Many catholics come to Santiago on a pilgrimage because it's known as the place where St. James was buried. I figured any church/city worth walking to must be worth seeing. (Also, a lot of people told me to go to Santiago.) I arrived in Galicia and was immediately met with new sounds....they speak Spanish, but most people also speak Galego.
I got to town at around noon, stored my stuff at a cyber cafe and went to check out the cathedral. Inside the cathedral, I found a mass already in progress. The signs said not to take pictures during the masses, but I did anyway because there is a mass every hour during this time of year. (The two times I went into the building there were masses going on.) The masses are to welcome pilgrims to the church and city. The cathedral was interesting because it had a part where you could go up (a few steps) above the altar, cross it and come down on the other side. I had never seen this before. From above the rear part of the altar, I was actually behind the priest and could look out at the people at mass.
Outside the cathedral, I walked around the medieval city, looking at the architecture. The cathedral has three plazas around it. The biggest is the Praza do Obradoire, where the ayuntamiento (town hall) and Parador (state-owned hotel) are located. The parador used to be a hospital and hotel for early pilgrims. In the Praza de Quintana, I saw the "holy door" which is only opened certain years.
After the cathedral, I went to a market where I bought some fruit. They didn't really have much food for lunch, so I went with a Lonely-Planet-recommended restaurant (not something I usually do). El Gato Negro (the black cat) is a small tavern where locals go for seafood. I sent a text message to Luis's (Lourdes's boyfriend) sister who told me about the place. I ate crab, which was a pain to get out of its shell, and something called percebes. I didn't actually know what these were where I ordered them. In English they are called "goose barnacles," they have a shell and a flexible, mesh tube attached to that shell. You split the tube from the shell and eat the rubbery cylinder inside. At the end of the cylinder is what looks like a mini-shrimp in size and shape, but not color.
After lunch I stopped into the Colexio de Fonseca, a school, where I saw its unimpressive patio and an exhibit on writer Valle Inclán. Last week was the Galician "Week of the Book," so this was the first of three writer-related art exhibits I saw that day.
I went to Alameda Park where I could climb up a hill to see the cathedral and sky-line from above. Then, as the rain started, I went to some free museums. First, was the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (Contemporary Museum of Galician Art). Here I saw an exhibit by Maurizeio A. Quarello, an Italian artist, who took known works of art and changed the subjects to animals. The works were part of a book he illustrated called "Caderno de animalista." I liked them even thought they were somewhat childish.
Next I walked up a hill to another park called Bonaval and saw the cathedral from the other side. Back below the park, I went inside the San Domingo de Bonaval Monastery to the Museo de Pobo Galego (Museum of Galicia). It focused on the folklore and cultural history of Galicia. In addition there was a photo exhibit of local celebrations, an exhibit about the printing press, and an exhibit about water. The water one was meant to teach people about water usage and how to better conserve water. The building itself was well-worth the visit. It had a triple-spiral staircase. I am a sucker for spiral staircases and to see three spiral staircases in the same space was dizzying.
After having very little sleep, I decided I needed a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Instead of caffeine, I chose sugar: gummy candies. I went to a store called Pecados de Santiago, "sins of Santiago." I thought this was an appropriate name considering the town is a religious-travel destination. Sugared-up, I headed to the Museo de las Peregrinaciones y Santiago (Pilgrimage Museum). I liked this museum least of all. The wall-tags were in Galego. They had booklets in English, but there was so much text, my brain couldn't handle it all. One thing I did learn is that people found a seashell near to St. James's body which is why pilgrims bring back seashells from Santiago.
For dinner, I followed another recommendation from Luis's sister and went to Os Concheiros, a pulparía, or "octopus house." The octopus, cooked in olive oil and paprika, was delicious, but my dinner was lacking something...so, I went to a veggie store and bought a tomato, cucumber and some celery. I needed my veggies.
Getting onto the bus, I chatted with a woman who had done the "camino" (pilgrim trail). She thought I was Argentine and was surprised I only went to Santiago for the day. I would have liked more time in Galicia, but one day was perfect for Santiago. I felt a little like a fraud though: everywhere I looked were people who had walked or biked to Santiago. I took the easy way out...
The bus ride was quite interesting....we switched drivers at around 3 am. The new driver then informed us that this was his second time doing this route and asked if someone could help him get from the highway to the bus station in two cities along the way. I took some Tylenol PM and let the Spanish deal with it. From the bus, I caught a glimpse of the cathedral in Burgos (which I saw on Saturday).
