

Sarah and me in our fun pink hostel room!

On the balcony of our hostel

The first night, we went out for tapas. We ordered bocatas, which are small sandwiches of all different kinds. Amanda ordered croquetas, little deep fried cheese and ham bites.

We had a lot of people tell us we looked like sisters!

Being in Sevilla was really different because a lot of people were speaking English. A ton of Americans study abroad in Sevilla, and there were a ton of tourists. We definitely could have gotten away with not speaking English the whole time we were there.

The next day, we went and wandered around Sevilla. It was a nice, sunny day and about 60 degrees outside. We walked by the cathedral, and saw a bunch of orange trees, for which Andalucia (the southern "state" of Spain) is famous.

We found a Starbucks, and got some delicious coffee. I'm not normally a huge fan of Starbucks, but Spain usually only has one kind of coffee, cafe con leche, so we had been missing flavored coffee!

We then went and walked the river!

At night, we went to the only Flamenco Museum in the world! We saw a performance of flamenco dancing. It was really interesting because it was more than just dancing, the men in the background sang loudly and played guitar, and it was an entire production.

At the flemenco museum

On Monday, we went inside the cathedral, then climbed to the top of the Tower of Giralda, one of the most famous landmarks in Sevilla. It was built in the 12th century, and now serves as the bell tower for the cathedral. It only stairs at the very top, otherwise there are 35 "gently sloped" ramps to get the top (it was still a lot of work!)