Miscellania

Well, I've kind of slacked off lately on the blog-posting. No reason really, I've just been lazy. So, here are 10 miscellaneous photos from the past couple weeks or so.


#1) Breakfast. Some mornings I have enough time to make something nice, like a fried egg sandwich with onions and cheddar cheese. And two or three tiny cups of tea.

#2) At the Aquarium. I've been back to A Coruña again since my post about it, and one of the places I went was the aquarium, where they had a big tank of octopuses. I took a bunch of photos, but most of them were blurry. This was the best one. There were a bunch of little kids there too, and I found it hilarious that their parents kept telling them, "¡Mira! ¡Qué rico!" for all of the exhibits. "Look kiddies! Look at all these rare, beautiful animals! So delicious!"

#3) A Cat. I found her in Fonsagrada, she was super friendly.

#4) Milus. That was the name of the tour guide at the Torre de Hercules (well, the name of his Roman character at least). He was very bubbly and charismatic, and had a lot of interesting things to say about the history of the tower and the area, and the symbolism in the mosaic we're standing on. He's the one in the saia (Galician version of the kilt).

#5) Compass Rose. The mosaic we were standing on. The images stand for Scotland (thistle) Isle of Man (three legs) Ireland (shamrock) Finesterre (skull) Galicia (chalice w/sun) Santiago de Compostela (shell) Greece (winged snake) and one other one (diamonds)

#6) Rua Ramon Ferreiro. The main street that goes from my neighborhood to the center. Off to the right is a Gadis, my favorite grocery store.

#7) Don Leon. A chain of cafeterías/pastelerías/panderías. Coffee shops. When you go to a Don Leon or any other coffee shop and order un chocolate, you will receive a cup of melted chocolate. It's warm chocolaty pudding goodness for less than 2 euros.

#8) La Xunta. the Xunta (pronounced shoon-ta) is the Galician government. This is one of their buildings in Lugo, which is the capitol of Lugo province. The flags are, left to right: Galicia, Spain, Europe.

#9) Goodies. As a Christmas gift, all the teachers and employees at the school got a box of sweets. There were two types of sweets: almondy things (turrón and marzipan) and polverones, which translates to something like 'dusties.' They are little crumbly cake things, mostly flour and sugar. Also, raisins and dried figs.

#10) A fig. Figs are pretty common here, but fig newtons are not.

Cathedrals

First, some required listening. (right-click, new tab) It's quiet, but it will get louder.

As you probably know, Spain is a Catholic country, and has been for pretty much as long as Catholicism has been around. As you also probably know, I am not much of one for religion, but I can absolutely appreciate a place dedicated to quiet introspection and tranquility, especially with a little bit of history thrown in.

There is a cathedral in Lugo, special because it is the only cathedral in the world where they are allowed to keep the host on display all the time, not just during the host part of the ceremonies.

At night, it gets lit up, like most impressive historical things do. 

There's a church in Fonsagrada that I go past to get to the school every day, so I figure that's worth a mention as well, even though it doesn't have the papal seal of approval.

Notice there's a Camiño de Santiago symbol above the door in the bottom right corner (looks like a clam shell). I suppose technically you could say that I have been on the Camino, since part of it goes through the town and along the highway for a stretch. But been on is very different from done.

Now we get to the real reason behind this post: I went on another field trip today with my coordinating teacher, to the coast this time. One of the places we stopped was the Basilica of San Martiño in the town of Foz. The first stage of construction started in the fifth century, with more additions completed up through the seventh.

Classic romanesque style.

Unfortunately it was closed when we arrived, so we did not get to go inside.

After poking around the outside of San Martiño, we headed east to Tapia de Casariego in Asturias, where we got a little lost, had lunch and went for a walk.

A departure from the theme, I know, but it was so pretty I had to share.

Next we headed back west, to A Praia das Catedrais. We didn't get there until around 6pm, and both the light and my camera were failing, so I didn't get the chance to take as many photos as I would have liked. 

Rain on the water.

This one is blurry, I'm sorry.

Julián waiting while I climbed to the top of one of the catedrais, as the storm rolls in off the water.

I hope the music timed out well with how long it took to read the post. :)
ps. Here's a link if you'd like to see all the photos from today a little bigger than I can put here. photos

Visiting History & Free Beer

First the history.

One of the things I did this past weekend was take a trip with Julián, my coordinating teacher, to the Castro of Viladonga, a place well-deserving of its cool name. 

Viladonga is a small town about 25 minutes outside Lugo and is home to some cool ruins and a decently good museum.

There's Lugo in the bottom left, and Viladonga in the top right.

We saw a double rainbow on the way there when we stopped to get fuel (diesel, not gasoline). 

Between stopping for diesel, admiring a rainbow and getting slightly lost, we didn't get to the site until 6:30 or so, and it was already getting dark out, so I'm sorry my photos will be kind of crummy. But like Julian said, it's more of what isn't there than what is there that makes the place cool. 

So, two views of essentially the same thing. The village was about half the size of a football (read: soccer) field and was surrounded by a earthen wall, maybe 20, 25 feet tall. Inside the wall, you can still see the foundations of the stone houses where the people lived. They were tiny by modern (and especially American) standards and had only one or two rooms each, with maybe 50 houses total, all butt up against each other with streets in between.

The museum had a model of the village showing how it must have looked when the houses were still standing. You can see a fence around the top of the wall and farmlands/pastures outside. 

The village is called a castro, and the people who lived here were part of the 'casto culture'--a group of people who lived in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula during and slightly before the Romans took control of the area. 

They were a bronze age people and made all kinds of metal tools, pottery and glass things. In the museum, they had needles and keys on display that they had dug up at Viladonga. I was really impressed that people 2000+ years ago were blowing glass and making keys etc, and had to keep reminding myself that the Romans and other folks had been doing that stuff for even longer.

Speaking of the Romans, it's neat to note that in the older castros, or the older buildings in the castros, are round, while the newer ones are square, like Roman buildings. The archaeologists also found tons of Roman coins and other Roman artifacts at Viladonga, showing that at least by the time the castro was abandoned they were more or less integrated into the Roman empire.

Although by the end the castro culture people might have been considered Roman, there is some proof here too of celtic origins, mainly in the jewelry uncovered at Viladonga and other castros.

http://aaviladonga.es//imagenes/1319200470.jpg

 All in all pretty cool. The whole museum was in Galego of course, but they did have translation sheets and I probably would have learned more if I had bothered to read the English version.

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One of the things I did this morning was run some errands before meeting my carpool. Stop by the bank, pick up some groceries... This became a mini emotional rollercoaster.

First was worry and confusion as the girl at the cash register put a case of beer in my bag that I had not I had not intended to buy. 

Second was relief and enthusiasm when she explained that it was free--a promotional holiday thing. So, of course I was like 'free beer? Way to go, Spain!'

Third was disappointment when I got home and looked at my free gift.

Estrella Galicia Sin. I guess now I know why it was free.