Galicia: Tui, Portanova, Santiago de Compestela

This weekend I had a trip through my program to Galicia, which is in the north-west corner of Spain. It's really beautiful, but because of it's location unfortunately it is prone to rain...a lot of rain...all year round. It pretty much looks like Ireland, and because of the strong celtic influence in the area it might as well just be Ireland. It's also bordered by the Atlantic ocean, which means lots of pretty coastline and beaches. Too bad it's cold and rainy most of the time.

Our first stop in our 6 hour journey was in Tui, a small town on a river with nothing too exciting except for some pretty views. We ate lunch by the river and then got back on the bus to go to Portanova. On the way to Portanova we stopped and saw ancient celtic ruins...basically the stone foundations of houses in the forest on top of a mountain. It was pretty amazing that were still so well maintained...and they were everywhere!

View at Tui

Me among the Celtic ruins

Portanova is a small fishing town right on the beach and our hotel was right on the water, it was really nice. In the morning we had an appointment on the fish equivalent of a booze cruise. Explanation: Us, a group of a lot of old people, and plates and plates of fresh shrimp and muscles just pulled out of the water. Yummmmmmy.

Beach near PortanovaEnjoying the muscles on the boat

After we were full of fish we got back on the bus to go to Santiago de Compestela. This is the capital of Galicia and is the site of the famous Cathedral de Santiago. This Cathedral is apparently where the remains of St. James the Apostle are. Because of this it is the end of a pilgramage route that starts in the south of France and cuts all the way across northern spain stopping in specific churches and hostels along the way. Not everyone does it for religious reasons, some just do it to say the walked the full 780km. And hey, people have been doing it for over 1000 years so thats pretty cool. We took a tour of the church and got to see a bunch of people finishing up their journey. Oh and you know those things the priests swing around in church with the inscense? Well they have a gigantic one hanging from the ceiling that they pull with a rope and it swings all the way across the church (for both religious reasons and to combat the stench of the smelly pilgrams who've been walking for 780km).

Catedral de Santiago

I loved Galicia and thought it was really beautiful, but it rained far too much and I was soaked for a good portion of the weekend. I don't know how anyone lives there.