For a grand total of 75 hours on the bus. Worth it? Every minute.

Someone calculated the time we spent on our tour bus over the last three months...75+ hours. Something to be proud of? I'd say so. In 3 months we got to see all of the cities that people usually come from around the globe to see PLUS all of the cities that people don't come to see so often.

Last week we made our final excursion. We left on Tuesday, only having to suffer through one day of school that week. How am I ever going to go back to classes every day of every week!

Our first stop was Avila. The wall in the picture below is the oldest standing wall in Spain...and we walked on top of it. We stayed the first night in Salamanca. For those of you who've seen the movie Vantage Point...this is it! We spent a good part of the day in this Plaza. It was here that I had the best meal of the trip with some of my favorite girls! We sat next to a window that looked out over the Plaza, watched the sunset and talked about anything and everything for hours. I'm going to miss these moments of Spain- just soaking up the culture.
The picture below is of the Galician countryside. Green. Rolling hills. It is so beautiful and so completely opposite of Southern Spain! There is a strong Celtic influence in this region, for example bagpipes are a very common instrument.

I now have to explain what a pilgrimage is. For hundreds of years Catholics have been making a pilgrimage to Santiago. They start at various places, some hundreds of kilometers away and hike their way along the French/Spain border. All along the way are villages for these pilgrims to stop and rest and get a stamp on their pilgrim passport (if you will) As we drove through the country we saw several modern day pilgrims with their fancy hiking boots and walking sticks.

We stopped in this teeny tiny village at the top of a hill on our way to Santiago. It was quite the experience. It was just us (24 awkward BYU students), the locals (all 5 of them- just going about their daily tasks- my favorite was the woman peeling the potatoes in the kitchen window...you just have to see the picture for this one), and the pilgrims who were taking a rest along the trail. Celtic music was blaring from somewhere and though we stuck out like a sore thumb, I felt like in the few moments that we were there we got to see the true countryside of Galicia.

Santiago de Compostela. This was probably my favorite stop during the week. This cathedral is the FINISH LINE for the pilgrims! While we were there we witnessed several taking their last few steps on the trail- what a cool sight. (I think a pilgrimage is in the future for me...I'm sure it's ok for a Mormon to make a Catholic pilgramage, right?) While we were there we attended the daily Mass, sitting amongst pilgrims. The whole day there was this guy sitting on the steps around the corner from the cathedral playing the bagpipes. (Another thing I'll miss so badly- everywhere we go whether it's the busy streets of the city, the quiet plazas or the crowded metro tunnels there are always performers playing basically every kind of instrument or singing. It adds so much to life.) We also had an amazing dinner here in Santiago, however the portion sizes lead me to believe that the restaurant was meant for pilgrims who had just finished the trail. Also, one night we went back to the cathedral because profe. had told us about a concert that night. The pews were full and the concert was beautiful, consisting of an orchestra and choir. Though I've been amazed by every cathedral I've seen, so often they are dark and sad. What a nice change it was to see the cathedral full of light and hear beautiful music echoing up to the tall ceilings!
Our last stop was in Leon. The picture below is of a cathedral...naturally...but the cool thing about this one is all of the stained glass. Supposedly there is more stained glass than bricks. Whether this is true I know not, but it's beautiful all the same. You can see the shadow of the flying buttresses through this window- which are necessary to sustain the walls due to all of the stained glass...

Outside of this cathedral was a plaza (of course!) We were there right at the BEST part of the day! School must have just gotten out because it was FULL of kids in their school uniforms and cute little jump suites. Though it was MASS CHAOS and we were constantly doging soccer balls it was so fun to be a part of it all!

Well this is my last post for a while. The next few will be full of new experiences from different countries, with different cultures and very different languages. I have so much to say about my time in Spain but that will have to wait as I am still in denial that it's almost over! So for now...wish me luck. Hasta luego.