Santiago, my birthday, AND...

We finished!  Yesterday we leisurely moseyed (like true Texans) into Santiago de Compostela, promptly got our credential certificates and freaked out from over stimulation.  What do we do now?  Who are all these people all clean and modern?  Where is the supermercado to prepare, yet another, plain and unattractive dinner.  But first a week in review.

The last provence we walked through, and are still in, is called Galicia.  By far our most favorite walks, Galicia still thinks of itself as an autonomous region from Spain, maintaining their Celtic culture, it´s own language and red hair in all.  In the mornings we´d wake up to mystical fog, like walking through the almost artificially green hills of The Mists of Avalon.  Another impressive fact about this region is their tradition of wine making, which means cheap wine.  VERY cheap wine.  We bought a bottle for, you heard me, 78 big cents!  Other more impressive bottles go for oh, 1 or 2 euro and it´s still very good wine.  Wine comes in boxes too here, and I mean, little juice box-like boxes.  Perfecto little single servings for any occasion really. 

on our way up the last ascent, our guide book warned of ¨slippery poop¨from all the very healthy cows, who indeed seem to have a case of the runs.  I guess that´s what happens when cows actually eat grass instead of being constipated from all that Genetically modified, USDA subsidized corn.  But anyway, we were mocking this little warning, when right on queu, Jacob slips in poop.  Ha!  We have actually spent more time than is necessary discussing poop on this trip, but I think we´ve walked on, smelt, and seen more poop than we would ever wish to again.  I´ve finally found a beer-like beverage to my liking in this region as well.  Most of the brewsky is all light, with absolute no hoppiness what so ever.  All I ask for is one good toasty malty beverage, but I´ve settled for actually quite satisfying apple cider, or sidra, as they say.  There´s little apple trees growing everywhere but no apple food items at all, and now we know where it all goes.  I actually found a Sidra Ecologico (organic!). 

We´ve been trying out the local cuisine as well, some of which was not a fun experience.  Jacob ordered a Galician Stew, which turned out to be, not a stew at all, but HUGE chunks of various types of meat, of which I could hardly look at without imagining Jacob as a caveman eating off the biggest bone of something in history.  He seemed to enjoy it though, and that´s what counts.  I, myself, had a magnificent, but HUGE again, plate of paella, with seafood and very yellowy saffron, as paella should be.  One day we accidently missed our albergue so we decided to walk onto the next one, and instead of walking 28 km, we ended up walking 43 km!  Now Jacob can say he´s done a marathon distance, which we were both quite proud of, considering we were still carrying a ridiculous load on our backs.  But that night we tried the local delicacy, pulpo, or octopus.  And can I just say, gross.  Like eating pieces of lard drowned in oil and salt.  If you haven´t tried it, don´t do it.  There´s Pulporias everywhere here though, which we don´t understand. 

Anyway, we made it to our final walking desination and tomorrow we head to Finisterre, the end of the world, with white sands and turquoise water.  Finally, our vacation can begin!  We fondly think back of the little nuances of Spain, one of which, and my favorite obviously, is the coffee.  No matter how small, how dingy and dark, how rural the bar is in Spain, you can bet your bank account that behind the counter there´s a brand new shiny, silvery espresso machine just waiting to be used.  Ahhhh, the cafe con leche...I just had to mention it one more time. 

We´ve met so many wonderful people from all around the world, some of which have invited us to visit them if we´re ever in the neighborhood.  They don´t know that we have no qualms about taking them up on their offer!  Today I cut my bangs in the new trendy, urban fashionista of the Spanish Chicas, meaning very short and and asymetrical.  It sounds strange, but is actually very cute, and it only cost 3 Euro.  Pictures to come.

Um, I think that´s it for now with all the exciting news.  Oh yea, and Jacob proposed to me yesterday morning on our last day walking into the nice capital of Santiago de Compostela.  Are those wedding bells I hear ringing in the distance?  And today´s my birthday too, the big 28.  Just call me old lady Robin (Jacob does).