The one with the great Pilgrimage

Our trip started on a Thursday night after a complete day of school, homework, and packing. We decided earlier in the year that we wanted to go to Galicia, Spain, but it is the most northwestern part of Spain and not exactly easy to get to from Zafra. Amazingly enough there is a relatively direct bus from our little town. The only problem:  
it is 12 hours long and overnight. We looked into flights, but there were none that were convenient on the way there. You do what you have to do, so we settled in for the long-haul with our bocadillos.  It really wasn't bad, except for the body-odor smell, 'sleeping' in a sitting position, and the kid who was in my face the first few hours. We also had a fun little adventure with the Guardia Civil boarding the bus in the middle of the night with drug-sniffing dogs. They even had one guy get off to search him more closely. That's one dog I really don't want paying attention to me!!  Other than that we made it to Galicia not too much worse for the wear, though definitely tired.

We checked into our hostel and headed out to begin our day in the famous city of Santiago de Compostela, the end point for millions of pilgrims and home to the third most important church in Catholicism.  We decided to start the morning off easy with some museums. First on the agenda was a museum all about history, customs, and life in Galicia. It was actually super interesting, especially because northern Spain is so different from Southern Spain in everything from the musical traditions, which sounded kind of Irish with bag-pipe like instruments, to the climate, which is also similar to Ireland.  They even used to thatch their homes very similarly to the Irish way. The museum was also home to a fantastic spiral staircase that was really three sort of intertwined. I am going to have one of those in my house someday for sure!

Next on the list was the contemporary art museum, which was definitely contemporary. Sometimes it is difficult to see the validity, the point, or even how contemporary art is art, but I actually really like some of it, especially the multimedia exhibits. For example, I don't think I will ever forget the exhibit I saw last year in Charlottesville that used light and wires to create a work reminiscent of the brains circuitry.  But this wasn't really like that, lol. It had an interesting exhibit around exhibits, but I never can understand the art that is just a color on a canvas. What is that??  

After a quick walk around the nearby park that had some pretty views, we headed over to Santiago de Compostela's main attraction, La Catedral de Santiago. Ok, quick Catholicism/Spanish lesson! Santiago equals St. James, who was one of Jesus's twelve disciples. Legend states that St. James came to the Iberian Peninsula, particularly Galicia preaching the gospel and on returning to the Holy Land was beheaded, but his remains were brought back to Galicia.  Around 1075, a form of the cathedral was built as a shrine to the apostle.  This is what makes it so important. The cathedral itself was nice, but mostly appreciable in its historical context, the fact that it has been there for nearly a century.  I can only imagine the feelings of the pilgrims who finally arrive, generally after a journey of a month or so on a path that begins in the South of France. 

We broke for lunch at a cute little restaurant with elephants on the walls. I wanted something new, so I got a cream of squash soup served cold. It was good, creamy and buttery, though I am my father's daughter and probably would have added pepper.  Second course I got pollo asado, which was a roasted chicken with a sauce and served with potatoes. We finished with some Greek yogurt served with honey, a good end.  

Re-energized, we headed back to the Cathedral area to check out the museum there as well as the Palacio de Gimelez. The museum held artifacts from the church as well as some amazing tapestries and very old books. There was a signature log of visitors signed by the Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, which was neat to see.  The palace wasn't what you would consider a traditional palace to be, but I am sure it was quite impressive in its time. My favorite parts were the moss covering the outside and the bagpipe-ish music we could hear being played outside that I just had to dance to. We were the only people there at the time, which was also nice.   After, we headed back to the hostel to finally get some rest, before grabbing a quick dinner and calling it a night.