Escape from Portugal

  Léon, Spain
Saturday, April 24, 2004

I was fed up with Portugal's lack of public transportation out of the country so I paid off a local to get me across the border (i.e., I got a taxi from Valença to Vigo). It's only about 30km away, but there's only service twice a day. Crazy! Plus checking online, it was looking like I wouldn't be able to get from Vigo to Santiago that day (if I arrived in Vigo late). Once in Vigo, I only had to wait about 45min to catch a train to Santiago de Compostela (good 'ol Spanish trains!). I was there and checked into a pension before I would've even been leaving Valença. I checked out the city that evening and early this morning. People make an annual pilgrimage to the cathedral in June. On June 25 there's a big party for it.

cathedral in Santiago de Compostela

This morning I caught the train for a long ride to Léon. There were some pretty views of mountains and rivers along the way. I arrived and noticed almost everything was closed. I found out from the pension owners that it's a holiday for the region. There's supposed to be something going on here at the bullring (feria) but the pension owners didn't know what (music?). There are some plazas and cathedrals here, but not too much spectacular.

side street in Léon

I've been trying some of the local foods while here. One of Portugal's things is a dried, salted cod so I wasn't too keen on trying that. They love their ham and cheese around here. I've had some boccadillos (sandwiches) that are alright. While in Marvao I tried migas (fried bread and pork)...I ended up sick later that night, but it was just a quick spew then I was ok. Not being fluent on all the meal vocabulary, I pretty much steer clear of seafood since I'm allergic to shellfish. Yes, that means no paella. I can't say that I've found the bar scene here too exciting. Bars are more like little cafes with a few people or several people crowded in. Maybe the bigger cities have better bars (and I'm sure the discos are big).

Now that I'm out of Portugal, I can try and purge the little bit of language I learned. My brain gets confuzed with multiple similar languages floating around up there (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian). I seem to be getting by ok with Spanish...even when people "blah, blah, blah" real fast I usually pick up bits and pieces to figure out what the heck they're talking about.

Tomorrow I ride train to Salamanca. Probably go Toledo on Sunday then Madrid Monday-Tuesday. Then it's off to Sevilla for 3 days for Feria. (that's why I've been rushing around lately - trying to see several places before getting to Sevilla) I think I'll take a couple wind-down days when I get to the east coast around Valençia (beaches!).