La Aventura de mis Sueños: LUGO!

OK! Technical difficulties figured out... for now at least!

Wow. So. So much to tell about Lugo. This trip was one of the best since I have moved to Spain. I seriously learned so much, made some good friends, and got to see some amazing things.

A couple weeks ago, a substitute teacher at my school had invited me to his hometown of Lugo for a weekend. This last weekend I took him up on the offer. We started the trip out by taking the boat from Vigo to Cangas, where Alberto lives. From there Lugo was a good 2 hour and 15 minute drive. The nice part about going to visit someplace with a Spaniard is that you don't have to solely rely on public transportation. Even though the public transportation is really very convenient compared to that in the US, it seems like a luxury to drive someplace now.

After arriving in Lugo, we went for a drive around town at night. Alberto showed us the river, La Muralla (The Wall), and the old part of town. Then we went to meet some of his family and friends. I was so glad to have my friend Alex with me. She speaks Spanish very well, and when there is a lull in the conversation, she knows just what to do. Needless to say, we had an awesome time at this cafeteria getting to know Alberto's girlfriend, friends and brother, Juan. We hung out, ate some tapas, and played a few practical jokes on each other. (Alberto told one of his friends that we didn't speak any Castellano [Spanish]. This friend tried so hard to carry on a conversation with us using the very limited English that he knew. "You, meat, Wisconsin, cows." After a good 30 second recording on a cell phone and lots of laughs, he finally figured out we were all joking.)

The next morning Alberto had so graciously arranged for us to visit a farm in the countryside of Lugo. Alberto, his sister, sisters friend, Alex and I headed out to the farm. After a long curvy road and a quick car sickness incident, we had arrived. The farm was awesome. It was like a taste of home. It was a dairy farm of about 150 cows. They had two locations. One site that housed their dry cows, young stock and calving cows, and another site with the milking cows.

Dry cow barn

Beautiful countryside!

This is the main original farm where they keep their young stock, dry cows, and calving cows.

And this is their second location, where they have all their milking stock. It is a brand spanking new 1 year old barn.

Bulk Tanks!

And on top of it all, a parlor!

I learned that larger Dairies are very similar to those in the US. The farm owner was so delighted to show us around and teach us about his business.

After a very scenic drive through the countryside we made our way to the Feria, which is apparently where the BEST Pulpo (octopus) is. Now I know everyone back home probably reading this is thinking, yuck. Octopus? Really Erin? I'm not kidding you when I say it is seriously AWESOME. I love Pulpo. If anyone else comes to visit me, this is going to be part of our itinerary. The Feria was essentially a traveling market. People with random tents and campers travel from small town to small town every weekend selling clothing and other products. We ate outside, under a tarp on a wooden picnic table. It was raining, cold, and a bit windy, but none of these things dampened the experience. We first ordered two plates of Pulpo. It comes out on a wooden platter, the cook sprinkled a bit of paprika on top and doused it with olive oil. Then everyone passed around a loaf of bread, cracked off a chunk, and used a toothpick to scoop up the pulpo onto the bread. The meal was nothing fancy or extravagant, but I think it was one of the best experiences because it is something that really happens. Its not a touristy gimmick. Everyone there was Galician. After a nice relaxing meal of pulpo (that lasted 2+ hours) and some intense playing of a game called logoquiz on my phone, we headed on to our next stop.

This is what the Pulpo is cooked in.

Can you smell it? Yum!

The finished product!

I'm not sure if any of you know this, but Lugo is actually an ancient Roman city. It is the oldest city in Galicia founded in 15 AD. Because of this, the city has many Roman sites to see. Our next stop was the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge) and the Termas Romanas (Roman Baths). The bridge wasn't exceptionally exciting, just a bridge. They have closed it to all traffic because it had started deteriorating in recent years. We then walked down to the Roman Baths. These are located inside a hotel. The water in these baths is thermal, meaning it is heated from the ground. The average temperature of this water is 111 degrees F! It is said that this water has healing powers and Romans would travel from far and wide to experience it's power. Now there is a hotel constructed on top of the baths, and many sick and elderly people travel from all over the world to come bathe in the thermal water. The rooms were very interesting, and smelled a bit like sulfur.

Roman Bridge

Roman Baths

The lighting was clearly not the greatest.

The "healing" water.

Next we headed to the Cathedral. Almost every larger city in Spain has a Cathedral. It's always a very common place to visit. The cathedral in Lugo just recently was doing some cleaning on the roof and uncovered an amazing painting the covered the entire ceiling of the Cathedral. While the lighting inside isn't the best, these are the pictures I was able to get.

Inside the Catedral in Lugo.

For the rest of the night, we enjoyed the company of some great new friends. Since everyone we met spoke only Spanish, this was a great weekend of learning and practicing my Spanish. Its hard to explain but in think by only speaking Spanish for an entire weekend I about doubled my comprehension and fluency skills.

The next day we took it easy. Slept in a bit, lounged around and ate slowly (as most Spanish people do) and then decided to go for a walk around Lugo. The weather was wonderfully sunny and Alberto, Pilar, Alex and I wanted to enjoy the fresh air. This was when I really got to see Lugo for all its beauty. The Muralla, which encircles the entire old part of town is amazing. You are also able to walk on the top of the Muralla. While I could go on talking about all the things I learned about the Muralla, I think I will sum it up with some photos and a link to some great information about the history of La Muralla.