It's October! The weather is now in the 50s and 60s, and restaurants are putting up flyers about Halloween parties on the 31st. My host mom said that although there's no trick-or-treating here, there are so many American students that many bar and restaurants have adopted Halloween as a day to celebrate. How interesting! I don't think people dress up though... November first is a holiday here, and it's a day to remember the dead. Our program director told us it's a very solemn day, and people pay respect to their family members that have past away. They also do a lot of resting because they night before many of the young adults stay out till seven in the morning to celebrate Halloween. I won't be able to witness any of this first hand, though, because that's the weekend I'm traveling to Amsterdam, which I'm really excited about!
Speaking of trips, I've been on a few with the Emory group. A few weeks ago we visited Segovia and Avila, and we saw the old aqueduct in Segovia and the gigantic wall,
muralla in Spanish, that surrounds the city of Avila. A highlight from the day was lunch in Segovia. Most of us ate a traditional meal, famous in Segovia. It was a
cochinillo asado, or a roast suckling pig. The presentation of the food was just as crazy as the food itself! The waiter brought out the roasted big, complete with the head, and chopped it into pieces using a plate! Then, he took the plate and threw it on the ground. We each received chunks of the pig, and mine had a little ear and parts of the spine... yum.
View of Segovia
El cochinillo asado
Last weekend, I went with Emory to Galicia, the northern region of Spain. Galicia was so fun much! Although it was rainy the whole weekend, we had an awesome time eating fresh seafood and exploring different cities. We wine tasted at a vineyard and ate freshly caught mussels and shrimp on a boat in Sanxenxo. Here are pictures of the vineyard and the boat:
Above is the vineyard
Above is the boat ride and us enjoying the fresh mussels!
And here is a picture of our wonderful program directors! From the left: Sara, Maica, and Carlos
The second day of our trip, we traveled to Santiago, a city famous for the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral is an incredible building that marks the end of the Santiago pilgrimage. Our program director, Carlos, has actually walked a portion of the pilgrimage twice, and he told us about his experiences. Many pilgrims stay in rooms for free or for a low price in each town. They are given breakfast and sometimes they can clean their clothes, and they usually wake up around five to continue walking, stopping mid day in a new town. There are many different routes to take to get to Santiago, and each route is a different distance. The shortest route is 100 km and takes around 3 days. Here are pictures of the cathedral:
The front of the cathedral.
Inside the cathedral. In the center is Santiago de Compostela, the saint the city is named after.
Carlos telling us about his own experiences while walking the pilgrimage.
We had such a great time in Galicia, and I'm really looking forward to our next trip, which is October 25th, and we're going to Lisbon in Portugal.
No comments:
Post a Comment