Northern Spain

After weeks of not posting, I am finally making time to write again. One advantage of me not writing frequently is that it isn't possible for me to give a day by day detailed diary.

The trip to northern Spain was great. The cathedral in Leon was awesome. It has the second most stained glass of the European cathedrals. We stayed up till midnight so we could see the windows lit from the inside. They needed to get some brighter lights, but it was still pretty.
While in Leon I tried tapas (spanish appetizers that come with drinks) for the first time. We had a little confusion over the fact that tapas are only for the bar. The waiter told us we had to leave out table unless we were going to get dinner. Oops. We´ll call that a learning experience.

One of the stops on the trip was a small town called Ribadesella. I wish Martin could have visited it. While I was there I think I fell in love... with the city. It is built around a little harbor filled with fishing boats. The fishermen put there lobster traps on the dock ready for the next trip. It also helped that our hotel was on the beach. We walked out our back door for a swim.

Later we went down the street to a pastelería that had dark hot chocolate thick almost like pudding, an amazing assortment of pastries, marzipan fruits, as well as gourmet chocolates. Letizias are a heart shaped chocolate truffle thing that is only made in that region (name after the princess), so I was sure to try one. Later we splurged and got salmon at a sit-down restaurant. We were very proud of ourselves for asking questions about the menu, understanding the answers, and paying for food, all with a waiter that only spoke spanish (this was a week and a half after arriving). I was very enthralled by the town. It managed to be this charming despite being foggy and rainy the whole time I was there, even when we were swimming.

In an effort to be short here are a few other highlights of my week in Northern Spain.
- Bilbao with the Guggenheim museum and pinchos (a type of tapa)
- Exploring Santillana del Mar, another quaint spanish town
- Learning more about Spanish pre-history than I ever wanted to know, through many museums and archeological sites.
- Getting to know the study abroad group... many hours in the bus and in hotels together.