Back Home (that's Santiago now)

I realize that this will be my third post in a row without any photos. I got half way to the internet cafe before I remembered that I'd left all of my new photos at the flat. Sorry, you'll all have to wait until tomorrow. But here's a short synopsis:

Saturday.
Had to find the right city bus to take me to the bus station. It was clear across town and I didn't really know where it was. After several vague responses from my Spanish friends about where would be the best place to go to the coast for the weekend, I decided to go see "La Playa de Las Catedrales" (the Beach of the Cathedrals). Its a beach in the north-east corner of Gallecia, just outside of the port village of Ribadeo, which has really tall cliffs that form natural arches. The arches look similar to the flying buttresses you see on the outside of a lot of Gothic cathedrals. However, getting there was slightly complicated. First, I had to take a bus to Lugo where I had to stay the night and get the first bus the next day to Ribadeo.

Sunday.
Everything is closed because it's Sunday. I had a few hours in Lugo before my bus left, so I walked around the town on top of the medieval city walls. That was pretty cool. It's just as medieval as Santiago, but somehow totally different. Had a bit of a scare when I went to check on the bus times. I thought I'd missed my bus by 15 minutes only to figure out that I had forgotten to set my watch back an hour the night before for the time change.
Arrived in Ribadeo that evening as it was getting dark. It took some time to find a hostel.

Monday.
Everything is closed because its a holiday. It also meant that there were no buses or trains going to the beach 8 kilometers away. Had to get a taxi, but it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. Got down to the beach and scouted it out. Found out that my timing was good because I had an hour to low-tide. The bad news was that the part of the beach with the flying buttresses is only "dry" for about 15 minutes. By dry, I mean fordable with pant legs rolled up. So I have to time it just right, dash across some very cold water barefoot, get loads of beautiful pictures and get back across the water in 15 minutes or I get stuck in the surf. Hurrah.... The pictures had better turn out. Anyway, I didn't want to spend money on another taxi ride, so I hoofed it back to town in my wet pants. It was actually kind of relaxing taking a hike down the coastline. Kind of reminded me of England. Didn't have time to make all of the transactions required to make it back to Santiago that day, so I had to stay another night.

Tuesday.
Yeah, I missed class. It's only the second time! Finally got back into Santiago. It was cold. Didn't want to wait forever for the same bus that I had come on, so I took a strange one that would apparently take me to my street. Unfortunately, the driver failed to mention that we would first be stopping in a zig zag pattern at every other street corner in Santiago. I could have walked back in less time, but I suppose it was worth it to be dropped off practically in front of my house.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. I'm looking forward to getting back into the fray now that I'm all refreshed. :)