The one with Galicia's greatest

Our second day in Galicia, we made one of the best decisions since coming to Spain, going to A CORUÑA by train! For those of you who have never heard of this jewel of a city, which is probably all of you, it is everything that is awesome in a city, at least it was while I was there.  I have tried not to dwell too much on the negative parts of living in Spain, but one of them has definitely been the amount of rain we have experienced in Extremadura this year. It is just wrong because it is supposed to be one of the driest places in Spain, but not this year. To mix things up completely, our entire trip to Galicia the weather was phenomenal, even though it is usually colder and rainy there. Silly Spain! Back to A Coruña. This is a coastal city and isn't really known as a tourist city, but I loved it whole-hearted (ok, maybe not the wind-burnt skin). 

  

The train station was a bit more than a mile and a half away from the place to be, so we started with a nice little walk. After checking out the tourist office for a map and being complimented on my Spanish-speaking abilities, we decided to make a big loop around the peninsula to see the sights and coast. Oh man, was it worth it! The water was so pretty, and the sun felt so nice on my skin. We took at least a hundred pictures because the harbor was just so impressive. Around much of the city there is an awesome bike and walking path that lets you take in all the sites. We made good use of it, and it was nice to see so many townspeople out getting some exercise or family time. We smiled when one dad explained in Spanish to his little girl that we were from the United States.

Eventually we wound our way to the part of the peninsula with the aquarium, and GUESS WHAT WE SAW OUTSIDE THE AQUARIUM?!?! Did you guess?  There was a sort of pen that had four dolphins in it!  Unfortunately we weren’t in A Coruña long enough to have time to go to the aquarium, but the dolphins made me exceptionally happy.  There is just something about marine wildlife that makes me happy in general.

Anyways, next we hit up la Torre de Hercules, which is a lighthouse that has been used in some manner since the Roman times, as early as the first century, which is pretty epic. It is one of only a few intact, and it is the only function lighthouse left from anywhere near this era. Similar to another part of Galicia, the Romans who conquered this area believed it to be the end of the earth.  Can you imagine reaching the ocean, convinced that if you sailed off to the East, you would just fall off the earth or fail to exist or something? Craziness... Not to mention, there were some fantastic views.  It was also soooooooo windy, like hair is out of controllable, body being pushed around, afraid it will catch your bag and toss it into the sea kind of windy, but it was a nice change from cold and rainy. 

Afterwards, we continued around the point and headed back into town to find some lunch. We stopped at a restaurant, and I realized how much easier it is to understand people without the extremeno accent. It was like everyone started enunciating again and using their Ss. Marissa and I both started with a dish called delicias de cangrejo. We didn't really know what we were getting into, but we knew it was crab, which seemed like a good pick because Galicia is known for their seafood. It was a buttery crab and cheese dish (maybe small mozzarella pieces) served cold. I liked it a lot, and it was very different from what I usually get. The second dish I got was Raxo, which is a Galicia pork dish, served with french fries. YUM! We finished off with some flan and whipped cream. I never liked flan, until I came to Spain. Here flan is everything that it is supposed to be, and the whipped cream was nice and thick!

We didn't have much time left, so we made a quick trip down to see one of the old castles that juts out on what used to be an island, providing protection for the mainland. Pretty nifty. Then, because we had some issues finding the bus going in the right direction, we high-tailed it back to the train station on foot. We were ready for a rest, so we picked up a pizza and headed back to the hostel. After showers and chill-axation, we tried to tackle dinner, only to realized that the hostel didn't have an oven. So we attempted a pan-fried pizza, or something... it was, hmmmmm, edible, I guess. Not the best thing I have ever cooked by far, but it was cheap, and we ate it in our pajamas. Besides, look at the nifty cottage I cooked my dinner in, how quaint!