The Rundown:
-We rented a car

-We drove to the Cathedral Beach one day

-We drove to Finisterre (the end of the world)

 

            Northern Spain has a lot to offer, we hear about it all the time from other students, from teachers and parents. We always hear “Oh you should go here, you should check out this place. Go there, its beautiful.” This place is famous for this, and that place for that. I forget most of these names and to be honest sometimes, I don’t even listen because I don’t know how to go about getting there. However, after hearing all the things we should see, a group of us decided we would rent a car and go exploring, and maybe we would find a few of these Galician gems.

            Saturday morning we met at the train station to pick up the car. Thankfully Jonathan and Simon had done the arranging the day before so when we arrived everything was ready to go. After six of us piled in the small van, we headed north.  Along the way we decided it would be best to split the roles. Simon was the driver, giving him the authority to decided how long we had allotted at each location, when we needed to head back, and what route to take (an appropriate role to allow him to exercise his German efficiency). Nithin was our “money man”. We all gave him 20 Euro and he was in charge of paying, whether it was for groceries, drinks, or tapas. I was the photographer, doing my best to capture the highlights of the weekend trip. Jonathan navigated. Because Helen get’s carsick, she declared her role was to not throw up, and Ellie volunteered to play the role of the dumb blonde. 

            The first stop was the grocery store to gather food for a picnic. We stopped in Lugo and gathered some supplies: a few loaves of bread, a couple packets of turkey, chorizo, and cheese. We grabbed some cookies, and then made our way to the wine and beer. We went with two easy-open 6-packs and three tear-open cartons of wine.  One, because we are classy and two, because we didn’t have any bottle openers. We also threw in a bottle of Coke because they love their red wine and Coke here! After gathering the necessities we continued north.

             We stopped a few times along the way, to get out and stretch our legs. When we finally reached the ocean, we droved along the coast until we reached Cathedral Beach. We stopped there for lunch. After, we walked along the beach, climbing on rock formations, looking out to the sea and smelling that sweet ocean air. The tide started coming in so we headed back to the car. We drove through the countryside, stopping to take pictures of wild horses and pulling up to giant windmills to gain perspective of the size. 

            When we made it to Lugo the second time around we shopped for more food for the next day (because all grocery stores are closed on Sundays). We then went to check out the cathedral. I had also met a guy on Couchsurfing that lived in Lugo. After asking his advice we met him at a nice bar called “People”. The bar offered a free tapa for every drink and three tapas if you ordered a pint! Needless to say, we ate and drank our fair share. An hour and a few road beers later, we were safe and sound at home.

 

            The next day we took off a little later than the first. We were heading to the coast, but this time our destination was  “The End of the World” or Finisterre and The Coast of the Dead.  When the world was believed to be flat, Finisterre was thought to be the end of the world. The coast of the dead was named because of the dangerous rocks and waves. There is some type of seafood that lives on the rocks along the shore. But in order to gather these, divers must go down and pick them off. However, because the waves are so strong against the rocks, the job is very dangerous and has resulted in many deaths, thus “the coast of the dead”…. Or that’s those are the stories I have roughly translated.
            We stopped in a few small towns, once to see a beautiful church and another to eat lunch. The first day Nithin taught us a car game called “Contact” so we played a few rounds of that. Again, once we reached the coast we followed the winding road up as far as we could until the sun was ready to set. Because we couldn’t quite make it to “The End of the World” before dark, we decided to stop a little short of the destination and enjoy the setting sun. The air was cool and salty, but the sun was warm on our faces. Despite not making it to the final destination we all knew the trip had been worth it as the blue sky turned to a burning orange. 
            After the sun was down we drove through a small sea town and enjoyed some octopus, calamari, and roasted beef. (The food would have been worth the trip alone!) When we had finished, we all piled back into the van, and eventually arrived back to home sweet home, Ourense. The weekend was a great success and we are all excited for the next trip! And better yet, in a month Simon turns 25 and we can get a cheaper rate…so expect more blogs on trips around northwest Spain.