I finally have a chance to update everyone about my adventures in Spain. I arrived Monday in Santiago de Compostela after a very long day of travelling. The flight from JFK to Madrid was pretty nice, I had an aisle seat and there was nobody in the seat next to me, so I had plenty of room. The on-flight meal was pretty good too, they even gave you metal silverware! I tried to sleep on the plane but I was only able to sleep for about 2 hours or so, which was unfortunate since I left JFK at 7pm and arrived in Madrid at 8:30, but the flight was a little under 7 hours which meant I lost the night.
After my much smaller and less comfortable hour long flight from Madrid, I had arrived in Santiago de Compostela. A teacher from the school was there to meet me, and I spent the day with her in Santiago de Compostela. It’s a really interesting city because there are parts of it which are very old. We saw the cathedral where St James the apostle (James the elder) is supposedly buried. This cathedral is the second most pilgrimaged site in Christianity, and at the Cathedral there were many tourists and pilgrims alike. There also is the University of Santiago de Compostela so there were a lot of youner people walking around. The teacher explained to me that in Spain there aren’t campuses like in the US. The academic buildings are all spread out through the city. We also went to a gallery that had drawings by Picasso, but they were very different from the typical Picasso and I didn’t particularly enjoy it, also I was very tired at that point. Unfortunately I was so tired I thought I was going to fall asleep standing up and I wasn’t able to really enjoy properly all that Santiago had to offer.
We went to dinner around 6:30 in the evening and the teacher was worried that no restaurants would be open since it was so early to eat dinner. Luckily we found one and had a traditional Galician meal. I think it’s safe to say everyone would be shocked that I tried everything. The first thing they brought us was our free tapas, which was calamari, which I already knew I liked, so that was good. Then we had croquettas, which are fried balls that are filled with some sort of chicken and creamy mixture which was pretty good. Next was pulpo al gallego, which I knew I would have to try sooner or later since it’s one of the signature dishes in Galicia. Pulpo is octopus. What I wasn’t expecting was that the suckers would still be on the tentacles when they served it to you. So that was a surprise, and an even bigger surprise was that I actually enjoyed eating it. Not my favorite thing I’ve tried but not bad. The final dish was a revuelta con langostina. It’s pretty much scrambled eggs with shrimp and a vegetable common in Galicia. I wasn’t a huge fan of this dish, mainly because I don’t like scrambled eggs. I like eggs over easy and I like omelets that are filled with vegetables, but I really don’t like scrambled eggs, so I tried the revuelta but I didn’t eat much of it. I was so tired I ended up going to bed around 9:30. The teacher I stayed with lives in Santiago de Compostela, so the next morning we drove to the school in Laxe, which is about an hour away. Most days the school is in session from 8:30-2. On Tuesdays, it’s a longer day so class starts at 9:30. We left Santiago de Compostela around 8:15 and it was still dark! I think I have discovered the secret to the Spanish schedule. The sun rises here around 8:30 and it doesn’t set until around 9, so it makes sense to wake up later and go to bed later.
Part of Old Santiago de Compostela
Library for University of Santiago
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
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