Burgos y La Rioja

Sorry this post is coming to you way after the fact, but a few weeks ago we had an excursion where we stopped at ANOTHER CATHEDRAL (It's getting old for me too), a monastery and wine country (obviously the crowd favorite). Below is the cathedral of Burgos, which of course was beautiful on the outside, but I'm a little tired of seeing/touring all of these cathedrals when they have the same history and  basically the same architectural appearance. However, the trip was fun nonetheless!

Below we are wearing our headphones for the cathedral tour! Those precious pieces of plastic allowed us to hear Javier (our tour guide) continually yelling in our ear for about an hour. He never quite grasped the concept of using his microphone discreetly, thus we ripped those headphones off about 15 min into the tour.

Below is inside the monastery of Yuso. This particular tour was interesting but I remember that it was freezing that day and so all I could think about was getting back onto the bus! The monastery is nestled into the side of a mountain near wine country and actually has a twin monastery above it called Suso. We were only able to see the Yuso monastery.

I'm terrible and forgot his name, but this is our wonderful and patient tour guide of the winery. The winery was interesting, but it was hard to understand what he was explaining to us because I'm not too familiar with wine vocabulary in general let alone in Spanish. It was still a great experience and we were able to taste several delicious glasses of wine throughout the tour. 

I think Brianna was trying to steal a bottle?

 We wore our wine glasses around our neck the whole tour with these nifty little necklaces. The pocket also included a bag of pretzels so that the wine didn't go straight to our heads, which DID NOT help at all. I recall our program director Santos telling us that we were all drunk as he stumbled and tripped over the root of a vine ha! Best part of this trip!

Santiago Part III

Our final tour in Santiago was of the Cathedral roof. Yes, the roof. We climbed all the way to the top and spent almost an hour on that rooftop soaking up the last rays of the beautiful autumn day. Our tour was also in English, which was extremely unusual, and I must say it was almost harder to understand the guide because she had a difficult time pronouncing English words that I would have understood better in Spanish anyway. However, it's always nice to hear my native tongue.

Breathtaking isn't it? This is one city that I will definitely return to the next time I am in Spain. 

In other news, our class made the front page of the León newspaper yesterday. They interviewed us asking our opinions about the elections and our hopes for the future. All 13 of us voted for Obama and so today they returned to class to interview us about our feelings on his second victory and what we would like to see happen in the next 4 years. It is safe to say that we are little celebrities now that we have been featured in the paper twice. Thanks to everyone who exercised their right to vote this year! For those who didn't, you have no excuse seeing as I voted all the way from Spain!

XO

Santiago Part II

This is the cathedral during the daylight. Still haunting right? However, the inside is the complete opposite: antique, but shiny and colorful. I attended Catholic Mass inside of this work of art. I'm glad that I experienced it, but it was less than impressive. It also smelled horrible because at the end of mass they spread incense throughout the cathedral by swinging a huge metal object on a rope throughout the building. I was also skeptical of the metal object falling off the rope and hitting someone in the head, but no one else seemed to have this concern so I went with it.

The smoke is the incense that they spread throughout the church

After mass we had  some precious moments of free time and so a few of us wandered away from the city and stumbled upon a park that turned into a haunted/abandoned church building through which we found the secret garden! It was beautiful and I fell in love. I didn't want to leave such a tranquil place that included an amazing view, pretty flowers and the smell of fresh air (which can be rare in Spain).

 Above, is the abandoned building that we encountered on our walk through the park and I am certain that it is haunted. 

I'm writing this post in a café while simultaneously attempting to finish my essay and watching the percentages go up and down for tomorrow's election. Those percentages are making us over here extremely nervous. Spaniards and Americans alike. Make sure to go out and vote today!

Besos

Santiago

It happened. I knew that it would. I told everyone that there would be no way I could fall in love with anyone in Spain (not a fan of Spanish men) but there may be a time where I fall in love with a place. Ladies and Gentlemen, that happened this weekend on my trip to Santiago and La Coruña. 

I will have to do several posts on this excursion because I took hundreds of pictures. Hundreds. 

Santiago is the famous end point to "El Camino," which is basically a huge walk. Yes, people come from all over the world and begin walking in France or Spain, it doesn't matter, and walk thousands of miles through hundreds of towns and trek their poor bodies right into Santiago. Impressive I know...I would never do it.

We arrived in Santiago around 9pm on Friday night and immediately ate dinner and then did a night tour of the city and the cathedral. I roomed with Roun and we were incredibly happy to be staying in a real hotel. So happy that I took a picture of our room! 

 The cathedral at night was haunting. They have not restored the outside of this cathedral which explains the green moss and the ghostly look

 University of Santiago.

 American Library at University of Santiago

More pictures to come!