Viva Espana!!: May 2012

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!

Viva Espana!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

El Camino de Santiago-100km por Santiago de Compostela

Malta