So, this past weekend was a long one, and I took the opportunity to make a trip to A Coruña, which is a city of about 300.000 people (FYI, in Europe, the use of commas and points in numbers is reverse of that in the states) in the northwestern corner of Galicia. It's considered the starting point of the 'Costa de la Muerte' (Death Coast), where there have been millions of shipwrecks over the centuries (I made up that number). But, I don't remember whether the Death Coast proper is to the north or south of A Coruña. Either way, it's near here that there was a big tanker spill about ten years ago.
Despite that, it's a very prosperous, modern city with lots of tourist attractions.
I went with another girl from the Auxiliares program, Laura from Ireland. We took the train, which took about 2 hours. We'll take the bus next time.
Train station in A Coruña. The blue thing on the far wall is like the town crest. It was on everything--manholes, trash cans, signage...
After getting off the train we stopped for coffee and churros (a Spanish thing, not a Mexican thing, apparently), then went to the Parque de Santa Margarita, in the center of which is the Casa das Ciencias, a science museum for children. We had a blast anyway, and it was only 2 euros to get in! The written portions of the exhibits were in an interesting mix of Castellano, Gallego and English. Some had all three, while others had only Castellano and Gallego, while some were either Castellano or Gallego, or a mix of the two.
Did I mention that A Coruña is on the sea? I'm not sure what the tower is on the end of the point--I'll have to go back and check it out next time.
We saw some real surfers too, but these ones were a little easier to photograph.
One of the main attractions in A Coruña is the Roman lighthouse, called the Torre de Hércules. It still is a functioning lighthouse, and you can go inside if you like. Laura and I did not, because we were going to meet up with one of the teachers from her school and didn't have time.
One of the main pedestrian streets in the town center.
In front of the town hall. It's quite a bit bigger than the one in Lugo.
This is Maria Pita, the town hero. She drove out the British in the 1400's or something. Pretty badass! In the statue, I think she's about to spear some poor British soldier on the ground.
We only saw a small part of the city, so we'll have to go back another day and check out some of the museums and the aquarium.
So cool. You should go surfing ;)
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