Semana Santa en Galicia

For the 4th consecutive year, I spent my Easter break in Spain. This time I headed up to northen part of Spain, to Galicia. My favourite part as it is green and has the best marisco (seafood, that is).

Me, Esther and Adrian at Vilanova On Friday 14.4.06, Esther's family picked us up at the airport and on our way home, we stopped at Padron to have freshly cooked pulpo (octobus) for lunch. Nam!

We then settled in at the house (at Vilanova) and Esther's mother started to get ready for the Easter Good Friday procession (kulkue). We all went along and actually did most of the way, following the Jesus on the cross etc. Compared to last year's procession in Cadiz, this one seemed much more intivate and warm. A real village feel to it.

Esther's mother on the left

For the dinner we had various plates of seafood and croquettes... mejillones, gambas, almejas... Nam! Love the marisco.

Adrian and Manuel

On Saturday we headed to Santiago de Compostela, the famous destination for thousands of pilgrims every year (people actually walk hundreds of kilometers on the Camino de Santiago, see more here: http://www.santiago-compostela.net/ or http://www.caminosantiago.com/web_ingles/rutapasoapaso.htm). I'm sure lot of the people do it for religious reason but to my understanding most of the people do it when they are in a stage in their life they want to reflect their lives and are looking for a new direction. Apparently you get to know a lot of people on the route and talking about the big things in life. Maybe someday...

A man had done the journey with a donkey and was getting his certificate

We spent the afternoon shopping and walking around. Santiago was a city was beatifull, really liked it.

In front of the cathedral

Con las dos Marias (two ladies that were walking in the park so regularly that the city made a statue for them ;)

For lunch (on the way at Vilagarcia) I ticked a couple of more boxes from my "must-eat-seafood" list; navajas, ensalada mixta... In Spain the days go from breakfast to lunch to dinner; food is the first thing you discuss when planning a day and that's why it is important I report to you what I had for each meal ;)

For dinner we had my all time, non-seafood, Pimientos de Padron and some more pulpo.

We then planned to go out for a wild night out dancing but the bed was stronger. We actually showered and picked our clothes and then went to bed to take just a little nap, which then ended up lasting till morning... Getting old!

On Sunday our logistics seem to fail at every stage. We missed our train by one minute and the next one was at 9pm... So we called Esther's parents to pick us up and we waited at the train station for about 2hrs. It was actually quite nice as were not in a hurry to go anywhere, had a bit to eat, made some calls, read magazines, chatted... nice and lazy.

We then were desperate to still find a place to have lunch as it was already past 4pm (Spanish people are very punctual when it comes to lunch time; it is from 13:30-16:30 and outside these times, you need some luck to find an open kitchen). We eventually found one, close to Esther's parents other house in a small village called Ervixe. This time the food was not my favourite as the only thing the kitchen could still fix us was some greasy steaks...

Next on the agenda was to and see the other house and the neigbors there, la familia da Torres).

The people are soooo friendly and hospitable; as soon as we arrived and interfered their preparations to go to funeral, they took out the bottles of local fruit liqueur, orujo, roscon (typical ring shaped care) etc. We insisted that we don't want any but of course we finished everything. Had a very nice family afternoon (and at the end Esther's father went along with the master of the house and the ladies stayed at home).

La familia da Torres

Esther's mother had the weirdest appointment time with a doctor on the Sunday night; at midnight! We waited with her for a while but then head back home around 11pm.

We actually had eaten so much during the day that we just had for dinner some asparagus and bread (Galicia also has the best bread in Spain).

On the way home we stopped by at Cuntis to get some fresh spring water from the village fuente, the purest water you can get, without any chemicals. So Spanish ;)

Monday 17.4.06 was my last day of holiday. It was sunny and beatifull and we went for a walk on the beach, twice!! So refresfing and relaxing!

For lunch we drove to close by village called Cambados. Another charming village! Had a nice lunch of empanada de atun and chipirones fritos (local meat pie and baby squids). Delicious!!

At Cambados

Cambados

Coming back to the house, we stopped by a local tuna fish canning factory to buy me a box of 25 cans of tuna, the best in the world!

The afternoon was laidpack and easy, some reading, playing with Adrian (Esther's 6yr old nephew), getting another grand tour in the garden with Esther's father who is very pround of it, walking on the beach, cooking and eating some tortilla espanol (spanish omelette)... Very homely!

A lemon tree and pile of wine branches for apparently totally smoke free BBQ

At the beach

On Tuesday it was time to fly back to normal life - and go straigth to a meeting from the airport!

Hope you all had a nice Easter time as well, with loads of mammi (http://www.saunalahti.fi/~marian1/gourmet/mammi.htm) and chocolate eggs!!

Bye for now, Anne