Santiago de Compostela

We´re staying in the old town, so our walks have been on gorgeous, narrow, stone-paved streets lined with expensive restaurants and gift/souvenir shops. The big draw to Santiago de Compostela is the pilgrimage that starts in...France, I think...and ends here at the cathedral. Gorgeous cathedral, in which St. James´s remains supposedly lie. They´ll let you walk behind the alter & touch the back of the statue...some people even put their arms around his neck and/or kiss his back. For a religion obsessed with not putting faith in idols, I find it interesting that there´s so much emphasis on statues and other representations of saints, etc. But as I said, the cathedral was impressive, and there were confessional booths lining the walls. Some people were actually using them. I considered it, but the fact that I´m not catholic (or even religious) was a deterrant.

Today we found a cafe tucked a couple streets below the cathedral where they had a menú (first course, second course, dessert and drink) for 8.50 Euro, which is a pretty good deal. The cafe was super ecclectic: in old town, so two of the interior walls were made of ancient stone, but the rest of the decor was ultra modern, and then the music was like 40´s/50´s sock hop ("Crocodile Rock" actually played while we were in there!). It appeared to be owned/operated by two women in their 40´s, and the one working the front was very nice. She didn´t bat an eye when I accidently ordered polla (dick) instead of pollo (chicken). I, on the other hand, was incredibly embarrassed: I know better than that! Ah, well. I chalk it up to the lack of sleep.

Unbeknownst to us before arriving, it was St. James´s day on the 25th, and so they´ve had a week of festivities (free concerts & other events) that are just ending today, Tuesday. What this means is that every man, woman and child is out all night until 5 or 6 in the morning, carousing in the streets and squares, whether they have to work the next day or not. Our hostel room happens to be street-side, so between the yelling, singing, sirens, traffic noise and emergency construction noise (a water pipe broke & they were jackhammering for a couple hours starting around 1:30am), we probably didn´t sleep more than 3 hours total last night. Siesta today worked out a little better, only because there were fewer people in the street since they were all taking siesta too and because there was no construction noise.

I haven´t really taken any pictures yet...afraid my camera will get stolen if I carry it around...but I´ll try to take some this afternoon/evening and post them once I get back to my computer in Madrid. ¡Hasta mañana!