Un fin de semana en Santiago de Compostela

This weekend I enjoyed another little cheap retreat with Austin. This time we went to Santiago de Compostela, which is in Galicia. I realized that I've been doing an awful lot of talking about where I've been in Spain and where I want to go without actually giving you any idea of where these places are. So here's a good map I found that gives the basics. I study in Andalucia, two weekends ago I went to Valencia, this past weekend I went to Galicia.


Santiago is easily the farthest north I've been in Spain. It was marvelous. It felt like a different world. There was so much new and different this past weekend that I made a list of things to share, true to Emma form.

1) Galicians speak Spanish with an Italian accent. No joke. At first Austin and I thought it was gallego, their native tongue, but nope, all the words were the same as the castellano Spanish we know -- the only difference was they were delivered with a heavy Italian accent! It was so weird to hear... imagine a stereotypical, over-annunciated Italian accent (like someone mocking an Italian chef). Then apply that to Spanish. Good, now you understand Santiago's, um, uniqueness.

2) Seafood was very big there, which makes sense because Galicia is filled with fishing communities and Santiago is near the water. The seafood, however, was a bit much for my somewhat-vegetarian tendencies. Most restaurants had display windows filled with ENORMOUS crabs, fish with weird expressions, full squid, and -- the prized posession -- octopus. The octopus was especially disturbing. Called "pulpo" in Spanish, all the restaurants would put up signs in their window if they had fresh pulpo. Clearly a delicacy of the area. Also clearly a delicacy that I did not partake in.

3) Lucky for me, though, Santiago is also known for it's special, unique cheese, which I did try and enjoy. It's strong and unlike anything I've tasted before -- maybe sort of like Manchego, maybe -- but the most comical part about it was the cheese comes in the shape of a breast. The Galicians call the cheese "queso de tetilla" or, literally "tit cheese." Yes. It was quite good.

4) When you order a drink in Galicia (not necessarily alcohol, just literally anything that is not tap water), you get food to nibble on, too. Kind of like small tapas, I guess, but enough to hit the spot. It was very nice. Things generally are cheaper there, although I would be a very happy camper if the bars in Sevilla decided to give me a free little dinner with my beverage.

5) On Friday night, Austin and I decided to go ethnic, considering she is totally vegetarian (no fish) and the octopus was kind of freaking me out (Fernando had tried to tell me that the octopus is small (in his words, "chiquitito"), but as I found out, that was total crap), we decided to try out the Indian restaurant that served Hindu food. We were skeptical considering how little diversity there is in Galicia, but the food turned out to be halfway decent. Definitely better than anything that Sevilla has, anyway. And the best part? The place was called the "Taj Mahal." I had a good laugh over that one.

6) People are quieter and more polite in Santiago than in Sevilla. I guess that isn't a hard contest to win, considering Andalucians have a reputation for being loud, harsh, direct, and just generally up in each others business, but Austin and I were still surprised to find people so far the opposite only an hour's plane ride away. People talked in lower voices, were more dignified in public (ie Austin and I only saw one couple ferociously making out the entire weekend rather than the normal thousands), and were just generally more refined and, therefore, in my eyes, pleasant. It was nice.

7) There is a Scottish and Celtic influence in Santaigo. Literally. People playing bagpipes, stores selling Celtic jewelry. Still don't entirely understand why; I need to look up the history more. This definitely added to the 'different world' theme of the weekend.

8) Ok, so this one is a perfect transition into the pictures that I have. The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela is insanely famous because supposedly it's where St. James was beheaded and buried. According to Frommer's, Santiago is actually the 3rd most religious place for Catholics, after Jerusalem and Rome. Eh. Ok, so funny story. We get in the church, and we get in line for this thing to go up into altar. I thought it was really cool. So we climb up, and I begin to see that ahead of me, people are stopping to kneel and hug this huge, golden statue (St James). Literally every single person does that, which I guess isn't surprising considering this is Catholic Spain we're talking about. So it's Austin's turn. She does the whole thing, hug and all, even though she is not religious at all and doesn't believe any of it. Then my turn comes, but I don't do it. I just take a peek out at the church, look around, and keep walking. I didn't want to fake doing something that I don't believe in. But THEN I notice that there is a little religious dude (not sure exactly what he was, so "religious dude" will have to do) in the corner sitting next to the donations box and he starts yelling and waving his finger at me. I couldn't decide if I felt bad or if I just found the entire situation terribly funny, and I went down the stairs and left. Austin was at the bottom covering her mouth, laughing hysterically. So yes. That is my encounter with the great St. James. Sorry, buddy. No hug for you.

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, with my friend who I refuse to hug inside.

There were many pits stops along the way during our weekend. Lots of sweets and chocolates consumed. This menu was particularly exciting, as you can see from Austin's face.

It was really hard to capture the beauty of Santiago's winding, old stone streets because they are so narrow and everything is so crammed together, but this is one of the better pictures I took.

A view out from the Cathedral Museum we went in that took us up, up, up in the building connected to the Cathedral.

Me and the view. Yep, this one definitely did not need a caption.

Another attempt to capture the beautiful city center.

The nearby park had a phenomenal view of the Cathedral. I look somewhat out of it in this picture, probably from the 4:30am wake-up that day.

Typical pulpo (octopus) decor. "La casa del buen pulpo" = "The House of Good Octopus."

Outside of the Cathedral messing around, as per usual.

In one of the pretty plazas (or 'praza' as they say in gallego).

Another Cathedral and Emma picture. This Cathedral is pretty important for the Spanish people -- Mayte has a wall-hanging of it even though she has never been and isn't religious.

A more open street towards the outskirts of the center, easier to see the architecture and sleepy-town feel.

I think I help put the tower to scale...

So that was the weekend, in a nutshell. It was quite relaxing and very low-key. Austin and I took a lot of walks, stopped in cafes and parks, and just enjoyed the different scenery and good conversation. I had been very curious to go to Santiago de Compostela because it seemed foreign and different and I had heard wonderful things about it. All of those things proved to be correct -- it did feel foreign and different and it was absolutely wonderful to see!

On a side note, the nights were incredibly chilly, like 40s, probably. It made me realize how absolutely unprepared I am to go back to the reality of Ithaca next year. It's already 80s and sunny every day in Sevilla -- spring and summer are here, and in full force -- so Galicia was somewhat of a shock to the system.

And, totally unrelated, I may or may not have put my contacts in the wrong eyes this morning. That would explain a lot, because my prescription in one eye is much stronger than in the other. But I'm not entirely sure if that's what I did. Still, today has been interesting, and there will never be any way to know if that's what happened or if I'm just off my rocker, busy looking for my marbles!