Day 126 actually. Can't count. - 5/7

On Cinco de Mayo we went to Santander, on the northern coast of Spain along the Cantabrian Sea.

On the way there we stopped in the small town of Santillana del Mar.

Lots of pretty flowers!

Iglesia Santillana del Mar.

Colegiata de Santa Juliana. Pretty patio.

There was a wedding in the church while we were there. Everyone was very fashionable wearing hats and flowers in their hair.

Then we continued on to Santander.

There is a little "zoo" along the shoreline.

Seals!

Jacob, Kayla and I.

We also visited el Real Palacio de la Magdalena, the summer home of Alfonso XIII.

El Camino de Santiago-100km por Santiago de Compostela

Day 143- 5/8




Last week we had Tuesday off so Jenny and I took a couple extra days off of school to do the Camino de Santiago. It is a pilgrimage walk to Santiago de Compostela. Before the Americas were discovered it was believed that this area, Finisterra (fin de la tierra or end of the earth), was the most western point in the world. There you can see the sun set and it looks like it disappears/falls of the edge of the earth. It is also called la Costa de la Muerte, Coast of Death.. where older people go to die aka now just a lot of people go there to retire. But we only made it to Santiago de Compostela, I guess it's an extra couple days walk or couple hours bus ride to Finisterra. So we just ended in Santiago de Compostela at the Cathedral. There you can get a certificate if you walked more than 100km..so we started exactly 100km away in Lugo and walked for four days.

Muralla de Lugo. these walls used to surround all the cities in Spain.

Jenny haha.


The first day we stayed in Lugo, got our credentials (certificates you get stamped at each location to show how far you've walked). Every day we walked 20-30km which takes about 4-6 hours with stopping for coffe to get out of the rain/hail at times and to talk to some locals. Every night we stayed in an Albergue, they're like hostels but only 5 euros a night and strictly for the people doing the camino, peregrinos (pilgrams). It was really fun because there's people from all over the world doing the camino, some routes start in France and others in Portugal and Spain. We did the Camino Primitivo then that hooked up with the Camino Frances, both in Galicia. There it is called Espana Verde, green Spain, and it is soo pretty!


Walking from Lugo to San Roman we stopped at an old farmer's house. He showed us his animals and his dog just had puppies! 

 Mama dog, Lica.

 We met a couple guys on the way, one from Italy and the other from Colombia. We walked with them the next couple days, a grand mixture of Italian, Spanish and English! Learned some Italian!

 I think I have more pictures of dogs from the Camino, random country dogs would just follow us down the path. 

The Italiano, Jenny and I.


We walked from San Roman to Melide the second day.

 Gnome!!

 Another dog!! 

So we're just walking along and here comes the running of the bulls!! Rather they were walking but there were definitely some bulls mixed in there. Crazy!! Very Spanish.

The Concha, shell, is the symbol you follow along the whole camino. 

In Melide we had pulpo, octopus, it is supposed to be the best in Spain, yum! 

 We also had langostinos! 

 The next day we walked from Melide to Pedrouzo. It was a long day of rainy weather and hail. But we camped out in a cafe during the worst part and listened to an old man rant about the failing economy in Spain. 

 The 4th day we arrived in Santiago de Compostela! 

We made it!!

At the Cathedral de Santiago.

You're supposed to touch the Saint at the head of the church and all your sins will be forgiven. 

I met up with one of my friends, Elizabeth, from my Spanish classes in high school. She was spending the semester studying in Compostela. Black n white because I was sooo sunburned! Didn't realized I was getting sun in the rain. We sent this picture to Senora Collins!

 Here is the sunrise in the morning when Jenny and I were walking to the station for our 8 hour bus ride back to Valladolid!

 Rainbow!

Malta

Day 143- 5/7

And I'm really behind with this.

The weekend after spring break Crystal, Meg and I went to Malta. It's its own country but was formerly controlled by England so they speak Maltese and ENGLISH. Yayy. It's an island south of Sicily. Basically we went to the beach, went out and wandered around. Great relaxing weekend!

Crystal and I.

Church on the walk from Silema to St. Julian's.

Ahh big dog in the tourist office.

The beach :)Kinda rocky, but it was soo nice out!

Jelly fish!

Meg really wanted to touch one. Did successfully, then later got stung by a different one. 

La seguna semana..Venecia y Florencia, Italia

Day 111-4/19

When I got to Florence we went and met up with Brehanna's aunt, cousins and cousins’ husband who were visiting/touring Italy. We went to Michelangelo, which is a lookout place that everyone goes to watch the sunset. We got some wine, took some pictures then went out of “Gusta” Pizza. It’s supposed to be the best pizza place. Tasted good to me!

Kathy with Gusta wine!

They looked happier at one point, but I didn't catch it.

Pizza and wine. Yessss.

Brehanna and I at the Michelangelo viewpoint of Florence.

The next day we left early on a train for Venice. The weather wasn’t very nice, but later in the afternoon it warmed up enough to walk around. We took the water taxis to the different islands.

Venice.

Someone's private water taxi.

We watched a glass blowing show on Murano.

Then we went to Burano to see all of the colored houses.

There wasn’t that much to do in Venice/I didn’t think it was as wonderful as everyone says it is, but it was a good day to catch up with Bre.

We also tried “the Italian Spritzer drink.” It’s wine, some kind of whiskey? Or liquor? And sprite. Not too bad, but not that good haha.

That night we were staying in a bungalow (got upgraded from our original tent site because of the cold, thank god). Everything is a lot more expensive in Italy than Spain so we decided on camping for the “hostel” and it is what my host mom suggested.

Here’s our cute bungalow! Still FREEZING. But we survived (with more pizza).

The next day we went to the fresh market in Florence.

 Chickens! Ah!

Brains of some sort.

 We watched some guy make noodles for a while. Kinda cool! It rained most of the day so Brehanna and I drank some wine and made chocolate chip cookies. Our cookies did not turn out. Hard to believe, but the wine was good!


Then I went to the Duomo, you can see it in the Florence night pictures. It's the Cathedral of Florence. They started building it in 1296 and was structurally completed in 1436 by Brunelleschi. My camera died basically right away.

Outside the fake David. The real one by Michelangelo is in the Accademia but we didn't really want to go to see it. Basically the same thing here! Haha. 

Then we spent the day in the Boboli Gardens in Florence. Formerly owned by the Medici and Lorraine families. 

Spent the last night back at the Michelangelo viewpoint and got more pizza and of course saw another fake David!