My Travels During Jesus' Birthday

Hello Everybody!!

Happy New Year to you all. Forgive me for the lack of updates recently. I was traveling for about 3 weeks and am now back in Granada (where it is currently gross and sleeting). I wrote briefly below, but tried to convey my travels more through pictures!


Daytrip to Cascais and New Year's Eve in Lisbon:

Located near Cascais, a town near Lisbon in Portugal, this is the Boca de Infierno (Hell's Mouth). You will see why it is thus called below.

FYI those are not shrieks of joy.

Continued Footage of the Awesome Power of the Atlantic!

Our first New Year's Eve performer in the central praça de comercio was Sergio Godinho, a lesser-known Portuguese Tom Petty-esque singer.

The customary New Year's Eve "champagne", which according to its label is "the perfect suggestion for men with character," so basically a perfect choice for me.

Portugal's New Year Celebration with Fireworks! It lasted 20 minutes and utilized fairly consistent sparklers on the four humongous buildings surrounding the plaza. Kudos to you Portugal. These fireworks also helped remove the weirdness after a random portuguese man kept grabbing Elisa and I's hands, then kissing us on the cheeks to celebrate the coming of 2009. The night concluded with a performance by Da Wiesel; apparently a famous Portuguese hip-hop star. I think his name really says it all.

From Lisboa to Porto (where guess what, they make Port!): Sadly, our time here was short so we spent most of our time wandering around, eating cod and drinking port.

Porto is a very picturesque city in large part due to the river Douro which divides the city of Porto with the city of Gaia (where all the port wineries cohabitate). It's a very green city due to the large amounts of rain.

Galicia
Finally we made our way to Galicia, the region of Spain just North of Portugal, where the famous camino de Santiago ends and where St. James is supposedly burried making Santiago de Compostela the third holiest city in the world. Coincidentally, much of the Colombian cocaine trade enters Europe through Galicia as well.

Our first full day in Galicia, we spent with two Gallego friends. They showed us their home, the port city of Vigo, the beachtown of Baiona, the coast along the ríos baixas, the incredible view from Santa Tedra (overlooking the border with Portugal) and the pleasant town of Tuy.

The beaches of Vigo. In the distance, you can also spot a few islands. One of the beaches on those islands was rated one of the best beaches in the world by a writer for the Guardian (a UK newspaper).

Our Gallego friends with Portugal in the background

Yes, your eyes do not betray you, this is a Belen made completely of Barbie dolls (I had no idea there were so many multiracial barbies, who knew) in the town of Tuy (pronounced Tu-e), which I find very fun to say.

Back in the city of Santiago, here is the city's incredible cathedral. We attended a mass here, which was amazing; definitely an experience not to be missed. This cathedral's history dates back over a 1000 years and used to provide shelter to the many pilgrims who had completed the large camino de santiago centuries ago before there were hostals galore.







Also, the local speciality, pulpo (or octopus) cannot be missed. While it sounds gross, it is absolutely delicious and I would not miss a chance to eat it again.

One of the more flamboyant floats during the Three Kings Parade; probably Spain's biggest holiday (basically their Christmas even though they celebrate Christmas as well; thanks to us Americans).

The celebration at the end of the parade in the plaza between the townhall and the cathedral. It was awesome, full of energy and people and concluded with fireworks.

I hope you are all well and I look forward to hearing back from you!

I hope you enjoyed my dos centimos for the day. Paz afuera.