Hey everyone!
AP, rockin it behind the wheel of our Fiat
Liz, Ana Patricia and I got back yesterday from our excursion to Espanha. We had a blast. We went to a town called Santiago de Compostela, which is basically 5 hours directly north of Lisbon. I’ve wanted to visit the town for a long time because my Spanish teacher, Señor Joy, used to tell me stories about how beautiful it was when I was younger (I know that’s really nerdy, but for some reason the stories stuck with me and I’ve always wanted to see it). So I dragged Liz along, and luckily it was worth the trip, because I would have felt bad if it was really boring. We were also really lucky because our friend from school, Ana Patricia, decided to come along at the last minute. We would have had a much rougher go of it if she hadn’t been there (and much less fun, because she’s a blast).
The trio at our cafe in Porto
We decided to rent a car and drive there because its so cheap, which turned out not to be such a terrible decision because we had AP there to get us around Lisbon, but would have been insane without her. I don’t understand any of the road system here, and it seems like people just switch lanes and cut people off willy-nilly, but AP claims there is some method to the madness. Even after driving through Santiago and a few other towns, I still
Liz with her Little French Girl
had no idea how to maneuver in the roundabouts or what any of the road signs meant, but since I didn’t run into anything, I guess I did alright.
On the way up to Santiago we stopped in Porto, the second largest city in Portugal (and is where port wine comes from). It’s a beautiful town, with a much more gothic style than Lisbon. We had some lunch at a little outdoor café, where Liz and I tried the Francesinha (which means little French girl), the traditional meal in Porto. It’s a sandwich, with ham, sausage, “hamburger”, and some
The Stairs in the Fancy Bookstore
other kind of meat in it. They cover the bread with a fried egg and some strange cheese and then pour some weird sauce made with port over the top of it. It was odd and tangy, and I didn’t eat very much of it. Liz was a trooper and ate most of it, which I think she regretted for most of the rest of our drive to Santiago.
AP then took us around the rest of Porto. We saw the main church in town, which is dark and beautiful. Then AP wanted to take us to her favorite bookstore, which sounded silly to me at first, but was quite an amazing sight. It’s a beautiful, ornate store with both very new and very old books, and was well worth the detour. After a quick walk through the rest of the town we were back on the road.
A lovely square in Porto
The rest of the drive, both there and back, was pretty uneventful. We had a few accidental detours off the highway that resulted in getting completely lost in a few towns along the way, but other than that, it was smooth sailing. Once we got into Santiago, our hotel was nearly impossible to find. Even with the “help” of road signs directing us to our hotel, we had a rough go of it. Luckily it had a shuttle to town so we didn’t have to do it more than once.
That’s all from me for now. Liz is going to write about our time in Santiago, so check back soon. Big hugs from all of us! XOXO
