Galicia

I went to Galicia last weekend, a NE province of Spain just above Portugal. Wow! Is it different than everything I've seen of Spain so far. Its kind of out of the way of any other Spanish destination so its preserved from tourists mostly. Its has the most beautiful country landscapes sprinkled here are there with the occasional village made up of 4 or 5 old stone houses.
I flew to Galicia on Ryanair, which is the dreaded low cost airline of Europe but it was nice to finally join the discussions about resenting Ryanair. It was only a 1 hour flight but would have been a 9 hour bus ride for the same cost. I spent my first night in Santiago de Compostela, the end of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. I couch surfed with a really chill guy, Borja, and actually ended up getting my very own room looking into a main plaza of the city. It was a great experience staying with Borja and his roomies, I learned a lot about Galicia. The next day I explored Santiago. It was freezing! I went to the market built in the 1920s to get fruit and cheese for breakfast. There was a very friendly cheese lady who helped me pick a traditional Galician cheese for breakfast. One of the traditional cheeses is made in the shape of a woman's breast (ish) as a rebellion against an event that took place where an old sculpture in town was done of a beautiful curvy woman but the church made the sculpture tone down the pretty parts :-) I had a lovely breakfast listening to a street Gaita (bagpipe, traditional music in galicia for the celtic influence) player. Then I realized I was completely frozen and read in a cafe with a warm drink for an hour followed by attending the pilgrims' mass. Saw them limp in after their journey but didn't witness anything miraculous. I hugged St James like you are supposed to and also didn't notice any major life changes. Siesta time in Galicia is even more intense than in Madrid! Places close at 1pm and then don't open again until in between 5-7! Oh man. Wasn't expecting that so I missed some of the sight exploration I would have liked to do while in Santiago.
Next stop Lugo! Where I met up with a friend from College who is also an auxiliar (doing the same job I do, we are called auxiliars of conversation and culture) and stayed at his place for a few days. A crazy thing about Galicia is that their first language is Gallego, a blend between Spanish and Portuguese. All their signs are in Gallego and everyone speaks it to one another so it kind of felt like I was in a whole different country. When I heard people talking I'd kind of assume it was Spanish because it sounds very similar and I could recognize a few words so many times I just felt like my Spanish was bad, but no, its a different language. I'm glad I wasn't placed in a region where Castillaño itsn't the first language because I think it would be harder to learn Spanish well. Lugo was nice, everything was very cheap, there is a great tapas scene, great food (had pulpo octopus, and loved it!) and the longest fully intact roman wall in Europe which surrounds the old town completely. Marquis (the friend from school with whom I stayed) and I walked all the way around it on the pathway on top of the wall. It was really nice and I got a nice view of the city that way.
One of Marquis' friends took us out to a small village in the country for a "surprise". Which turned out to be visiting the ancestral home of the Castros who are from Galicia (along with many other revolutionaries like Franco, Che, great authors, actors, writers). He thought it was the best thing and stopped everyone walking by in the small village to say in Gallego, "Hey look! I brought a couple of Americans to see the Castro home!" He also took tons of pictures of us standing at the door. I thought it was great though, pretty silly n fun. We also went to tour a cool rural tourism place that was quite traditional galician in every way. It was a beautiful, fun afternoon and weekend.