Advertisement
Published: April 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Casa Rural
Our little cottage in the mountains of Navarra. Greetings from in-transit Danielle. I’ve just embarked on my first long-distance train trip in Spain. I’m on my way to Barcelona from Bilbao on a 9-hour journey to spend my Easter vacation. I usually take the plane for convenience purposes as it only takes an hour and costs a mere 30 euro more, but I thought that this time it might be nice to see some of the country side between the Basque country and Catalonia. Anywho, I’ve taken short distance train trips before, no more than 2 hours. The trains that are usually provided for such distances somewhat resemble a city bus, standing room and hard plastic benches. The train that I am is well-equipped for long distance travel all the way down to reclining seats. The only thing is that it looks like I’ve traveled back in time to the 1960s. The seats are made of heavy greenish-grey metal with thick black armrests which somewhat resemble old clunky school desks, the kind that weighed 20 pounds. The floor is made of a black linoleum the kind that is easy to clean in the event of a spill. And the entire care is lined with a light pea green
Friends
Some friends and me on the casa rural trip. covering. To top it off, an elderly man in the seat in front of me is listening to very loud Franco-era military hymns on his walkman. Don’t get me wrong I am in no way complaining. In fact, I am incredibly grateful that I am on this train now as opposed to an ALSA bus which probably would be full of people, lacking any visible legs room, and winding through the Pyrenees at 75 miles per hour, meanwhile showing some move like “Locusts Attack New York Part 3”. In any event, enough with the ramblings. On with the travel blog.
Last time I updated was just as I had decided that I would be staying in Barcelona for next school year. Yes, that is still the plan. But I’ve changed things a little bit. I had originally planned on going to Barcelona in July and taking a TESOL course to get a certificate to teach English in a private academy. I decided that I am going to push back the course until August to give myself a longer, and much needed break from working. A friend of mine and I decided that during 3 weeks in July we are
Gun Factory
Abandoned gun factory going to walk the Camino de Santiago. The Camino de Santiago is traditionally a Catholic pilgrimage from almost anywhere in Europe with the final destination of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, in northwestern Spain. Today it is non-secular and traveled by people from all over the world with different personal reasons for doing it.
You must travel on foot or by bike and can begin at any point. One must register officially with the Camino de Santiago and receive a pilgrim’s passport. The passport allows for pilgrim’s to receive free housing along the camino provided by pilgrim-friendly hostels.
You might be asking yourself, seriously Danielle, what has Catholic Spain turned you into? But let me explain myself. I’m not doing the Camino de Santiago for religious reasons. I don’t feel the need to travel the way of St. James for religious purification. I’m going because I want a cheap, relaxed way of seeing parts of Spain that I would never get the chance to see and at the same time meeting people from all over the world. I want the chance to disconnect and relax from a stressed, fast-paced life and at the same time experiencing new things every day.
Door
Look! A door! We haven’t exactly figured out how we are going to go about this yet. And we haven’t actually made any real plans other than we know we are going to go during the second week of July until the last week. I’ll keep you updated as plans change, but I am still figuring this all out myself.
As far as what the heck I’ve been doing for the past month, like I said March was my month to save money and hang out in Castro. I pretty much spent all my time working and spending the weekends planning classes and going for walks. I did allow myself one little weekend indulgence for the second to last weekend of March.
Some friends and I decided to rent a casa rural (rural house) in a small town in the mountainous province of Navarra. The winter in northern Spain had been rather mild until that last week of March just before we were leaving. Temperatures in Castro dropped to a nippy 3 degrees Celscius and rain, hail, sleet, and snow was thrown from the sky onto our little heads. As rain fell on us for that week, snow fell on our
Cantabrian mountains
Don't get between a girl and her mountains. casa rural in Navarra. After several hours of driving through the rain and snow, we arrived to a nearly snowed in town preventing us from doing any hiking or outdoor activities that we had planned. But we made the best of it. We spent the weekend hanging out in cabin, cooking, playing charades, and drinking mulled wine. The snow didn’t stop us all together from leaving the cabin. We did take two little excursions.
The first excursion, which likely sparked my interest in doing the Camino de Santiago, was in Roncevalles, the first Camino de Santiago stop in Spain just after crossing the Pyrenees from France. To be honest, there really wasn’t all that much to see besides two small churches and an official Camino de Santiago office. But it was cool to drive through all the small towns along the way of the Camino, many of which can thank their support from the loaded pilgrims on their way to Sanitago de Compostela.
On our third day we took a little excursion to an old abandoned gun factory. The gun factory had been in use over 3 hundred years ago, so what was left of it was hardly a
Virgin
Hungry virgin wants a sandwich. building, but rather ruins. It was actually really cool though, you could walk right through the ruins into all the rooms. It was actually a little creepy to think of the type of people that were working there at the time that the factory was in service and how long its been since then. Additionally, the place was silent and covered in snow, which added a ghostly effect to it.
On the way back home to Cantabria, we decided to drive over the Pyrenees and through southern France. We got a big kick out of pretending that we knew French and saying French catch phrases like sacre bleu! and je suis Muzzy. The weekend was a lot of fun and a well-deserved vacation for all of us.
For semana santa (saint’s week) in Spain, we got off from school this past Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday my roommate, Shea, her friend, Michelle, and I all hiked to virgin of Castro Urdiales. The virgin is a statue located on a peak above the city. Many people bring her sandwiches as offerings. We decided to keep our bocadillos de jamon serrano to ourselves for lunch.
Yesterday, Viernes Santo (Holy Friday), there was
Castro
Bird's eye of Castro Urdiales's port. a living stations of the Passion of Christ in Castro. Once again, it probably seems like I’ve converted to Catholicism, but I promise I haven’t, I was invited to perform in it as an extra of sorts, a woman from Jerusalem. It was basically a live play which went through the different steps of the crucifiction of Christ from the Last Supper all the way to the resurrection. Of course one must question the divinity of Jesus, but it was actually really interesting to learn about him as a historical figure. As far as my own participation in the performance, I really didn’t do much other than walk from station to station, stand up and sit down when told. The entire performance was really well done and taken very seriously. We were not to wear anything that might distinguish us as modern-day. So we were to take off all jewelery, rings, earrings, necklaces, I was even harrassed about my nose ring. When I told them I couldn’t take it out I was told that I would have to keep it covered by my shawl. All in all it was fun.
Well I made it to Barcelona after 9 hours, so
I’m going to leave you now. Hopefully I’ll be writing another travel blog soon.
Take care all.
Much love,
Danielle
Advertisement
Tot: 0.242s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.036s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom
non-member comment
What's Next?
I expect that by the next TravelBlog you'll be letting us all know that you are joining a convent and becoming a nun. You are certainly having many memorable and interesting experiences. Have fun in Barcelona! We miss you a lot and can't wait to see you (only 8 weeks and 5 days)!! xoxo Mom