Spain Diaries: Santiago de Compostela

I landed in Santiago around 9h30 it’s a small airport and all you have to do to get to city centre is to walk out the front doors and hop on the bus. I failed to do through research and it dawned on me while I was on the bus that I had no clue where to get off. So I just staid on till the last stop. It drops you off in the middle of the city. When I had seen pictures of the cathedral it totally didn’t look like it was in a city. I started thinking that maybe I’d taken the wrong bus and so on. You know the drill when you’re somewhere you don’t know and your mind starts running though a thousand and one highly unlikely but very real sounding reasons on why you’re in this spot of trouble.


So there I was on a city street. I looked left then right. I was hoping to see the spires of the cathedral but no luck of course. I saw a few people from the airport hike off in one direction and I followed. They looked touristy. I stopped paying attention to them for like two second as I checked the street and lost them. So there I was on a street corner running through things to do. I could as someone for directions. Ana had gone through some basic Spanish with me. I might be able to understand someone. First I thought I’d try having a wander about.


Turns out that was the best idea I’d had all day. I ended up spotting the tipy top of a spire and be lined for it. Once I got in the old town area it was easy to navigate to the cathedral. I ended up at the back so I walked down a few allies and got myself to the front and man what a view that is.

There’s so much to just absorb and. Plus there’s a lot of history here too. I’m a fan of lists so here’s a list (thanks to wikipedia) of facts.


-In 813, according to medieval legend, the light of a bright star guided a shepherd who was watching his flock at night to the burial site in Santiago de Compostela. The shepherd quickly reported his discovery to the bishop of Iria, Bishop Teodomiro. The bishop declared that the remains were those of the apostle James and immediately notified King Alfonso II in Oviedo. To honor St. James, the cathedral was built on the spot where his remains were said to have been found. The legend, which included numerous miraculous events, enabled the Catholic faithful to not only maintain their stronghold in northern Spain during the Christian crusades against the Moors, but also led to the growth and development of the city..
-the cathedral is the end point of the 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James.
-The Obradoiro façade of the cathedral, the best known, is depicted on the Spanish euro coins of 1 cent, 2 cents, and 5 cents
-The cathedral was consecrated in 1128
-Construction of the present cathedral began in 1075 under the reign of Alfonso VI of Castile
-The crypt houses the relics of Saint James and two of his disciples : Saint Theodorus and Saint Athanasius
-The Santiago de Compostela Botafumeiro is the largest censer in the world, weighing 80 kg and measuring 1.60 m in height (it’s the incense swinger)
-One explanation of why it is so big, originated more than 700 years ago—although incense has been used in Catholic ritual from the earliest times—is that it assisted in masking the stench emanating from hundreds of unwashed pilgrims


To be honest other then the cathedral and walking the old town there really wasn’t a whole lot to see. I saw all of it the first day and still checked in 2 hours early to my hostel. My hostel was pretty cool. Check out my view from my window.

Epic right? Granted it was a hike to get back to the cathedral. And by hike I mean the cathedral is on a hill and you’ve got to go up that hill. But it was super close to the old town so it was nice. And it was here that I met the first American since I got to Europe in September. He’s from New York. Weird right? We’re like neighbors at home and we meet in Spain. Any way we sort of became friends and chatted a bit. He was nice and it’s funny because I didn’t learn his name till the last night I was there and it was when he introduced himself to another dude we were chilling in the kitchen with. This guy was funny he’s an Australian doctor and he had some crazy ass stories. Like he was working at a refugee camp in Africa and wanted to go to the Congo for a little day trip ended up getting stuck there and had to bargain their way home.


But I think the thing that chocked me the most was when the Australian guy said he’d love to be in my shoes. He’s 29 and just traveling now taking a year off of work. And he said he’d like to be me have no commitments and be able to see what I want when I want. My New York buddy agreed. He’s also 29 and a teacher. It was odd to have people admit that they’d like to be like me. It was also a good confidence booster since I’ve still been down about not being in school and all.


Even though the sights weren’t that many I had a lot of fun in Santiago just because I got to meet some new people. I was proud of myself for branching out a bit. And it’s always weird when you form a little bond people and chill out and get to know each other and then the next day you all hop on different planes and you’re out of each others lives never to see each other again. It’s weird and profound at the same time.


I’ll leave you with some pictures I took while in Santiago de Compostela.

Cheers,

Spain Diaries: Madrid

The Madrid Airport is huge. Like really huge. I got to spend about 5 hours in it. Damien and I caught a flight from Alicante to Madrid in the afternoon and he had a flight home that evening. Since it was the last time I’d see him for 12 days I hung out with him at the airport. We had coffee and lunch. Then Damien caught his flight home and I caught the metro to my hostel.

The directions for the metro were easy. Finding the street when I walked out of the metro… not so easy. But I did find it and checked in. the keys were super annoying to use. You had to swipe the key on the knob then turn the knob either left or right till the door opened. The fist time it took me about 5 minutes to get in the room. Thank goodness no one was there while I was trying. I was in an all girls dorm so obviously just girls. I talked to a few of them. They were from England, Australia, and France. They were nice but totally girly so I stayed in instead of going out with them for drinks.

I had set my alarm early in hope that I’d get a good start on sight seeing. I had seen a poster for a free walking tour offered by my hostel and I wasn’t sure if I’d go or not. So I struck out on my own. I took a few streets and ended up in Puerta del Sol. I took a few more streets and came to the conclusion that I’d rather go on the walking tour. I pulled out my map and navigated back to the hostel where I ate a power bar for breakfast and waited in the lobby. And off I went on a grand tour of Madrid. My tour guide was an English girl with red hair. Her head popped into a lot of my pictures.

What did I see on my tour? Well I saw a lot actually…

Puerta del Sol
This used to be where the gate to the city was and it was decorated with a brilliant sun. sadly it was knocked down when they wanted to expand the city. But they still call the square Puerta del Sol.

And in Puerta del Sol is the official symbol of Madrid.

It’s impressive right? A statue of a bear. It’s all over everything in Madrid from street signs to garbage bins. And if you don’t mind I’ll share why this is the symbol. The tree the bear is eating from is special because the berries ferment on the tree and these trees used to be all over the area that’s now Madrid. So basically the bear is getting wasted. Fun right? And it’s a female bear… something to do with ursa major. I’d rather not botch the explanation so I’ll leave it with I don’t really remember it what it has to do with ursa major.

The Opera House
Before Isabella II the arts were mainly funded by the church and the church saw plays and acting as the devils work so there were a lot of poor actors. Then Isabella had a lot of money to throw about and funded the royal opera house. Today it’s on the major opera circuit so you can see all kinds of major operas there. It’s also really boring looking. But that was the style…

Palacio Real
The Royal Palace was cool to learn about. Today it’s also a huge museum that you can visit with tons of priceless works of art and history. It also has a funny history. I’ll try to keep it short I promise. So remember the Moores? They had a royal palace of their own in the spot that is now the royal palace. When the capitol was moved to Madrid (it used to be Toledo) the king thought it was shabby but the Madrid-ians loved it so he couldn’t wreck it and start all over. Instead he threw a huge party for new years or something (I forget) offered free wine and food and obviously the whole city went out of the city to party. When they came back they found their precious Moorish royal palace burned to the ground. Suspicious right? Even more suspicious before it was burned all the art work and treasure was taken out. And that’s how the new palace was started.

Cathedral de la Almudena
This is just as boring looking as the opera house… apparently the inside is amazing. I didn’t get a chance to go back and pop inside. But the back of the cathedral is so much prettier it’s like a normal cathedral.

Plaza Mayor
This has another rather funny story to go with it. You see the king originally built it to make his people happy as a place for recreations and so on. But he built it of wood. So the first winter rolled around and it was burned to the ground. They built a total of 5 wooden Plaza Mayors before they got the grand idea to build it of stone and that’s the one we see today. Sadly there was an exhibition in the middle of the square so I don’t have very good pictures…

Gran Via
This is the road you go to splash some cash as my tour guide said. I walked up it after the tour and there were some pretty cool buildings.

The old Post office now the Town Hall
Check out this huge building. It used to be the main post office hub, it’s not anymore because the post office has down sized and it’s the new town hall. It’s huge inside as well there’s a couple floors underground as well.

Fuente Cibeles
This is where the football (soccer) team goes to kick off the celebrations. It’s the unofficial symbol of the city.

That rounded out our tour. After I grabbed a Starbucks I headed to my hostel to have a rest before going back out. If I was smart I would have gone right after the tour but my legs were so tired. Instead after I had a snack of another power bar I headed back toward where we ended the tour. There were 2 other fountains on the road that were part of the same commission. So I saw Fuente de Apolo

And Fuente de Neptune.

And it started raining at this point. Fun right? I thought Spain was always warm and sunny. But I really wanted to see the Crystal Palace. I got lost in the park, got soaked to the bone, sloshy shoes and only managed to find Estanque and a monument to Alfonso XII.

By the time I got back to my hostel I was rather miserable. I set my shoes out to dry. Hung up my coat and took a very hot shower. Then I went to reception to see how to get to the airport. The metro started running at 6 and it would take 45 minutes to get to the airport. My flight left at 7h45. Me being nervous I wanted to get there plenty early. Turns out there was a bus that left at 4h30 to the airport. I just had to walk about 20 minutes to the stop. No biggie. I’d just have to wake up early.


I went to bed early and got up even earlier. On my walk to the bus I realized I had no reason to be nervous or jumpy about walking so early in the morning by myself. There were still a bunch of Spanish out partying and drinking. I was hardly alone on the street. I made it to the airport and made my flight to Santiago de Compostela.


Cheers,

Spain Diaries: Granada

Have you ever heard of Granada? Know where it is?

There you have it Granada Spain. It’s got some epic history so bare with me as I educate you a bit as I find history interesting. Besides it helps to explain some structures. I’ll do it quickly… and probably quite horribly… but I’ll do my best.


Granada was originally part of the Roman Empire way back to start with. Then in 711 the Moors started conquering Spain and Granada became a Moorish city.


Hold on a tick you know of the Moors right? Well if you don’t know it’s a term that refers to a population of mostly Berber and Arab decent.


So the Moors took over Granada and kept most of the Roman infrastructure and so on and so forth. I’m fuzzy on what happened over the next few centuries. I’ll skip to the fun part. In 1237 Muhamad I al-Ahmar founder of the Nasrid dynasty installed his court on Sabika hill and began the construction of the Alhambra. The Alhambra is the palace fortress built by the Nasrid rulers. There are three palaces built in three different periods. On 02 Janurary 1492 the Alhambra was surrounded by the Catholic and Granada was ultimately surrendered. This marked the end of the Moorish rule in Spain and started the era of the Catholic monarchs. 1492-1516 Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon conducted extensive repairs an alterations. They installed the Royal House and the headquarters of the General Captaincy of the Kingdom of Granda in the Alhambra. And in 1870 it was declared a National Monument.


There you have it. A VERY quick history gathered from wikipedia and my guide I picked up at the Alhambra. Pretty interesting right? I would have loved to see the inside of the Alhambra but there is a certain number of visitors allowed in the palace each day and we didn’t get tickets far enough in advance. So we only got to see the grounds and gardens along with the Court of the Water Channel. Even thought it was raining it was still pretty cool.

Before we hit up the Alhambra Grounds though we swung by the Cathedral of Granada.

It houses the tomb of the Catholic Kings. The two most of us know are Isabella and Ferdinand. They have monuments above their tomb…

And their coffins with in.

I’m not going to lie it was really cool to be so close to history and to actually see the coffins of the Catholic Kings.


After visiting the Alhambra we ate a very Spanish lunch of Burger King. Lol. Then we had to find our way back to Murcia without directions. We did it but it was a wee bit frustrating. And Granada marked the end of our Irish reunion. Lenka left early the next day. Candice left the next afternoon. And Damien and I were off to Madrid the day after. Madrid marked the beginning of my adventures on my own. And that my friends is a whole other post.
Before I leave you here are a few other pictures i took while walking around.


 

Translation thanks to Ana : "You can't imagine how much I would love to be the fountain of your village, so when you come and drink, I will feeel your lips close

Cheers,