I’ll be honest. Although it has been a long time since I’ve been on a beautiful beach, this wasn’t my favoritest day of the trip. I had been up for hours the night before, with the oily Spanish food finally catching up with me. Once in a while I have a day where my stomach is killing me on and off all day – one moment I’ll feel fine, the next I’m doubled over and can’t breathe. That day was like that for me.

We got up earlyish and headed down to the port, stopping for breakfast on the way. We had to take a ferry to get to the island, so we got on at about 9:45ish (I think) and got there at about 10:30ish.

The boys had made plans to hike up the mountain to look at the views from there. For some reason they assumed that the hike would be too hard for me, so I was not invited to attend. I should have been my usual stubborn self and gone with them, but I was (a) still feeling like crap and (b) carrying a massive beach bag. (I never actually found out why the hike was so hard. If it was merely lots of uphill walking, I could have done it no problem. If it involved things like upper body strength and ledges, I would have been in trouble.) So I went and chilled on the beach while they did their male bonding.

I usually love to take pictures of beaches, but I couldn’t really do it that day. No, it wasn’t because of the weather, nor a problem with my camera.....

.....it was a nude beach. *blush*

I didn’t have a problem with it, but it shocked me a bit because I didn’t expect it. We don’t exactly have nude beaches in New England, and I’m already shocked with the people who show up in skimpy bathing suits there. I guess the Mediterraneans have a lot more self-confidence, as there were people of all shapes and sizes going either topless or full-out nude. Anyway, I took a few carefully-arranged (i.e. with no people in them) photos, read trashy Spanish magazines and baked in the sun, stopping only for a trip back to the bar to get some bottled water. It was actually quite nice: the beach wasn’t *too* full and the weather was lovely. I think people were put off by the recent rain and didn’t want to make the trip out that day.

Here is one of my carefully arranged photos, which I love because I think the shade of blue in the sky is amazing:


The boys finished their hike after about 2 hours. When they got back they were hungry, so I hiked back up to the bar to meet them. They gave me lots of flack for not going with them, but I wasn’t really bothered – they were the ones who told me not to go anyway! ;) After we ate we went back to the nude beach, which Justin hadn’t seen yet.

We all napped for a bit on the beach, and then Justin and I took a short walk on the beach and went swimming. Enrique thought we were crazy for doing this, so he worked on a rigorous tanning routine. Even though I was wet and sandy for the rest of the day, it was lots of fun – I haven’t been swimming in an ocean in years!

Around 4:30ish, we started to head back to the bar area for drinks and to get ready to go. (Our return ferry was at 6 pm.) We had some drinks and then chilled for a bit on the main beach, which was not fully nude but had some toplessness going on. By then we were all a bit sunburned and ready to head back.

Here we are, ready to head back:


When we got back to Vigo, Enrique’s sister Maruxa had invited us for drinks at her place – she doesn’t live too far from the port. Maruxa and her boyfriend Carlos are very nice, so it was a lot of fun. Carlos is in a band (it’s called Portrait – go check ‘em out!), so we got the added bonus of hearing him rehearse when one of his bandmates came over. He gave me and Justin copies of the band’s first album, which is awesome.

At about 8ish Maruxa had to go, so we headed back to Enrique’s house, making a quick side trip to the Corte Inglés. Since we were all sunburned and sandy (poor Maruxa – I wonder how much sand she had in her house after we left), we had to shower before we could even think about dinner. Dinner that night was squid with rice, which was a bit tough to eat after not feeling so hot. Fortunately it was pretty good, and I didn’t have to eat the pieces that actually looked like squid – only the rings.

After dinner we decided to head out for ice cream. It was fun because we got to have a nice walk through Vigo, and it wasn’t hot or crowded since it was so late at night. On the way to the ice cream parlor we ran into a bunch of Enrique’s friends, including Jacobo, who lived and worked in Oxford for a while. We ended up getting back pretty late, and for the first time in a while, I slept really well. Why does it always happen that I sleep the very best on the last night of my travels?

Coming up next: A few hours in Portugal before heading home.

PS - Sorry if this post sounds whiny. At this point, I probably was a bit whiny - it was the longest vacationesque trip I had done in years.

Apologies for the massive delay in finishing this travelogue! Now that I’ve made a commitment to write about every day of the trip, I want to finish writing about every day of this trip.

Thursday was a very iffy day in our trip. We had wanted to go to the beach that day, but the weather report was showing rain so we knew that wouldn’t be any fun. When we saw the night before that it would rain, our original plan was to rent a car to visit Portugal. (Vigo is not that far from the border of Portugal.)

Renting a car proved to be a bit difficult. On the way home from Santiago, we stopped at a number of rental car places. The main difficulty was that we would need an automatic car, as neither Justin nor I can drive a standard and Enrique can’t drive at all. Enrique’s mother and sister were also busy, so we couldn’t ask them to drive us. Anyway, the rental car places didn’t have any cars, automatic or otherwise, as it was the beginning of the heavy vacation season in Spain. So we decided to put off the Portugal trip and go to Baiona instead.

Before that, though, the boys claimed that they desperately needed haircuts. We went to Enrique’s favorite hairdresser, and the boys convinced me to get my hair cut as well. I’m not incredibly thrilled with the result, primarily because I’m not very good with haircutting vocabulary in Spanish. Girls need to worry about things like layers and roots and hydrating conditioners, while boys for the most part only want it shorter. So the boys got the haircuts they wanted (shorter) and mine took twice as long, cost three times as much (€27 compared to their €10) and looks like a cross between a mullet and Jennifer Beals’ hair in Flashdance. Oh well.

After haircuts, we took a taxi back to Enrique’s house, since it was pouring and we didn’t have umbrellas. We had planned on taking the bus to Baiona, but the taxi was fairly reasonably priced when divided three ways, so we decided to have the taxi take us all the way there.

We got to Baiona a bit early for lunch, so we walked around for a bit before heading to the restaurant to eat. Enrique’s mother booked us a reservation at this place called “O Pote” (“the Pot”) and even placed a food order for us: tuna empanadas, razorback clams, and lobster with rice. A M A Z I N G ! ! ! I think it was one of the best meals I had during my time in Spain. Justin and I decided to treat Enrique for this meal, since he had been such a gracious host and tour guide thus far.

In addition to being the place where Enrique spent many childhood summers (and where his siblings now take their kids), Baiona is the home of two cool sites: it has a huge parador (government inn), and it is the first place that heard about Columbus discovering the New World (the Pinta made its way back there after their journey to America).

We wandered around some winding roads and then made our way to the Hotel Conde de Gondomar, a famous parador built in an old fortress (with canons and everything!). We walked all around the outside, which had the most amazing views. While we were exploring the parador, Enrique received a phone call with some exciting news – he got a London job! So, we left him to call everyone he knew while we took mountains of pictures.

I don’t know enough about the inn to explain it, so I’ll let some lovely photos do the talking:




After we made the loop, we stopped for a quick drink at the hotel’s restaurant, then made our way to the bus stop to head back to Vigo.

That night, Enrique cooked for us, Justin went for a run and we had an early night.

Next up: The Cíes Islands.

The rest of our week’s schedule was pretty flexible, but we had one thing secure on the docket right away: a trip to Santiago de Compostela, a famous destination for pilgrimages and also where María lives and where Enrique went to uni. before coming to Oxford. Even though we had a late night the night before, we all managed to get up pretty early. I think it’s never too easy to sleep in a new bed for the first time (even though this was Enrique’s house, he was sleeping on a mattress on the floor). We were out the door not long after 9, and went out to breakfast so that Justin could experience churros and chocolate. After that, we hopped on a train to Santiago, getting in around 11:30ish.

We met up with the lovely María and headed towards the cathedral, in hopes of getting in before the end of the mass. We hoped to see the famous Botafumeiro, but they were not using it that day. (I think it is only for holy days.) Anyway, after mass we walked around and saw the various chapels and kissed statues and viewed Santiago’s tomb. After the mass we went outside and sat in the plaza for a bit while Enrique told us the story of how Santiago ended up being buried there.

From there we walked through the Plaza de Cervantes, which features a fountain with a bust of Cervantes on top. Local students often tell tourists and new students that they’re supposed to look for Cervantes’ feet at the bottom of the fountain, and when the newbies/tourists get close, they splash them or dunk them in. Justin and I were roped into this (although I was a bit suspicious), and were thoroughly soaked by Enrique and María. After a bit more ambling we ended up at O Dezaseis for lunch. We had all the traditional Galician dishes, including delicious empanadas and boiled octopus. After stuffing ourselves and having a few glasses of wine, we headed up to a field that was once a cemetery for a nice siesta.

We spent a long time siesta-ing, and it was a quality siesta as well – people forgot about their work and everything. After that, we went back into town for a Coke/coffee break in a nice pensión called Casa Felisa, which had a beautiful garden terrace with views of the town buildings peeking out the back. Thoroughly rested and ready to go, we headed back into town to look at some of the University buildings, including the hallowed halls of the History faculty, where Enrique got his undergraduate degree.

Enrique kept saying how weird it was for us to be there – I’m sure I’d agree if I were in his shoes. (In fact, Chrissie said the same thing when I was in San Francisco!) I guess when you have different “parts” of your life and different people you associate with them, it becomes weird to see those people in places you would not normally expect them. He also said it was weird to bring us to these places because it made him see things in a new way. We kept asking him and María to slow down so we could take pictures of things which were probably “everyday life” for them but very exciting for us!

After the History faculty we needed to up our tourist game a bit – Justin and I wanted to do some shopping. Justin bought a present for his girlfriend Darcy and a tshirt for himself (sporting the king’s famous slogan, “¿Por qué no te callas?”), and I bought a huge gaudy watch and a billion postcards. We also bought guidebooks to Galicia, as neither of us had one. Even Enrique did some shopping, finding a men’s store with a 50% off sale and buying lots of shirts. We did one last coffee stop before María had to head home.

When María left, Enrique took us back through a park (I think it was a “Plaza de Something-or-other” but I lost track by that point) so we could have a last good view of the city before we headed back for the train station. There was a carnival going on so it was a bit crowded, but the weather was perfect and the views were lovely.

We got back to the train station a bit early, so we grabbed some sandwiches and sat and caught up on our phone correspondence before heading home. By the time we got back, at about 11:30ish, we watched Casablanca and chatted a bit with Enrique’s mom. We had another late night, about 2 am.

Next up: Baiona, and group bonding by way of haircuts.

Well, well, well. As you can see, I had no time to keep this blog updated during the Northern half of my trip. I prefer it that way, though – we had a fantastic time, and I didn’t want to waste my time writing in my blog when I could have been enjoying time with my friends. So I will make up for it here. I don’t know how detailed I can make this portion of the trip, mostly because I am not as familiar with Galicia and I’m not entirely confident with the names of places (especially since many things were in Galician and Portuguese!).

On Tuesday I did very little in Vigo. I slept late, had breakfast (toast and tea) and pretty much chilled while I waited for (a) my laundry to dry and (b) the boys to arrive. I actually needed to wait, because I didn’t have any clean clothes left! The days were so hot in Madrid that I was sweating all the time, so it wouldn’t have been good form to put anything on again without washing first.

Funny story about the washing: Enrique’s mom does not have a dryer (most people there don’t – I think it has to do with conserving energy), so we had to hang everything on a clothes line. When I was taking my stuff off the line, I *so* knew I was going to drop something…and I did. One of my shirts fell down and landed on the line of the floor below (we were on the 5^th floor). I tried to go down to the neighbors below and knock on the door, but no one was home. Flora (Enrique’s mom) was out, so I just decided to get dressed and go out and deal with it later. It turns out that they’re prepared for such things, and his mom was able to use a string with a hook attached to recover my shirt when she returned. :)

So, the going out part. Flora was going to the Corte Inglés, and drew me a map so I could go and meet up with her. Alas, I suck spectacularly at maps, so I misread it and went the wrong way. After not finding the Corte Inglés three streets later, I continued walking for a bit then decided to head back. I didn’t really need anything from the Corte Inglés and I wanted to chill for a bit before everyone got there.

Flora returned at 5:30ish, Maruxa (Enrique’s sister) came at 6ish and we all went to the airport to pick up the boys at 6:30ish. Justin and Enrique came in at 7 and we all went back to the house. Maruxa’s boyfriend Carlos joined us for dinner, which was a lot of fun. After dinner we spent a lot of time chatting and catching up, and I think we went to bed around 2 am.

Wow, I managed to say a lot about a day in which not very much happened! Next up: Santiago de Compostela.