The End of My Camino: Santiago de Compostela and Coruña

That overnight bus between Zamora and Compostela was rough... 6 hour ride and I wasn´t feeling too great so sleep was limited...

My private hostel booker (Dennis :) ) found me a hostel called Roots and Boots that was about a 2 km (sorry now google maps on my phone does it in km instead of miles...) treck in the freezing cold. But I was walking through the old part so it wasn´t really that bad :)

 I was painfully tired though, so when I got to my hostel, I showered (overnight buses have a way of making you feel horribly disgusting) and was able to take a WONDERFUL two hour na. And check out the amazing view from my window of my room :)

 I woke up and decided to have  nice breakfast in the hostel and off I was to explore one of the most sacred places for the Catholic church which was really cool. It´s really cool to think about the history this place has. And honestly, I can´t even explain how badly I want to walk it now. It takes lke 35 days or so to do? Maybe after college. SOOO if anyone is interested :)

I find small alley´s entirely too interesting.

So after I was sufficiently content with my explorations of the old area, I decided to walk towards the center of the city. I found this park which was like super full of students and stuff, aka prime people watching.

SOMETHING I have noticed (I am planning on doing a blog of this I have noticed that are super different than the USA)--PDA (for non USA readers, stands for Public Display of Affection as in kissing and hugging your significant other in public etc). It´s like a serious issue here. The high school children in the park, and every couple I have seen, have like NO consideration for surroundings. Sorry but I don´t want to see you groping your girlfriends ass or stradling your boyfriend or just hooking up all over the place. Little 14 year olds! I like cried.

Anyways, continued through the park and found these stairs and BAM a romanesque church. And it was like one that was not kept or anything. OH and guessss what was right in front of the church??? A clover patch. Well there were actually several. You know how I feel about four leaf clover searches :)

And then, a moment where it was probably better that I was by myself, I decided to take a picture. In front of the church were like tons of little daisy looking flowers. I try to be artistic every once in a while. I laid, like literally on my stomach- I am surprised I didn´t lay on dog shit (yeah that is everywhere too...) trying to take this picture. Each time, my damn camera would focus on the church and make the flower blurry. Drawbacks of automatic cameras... BUT after about 45 minutes?? I got it!

By this time, it was probably 3 or so? Getting hungry. I love being dictated by simple necessities. Eat, sleep, drink when I want with no set schedule.

Somehow, I stumbled upon the Uiveristy of Santiago Compostela. I just started walking towards this old looking building and it ended up being the cafeteria. Good thing since university food is much cheaper than restaraunt food. So I got lovely bocadillo for 2 euros. OH and the cafeteria was located in MY Plaza. Aka Rodriguez Plaza. I think I may own this country I see something with my last name errwhere (shut up I know my name is more common than Smith.)

I ended up taking my bocadillo to go because it was uncomfortably obvious that I wasn´t a student there seeing I had no idea where to pay or who to give my ticket to etc... Plus I was craving wine :) So walked back towards my hostel, stopped by a super market and bought some orange juice and wine and ate while admiring the cathedral from the window.

Decided to go back to the old part. Guess what? I went to confession. It was the first time in toooo long, but it was really cool to do it in such a historical place. It was like super old fashion, the priests sitting in these little like taquillas (idk how to say it in english but like a booth maybe?) And then you would go to one side and kneel and talk to the priest. It was my first time doing it in Spanish and I like chatted with the priest about it and how I was having a baby sister soon etc. I think I was able to experience a different aspect of this city because I was able to, like, participate if that makes sense?

That night in the hostel, I like scavenged for food (typical.. sorry I am a broke college student..) I had my bread and my wine and found some eggs and made egg salad. I didn´t eat real food that week haha

I met one of the girls that was in my room at the hostel and she was the one that gave me the idea to go to Coruña the next day (my last full day in northern Spain). Eh. It was my least favorite city of the week. But I mean I figured since I had sen a lot of Santiago the first day, why not?

Plaza del Humor

So I honestly had no idea what was to be done in Coruña so on my one hour train ride from Santiago to my destination I quickly whipped out my cell phone and looked up wtf to do in this town via lonely planet (look at me doing things on my own and not bothering people in the united states to help me! growing uppp)

1. Plaza del Humor. It was this plaza that had cartoons on the ground and random statues. I spent probably an hour here even thouguh it was like the size of my room.

2. Domus Museum or Casa del Hombre- museum that combines a bunch of shit. Didn´t go to this one.

3. Old City with tons of squares and monuments and, of course churches. So I ate my lunch at this plaza so I spent a lot of time people watching and such. There was a large number of kids there like either playing soccer or on the scooters and stuff. My favorite thing though was this group of like 6 kids. So there was this plaque type thing that had chains around it, you know so you don´t like mess with it. Haha but no for this kids it mean it was a shipwreck.. I took a video of them because it was so cute. I hope that doesn´t make me creepy.. But seriously, where were these kids parents??

Oh and then there was this other kid that may have been like 11. He was very entertaining to watch as well seein that he thought he was a parcor (yeah wutevuh spelled that wrong) king. And he was wearing the strangest pants. Like Aladdin style. Again, where were his parents he was balancing on a rail of like a random stair case.

Plaza María Pita

Also, as much fun as it is to take pictures of myself...... and of buildings.... I came up with a new idea. Put on the ten second timer and then get as far away from the camera as possible. Game time. Can you find me in this one?

Plaza in the Old City

4. New promenade along the seashore: longest in Europe. Plus the two really great beaches, Plaua del Orzan and Playa Riazor. LOOK how amazing that water is.

Promenade along the seashoreee

5. Castillo of San Antón- a fortress dating from the 16th century. The fortress itself wasn´t that impressive and I was too lazy slash not interested in reading the history about it (entrance into the now muesuem was free). It did have a really pretty view of the harbor though

Roman Tower of Hercules

6. Roman Tower of Hercules- a lighthouse that has been in continuous operation for almost 2000 years. It´s actually the oldest lighthouse in the world! Declared World Heritage Monument, which is a big deal. On the way to it, I found this sculpture. I am assuming this is my goal weight (you know seeing that Mats is my feeder and such.)

sorry sunsets are pretty and so are flowers...

The night in the hostel, before I started to scavenge for food again, I made friends! Since San Sebastian, the hostels had been kind eh as far as the people. Everyone was too busy on their laptops of phones which is no fun.. But I met this group of Erasmus students from Salamanca. They invited me to soup and then we went out for a drink. Too bad I was leaving the next day :( but if I go to Salamance I have places to stay!

yeah shitty quality.. people suck at taking pictures.

So after our drinks, I went back to the hostel before them since I had a 9 30 flight to catch... I was planning on waking up at 6 cuz I had to take a half an hour bus ride and then I had never flown RyanAir, so better safe than sorry of course... Well snooze sucks.. I woke up at 645, first word out of my mouth? SHIT.

Turned on the light, grabbed my shit, apologized to my Salamanca friends and RAN out the door. I had to catch the 7am bus... I was like up the road and saw it in the distance and I am like SPRINTING down the road as drunk people that were still out from the night before are making fun of me. Somehowwww I make it even though it was like 7 05 and normally it leaves pretty punctually. I ended up getting to the airport with plenty of time.. but quite a stressful morning..

P.S. SORRY this took so long to get posted. I have been working on this post since I got back to Valencia last Sunday but it has been crazyyy...

CHECK BACK SOON I am working on 2 other posts :)