This past week, HCAYS took a trip to Galicia. Galicia is an autonomous community located in the northwestern corner of Spain. The area was originally inhabited by the Celts hundreds of years ago and you can still see that influence on the culture and landscape of the area today. In that region, they speak a language called Gallego, not Spanish, although there are similarities between the two languages. Much of the architecture is made from stone, which was a main element that the Celts used to build when they inhabited the area.
Because this trip was filled with so much, I wanted to highlight a few of the cool things we did every day.
Monday:
Our first day there, we walked the last stretch of the Camino de Santiago, which was originally a series of Christian pilgrimages that started in various parts of southeast Europe like Portugal, France, Spain, and ended in Galicia. Hundreds of thousands of people completed the trail last year and though the motivation for the majority of them is still spiritual, a number of them who do it for recreational and sporting reasons. Completing the Camino de Santiago is a very significant achievement and it means a lot to people. My host brother spent two weeks completing the trail from Madrid to Santiago and he said it was an amazing experience for him.
Tuesday:
We went to a wine factory today and learned about the process of how wine is made from start to finish in a town called Cambados. There are many precautions that are taken to make sure the grapes are nice and suitable to make wine out of them. For example, they plant a bush at the beginning of a vineyard, and they health of that bush is a strong indicator of the health of the grapes.
Wednesday:
We went to a different town in Galicia called Vigo. This city is right by the Atlantic ocean which makes fishing a hot commodity. In fact, Puerto de Vigo is the second largest fishing port in the world. We toured facilities where the fish get moved, sliced, and auctioned, and a cool thing that I learned is that hawks are used to ward off seagulls and other seaside birds from eating the fish. On another note, the hotel we stayed in was called the Parador de Baiona and it was literally a castle that overlooked the sea.
The hotel even had a statue of a knight in armor. Very reminiscent of Scooby Doo. 
Thursday:
There are multiple small islands off the coast of Galicia. One group of those islands are called Islas Cíes. The island that we visited was a protected national park with multiple beaches and hiking trails. The island is a big attraction, but it only allows for 2000 people to visit per day and you have to book your trip very far out in advance. The island produces as little waste as it can, and there is nowhere to dispose of trash because anything you bring on to the island has to be taken away with you. Even the bathrooms didn’t have paper towels. The views were beautiful, but the water was far too cold to spend too much time swimming in it.
Though we were only there for a short time, I noticed a slight difference in lifestyle between Galician cities, such as Coruña, and Madrid. Madrid is a very relaxed city compared to most of the cities in the US such as Boston, New York, and Chicago, but Coruña is even more relaxed than Madrid. It felt like the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows each other and people are just taking life easy there, which I liked. I believe this is due to its smaller population and because its architecture doesn’t feel like that of a city at all.
Not only was this a wonderful trip with very beautiful sights to see and savory food to eat, but the group as a whole got closer and I think it was a great segue to starting classes on Monday.
