Melia Araguaney Santiago de Compostela

... the city which contains all the old buildings and churches is pedestrianised and huddles round the grand cathedral. The Cathedral is vast and very ornate. The guide books say that is best seen in the rain so that all the lichens and mosses are highlighted. The weather duly obliged!

The car has decided to have a sick day and has gone to the Ford dealer to recuperate! We collect it tonight and move on to Portugal in the morning.

... We literally see no one and hear nothing, and everything looks to be closed. We finally find one club that has someone in the door, and they tell us they don't open until 4am. DON'T OPEN UNTIL 4AM?! WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS?! We run into 2 British kids on the street and go to some random dance place with them, were the DJ plays music from Grease, obviously causing a spontaneous dance party. Around 4:30, it is still empty, so we decide to just leave and go to bed.

... la Alameda, a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral, where we got an amazing panoramic view over the city and of the cathedral. We then hurried back to the cathedral for a tour of the bishop's palace and cathedral roof, which are attached to the Cathedral proper. The palace was not particularly interesting, as far as palaces go, because it was mostly empty. But it was totally worth the climb when we got to the roof of the Cathedral. From there, we had amazing views of the entire ...

... lady maybe 25 and her tiny , little grandmother, who I would say was at least 80. They were steppin aside and letting us pass. We had seen them walking yesterday and commented on how very nice it was that they were on their way to Santiago. They had no light and I´m not sure how they were going to walk in the pitch black without tripping over rocks or roots. I turned back and gave them my flashlight - hoping later that the battery ...

... event, not understanding a darn thing but trying to fit the cultural norms and pretending as best I could. What a lesson. As soon as that whirlwind ended, they threw a test at us that we had to complete. It consisted of multiple choice, fill in the blank, and an essay question. Ha! What a joke. It didn't take long for us to start making inappropriate comments about our lack of knowledge and the insane difficulty of ...

... and walked and walked. I felt blisters forming between my toes and we walked on and on. We finished the haribo and still there was much walking to be done. Around 2:30 we reached Monte de Gozo. What might have been a nice little town was blighted by the presence of the most massive albergue imaginable. About eight shed-like buildings house up to 500 pilgrims. Truly, it did resemble a concentration camp. It was about 5.5 km ...

... rooms for hopefully more spaniards. We all share 1.5 bathrooms and one kitchen. I have only met the itailian so far. I'm gettin' kinda excited!!! Oh, and my key looks like it's ancient, it's really cute. Oh! And school started yesterday. I mean, school is school I guess. All my clases at KU were in Spanish so it's not much different, except you can learn about something and see it on the walk home ...

... headed out looking for a little fun...we found both little and fun - all the girls in the bar were, no joke, between 14 and 16! Incredible...the discotecas didn't OPEN until 5 (later than BCN, the party city), so we never made it there, but the boys had fun impressing the girls with their foreign accents. Francesco only had to say 'Italian' and all these little girls came over to dance with him. The next night we ended up at the same place because we ...

... br>
These Spanish people are crazy, they do this all the time. The streets were covered with stylish young Spaniards who were in various states of drunkenness and mobility. Party all night, and then, to quote Pito, "tomorrow I am from the bed to the sofa, from the sofa to the bed, all the day."

My hostel owner and her mom laughed at me (but gave me cake) when I crawled out of bed at noon today to pay for another night. I spent all day wandering around town.

There's live ...