Galicia & Día de la cruz

A trip to Galicia, in the NW of Spain, during a 5-day weekend.

To celebrate both Día del Trabajador (Worker’s Day) and Día de la Cruz (Day of the Cross), we were allowed a 5 day weekend from April 29-May 3, during which I visited Galicia, a province in the northwest of Spain.

Galicia is like the Pacific northwest of the USA, in that it is very wet and green, and very close to the ocean; thus, in terms of outward appearance, it is everything that Granada is not.

I know I’m not in Granada anymore b/c it’s GREEN!

The region has its own language, Galician (Gallego in Spanish), a mix of Portuguese and Spanish, and was home to Pablo Picasso during his younger years. My friends and I stayed in the towns of A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela, with a day trip to Ferrol.

The beautiful coast of Ferrol.

Santiago de Compostela, the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, is more inland than A Coruña and has a fine university and a large Baroque cathedral, the reputed burial place of St. James the Great, an apostle of Jseus Christ.

The Cathedral of Santiago.

It is also the ending point of a popular medieval pilgrimage route, el Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James). Many travelers, singled out from the locals by their Goretex and hiking gear, still walk this route.

The pilgrimage path is marked by these yellow arrows.

A Coruña is a busy port on the Atlantic Ocean. Among its main sites of interests is the Castle of San Antón, which used to be on its own island, and the Roman Tower of Hercules, a lighthouse in continous operation for nearly 2,000 years.

This bizarre statue actually caught my eye more so than the Tower (in the background).

Galician cuisine consists mostly of fish and shellfish, including the empanada (a meat or fish pie), and pulpo (octopus that has been boiled and seasoned with salt). Another tasty Galician dish is the torta de Santiago, an almond cake with the Gallego Cross drawn into the icing. I had the pleasure of sampling all three immensely enjoyed them.

Typical Galician pulpo (octopus). Yummy!

The finale of our vacation week occurred in Granada with Día de la Cruz, a celebration that takes place on May 3 in which people erect crosses all over the city—Granada itself had 40. Each cross is surrounded by typical Andalusian objects such as copper plates, religious icons, etc. This is a hedonistic festival in which women dress up in flamenco dresses, and everyone wanders from cross to cross to dance and socialize. Traditionally, “chiringitos” (makeshift bars) are set up at each cross site, permitting attendees to buy and drink alcohol in the streets. This year, however, is the first in which Granada outlawed any drinking in the streets, except in one huge blocked off (and highly monitored) parking lot.

One of the many crosses in Granada.

Although public drinking has always been permitted in Spain, it is gradually becoming outlawed all over the country due to the noise, dirtyness, and other problems caused by botellónes. Since the botellón is widely popular here in Granada, I will dedicate a section to this topic. The “botellón,” is a phenomenon of the 90’s in which youths congregate at night at a plaza, park, street, or spacious public place to socialize while enjoying alcohol purchased cheap in supermarkets, before entering pubs or discos, in which alcohol is much more expensive. On special occasions, including traditional Spanish fiestas such as Día de la Cruz, an unusually large macro-botellón may commence in daylight rather than night, drawing hundreds of thousands young people from different cities. In 2004 in Sevilla, a macro-botellón drew nearly 70,000 people. Many large cities such as Madrid have already completely forbidden the botellón, and the southern region of Andalucia, where Granada is located, is beginning to head in this direction as well, due to the many problems associated with botellónes.

A massive botellón in Granada. (Wikipedia)

Anyway, my roommate and I had a grand time viewing and photographing 6 nearby crosses within our neighborhood, while snacking on gelato and watching flamenco dancers in the streets. One of the fantastic parts about Spain is how they have real fiesta celebrations for every holiday—the processions during Christmas and Semana Santa, for example, and now this. I will certainly miss all the fiestas when I leave.

Locals dancing flamenco in the streets.

There are only 2 more weeks left in this semester, which is mind-blowing to think about. At the end of this week, we are scheduled to take the DELE (Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera), which is basically like the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) for Spanish, followed quickly by another round of testing (finals!). Best of luck to anyone else who is taking exams!

Gotta take time to stop & smell the roses :-)