Galicia

Roque, Valentina, me, and Roque's friend Manuel

Roque is one of my roommates who lives in the northwest region of Spain, Galicia, and he invited all of the roommates to come stay with his family last weekend during another 5-day "puente."  So naturally, Valentina and I jumped on the bandwagon and agreed to go.  Saturday there was an air strike, so instead of taking our flights as planned, we rented a car and drove the six hours through the snow to a tiny pueblo in Galicia known as Betanzos.

View of Betanzos

At 2 a.m. when we finally arrived, we were greeted by Roque's father and grandparents with tea and snacks.  They showed us to their guest room, an elaborately decorated large room with twin beds, wood floors, and a view of the river that flows from the sea through Betanzos.  But as it was Saturday night, we barely had time to admire the three-story house and say "gracias" before Roque was guiding us along tiny curvy streets to meet his friends at a bar.  He claimed, "I'm not exactly sure which bar they're in, but we'll find out."  The first bar we peeped our heads in, the next thing I know I'm shaking hands and being handed drinks and having umbrellas hung off the collar of my shirt.

Plaza of Betanzos

Valentina and Roque with Roque's dad and grandparents

Throughout the weekend, we got a feel for a lot of different aspects of Galicia.  We toured the Betanzos seeing the cathedral and plaza, and then visited Roque's friends in a nearby pueblo known as Miñó and had a BBQ kareoke night (in Spanish, hilarious).  Miñó is right on the water, and if you look close enough you can almost see the Statue of Liberty across the pond.  We drove over to another big city called A Coruña, which is strikingly similar to San Francisco and houses the oldest lighthouse in the world, El Farro de Hércules.   Roque's grandmother cooked us lunch almost every day (some of the best Spanish food I've ever had!!), and Roque's dad cracked open a bottle of their personally harvested wine (also, some of the best Spanish wine).  Having never heard of Betanzos before I had no idea what to expect, but I can say it was one of the better weekends I've had here in Spain.

The view from Manuel's house in Miñó, Galicia

El Farro de Hércules - A Coruña, Galicia

The view from atop the lighthouse

Plaza de María Pita - A Coruña, Galica

P.S. A brief insight into the EU's policy on healthcare: While in Betanzos, I came down with the plague and desperately needed to go to the doc's.  But as I had forgotten my health care card back in Madrid, Valentina said that I could just borrow her card because it doesn't have any photo.  So, holding my breath I went to the doctor's pretending to be Valentina Goffi, an Italian exchange student originially from Senigallia, Italy.  It worked, and it was free.  And then, with my prescriptions in hand I walked over to the pharmacy and instead of paying upwards of $40 for meds, the lady behind the counter said, "€1.20"... Insane.  Gotta love Europe.