Pulpo, almejas, almendras, vino...y una catedral en Santiago!

This past weekend I went to Santiago de Compostela with my friend Noel, and we had a wonderful time! But before I get into that---a short update about what happened since my last post, before I went away for the weekend. The previous weekend, I went to lunch at Sara's house (the girl who lived with my friend Sharon years ago in the US). I got to meet her husband and her adorable little 2-year-old David. Sara's brother and girl friend (who I had already met) were also there. It was a really fun day- a nice change of pace to be in a family environment and just have a nice, long lunch and conversation with friendly people. David was so cute, and had a fun time saying my name repeatedly over and over again (he had no trouble with my name!).

Also last weekend, I went to a party with Ruth, where we both met a lot of new people. One of her friends was having people at his house, but neither of us knew anyone except for him. So, that was also a nice change of pace...just to meet new people and be in a slightly different environement. Last week at school was pretty busy and hectic, and there was a fair amount of confusion about our lessons, becasue some of the teachers were away on a field trip. However, today, we cleared up a lot of the confusion, and I think we will be planning more ahead of time from now on (which makes me very happy and less stressed!). This week, I get to teach the young kids about Halloween, which is a lot of fun. I also found a fun scary story to tell them (which they loved!) and I'm having them write their own scary stories to share with the class, which they also really seem to enjoy.

Anyway..back to Santiago. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, the title of this blog translates to "Octopus, clams, almonds, wine...and a cathedral in Santiago de Compostela." So, as you can probably tell- Santiago is known for two things- food! (especially seafood) and it's religious importance. Santiago is a city in Galicia, in northern Spain, that is the end of a very well-known religious piligrimage called the Camino a Santiago. Every year, millions of people make this pilgrimage, which goes all the way to Rome and through some of France. Of course, Noel and I made a different kind of pilgrimage, a much easier one, on a Ryan Air flight from Madrid! Still, we got to see a lot of the peregrinos (pilgrims) and enjoyed the religious monuments of the city.

So, Thursday night, we flew from Madrid...had a bit of a delay, but otherwise, the trip was pretty smooth. However, once we arrived in Santiago, it was rather difficult to find our hostel. We had forgetten to find a map online, and there were no maps available in the airport. We did know the adresss of our hostel and the relative location, but we had to ask five different people before we actually found it. By the time we got to our hotel, it ws alreayd 11:30 and we still hadn't eaten any dinner. Luckily, we had Noel's favorite Spanish chips (Ruffles Jamon haha) in the airport...that was the only thing keeping us from being absolutley starving. Still, we were quite hungry! Of course, we quickly found out that, despite the late dinner hour in Spain, most bars, while still open, stop serving food around 11 or 11:30. We were starting to think our trip was off to a bad start when we finally found teh perfect place- a bar that was quite crowded, that was still serving food (which looked quite delicious!) We had a great meal- a traditional Spanish empanada, and a tostada con tomate, chorizo, y queso (an open-faced sandwich with tomato, sausage, and melted cheese), and some really great white wine called Albarino. The place itself had a great ambience; visitors wrote notes on the napkins and posted them on the wall, and put coins on the floor and on the walls. It was a great place to start our adventure in Santiago!

On Friday, we had a nice breakfast at our hotel and them walked to the seminary called San Martin Pinario, which was right next to our hotel. We went inside adn saw some beautiful artwork, an elaborate church, some really cool old stamps, and some old chemistry materials. We then walked to the cathedral, which was quite the sight to see- really different than any other cathedral I had ever seen before. It was absolutely beautiful! We even went inside while they were having a mass, which was pretty cool. Next, we had a great menu del dia (a three course meal) at a lovel restaurant. The first course was cazuela de gambas y pulpo (shrimp and octopus in an olive oil sauce), arroz con mariscos (paella more or less), and tarta de santiago (which was a delicious almond cake that a specialty in santiago). I'm still stuffed just thinking about that meal!! It was sooo delicious though! We couldn't stop talking about how good the food was all weekend long..it ws sort of the theme of the trip!

Next, we walked around some more to an old convent and seminary and saw some beautiful views. We walked by a pastry shop where we got free samples of three different types of traditional Galician pastries (yum), and did some window shopping. We were tempted to buy some pastries, but finally resisted. At night, we went back to that same bar from Thursday night, just because we loved it so much. We then ended up at a second bar, where we got a drink and met some natives, who told us where to go out at night in Santiago. We ended up chatting with them for awhile and checking out some of the typical Santiago nightlife (what they called a "paz" which is sort of like a mini discoteca. We had a fun, late night, and eventually made our way back to the hotel.

Saturday, we had a late start to the day, as we had gone to bed pretty late the night before. We had another great meal- cald gallego (a great soup with potatoes and cabbage), and shared what I think was probably the best tortilla de patatas i have ever had (and I've had a lot!). Then, we walked around a bit, through these really cool old gardens, did a bunch of window shopping, and saw the University of Santiago. We also saw a really cool jewelry gallery, with hand-made jewelry by local artisans. We stopped at a cafe for coffee and lunch, and then walked around a bit more. Finally, we had another great meal; this time very traditional Galician seafood. We ate pulpo (octopus), almejas (clams), and pimentos padrones (a special kind of peppers), and another great glass of white wine. All the food was amazing!! Again, we couldn't stop raving about the amazing food. After dinner, we went back to the hostel and called it a night..we were pretty exhausted from the night before!

Sunday, we woke up early, had our last meal in Santiago (just a simple breakfast this time), and headed to the airport. We made our way back to Madrid- first to the airport, then to the metro, then eventually home. We came home and had some work to do for school the next day, but it was certainly worth it to have to work on Sunday, for it was an awesome weekend! And, I even ended up having time to go out with Ruth and some friends at night for dinner in La Latina, the typical Sunday night spot :) What a great end to the weekend!! This week I'm quite busy with work again, but getting there poco a poco...

Anyway, thats it for now!! :)