Vigo

Vigo is the largest city in Galicia, the region of Spain we are living in.  Jonathan and I were invited to stay at Tina's home in Vigo and spend some time in the city, which we obviously took advantage of.  We took a bus into Vigo (45 minutes) last Thursday and spent a week there.

Here are a few street shots of Vigo:

We had a really great time in Vigo with everyone.  Sometimes here in Raxo it gets a little lonely just Jonathan and I.  We do spend time with the family here in Raxo, but that's usually only 1 or 2 lunches each week, so the majority of the time it is just two of us.  It was nice to spend so much time with other people, particularly other people under the age of 50.  One of my best friends here is Chelo, a 65 year old woman.  Rosa invited us over to her home a few evenings to have some drinks and play some games (poker, Parcheesi, and Taboo) and have a few drinks.  Taboo, by the way, is awesome for developing my Spanish skills.  They had some other friends over and Jorge had his brothers over.  We had a lot of fun these nights (I came out of "early retirement" to have some fun with the youth, had forgotten how fun they could be).  The first few days we were there the weather was horrible - cold and rainy.  So we spend most of that time having long lunches with family and hanging out indoors.

Here's a picture of Begnoia and I at her house after lunch:

 Our first major outing was into the commercial district to watch the city turn on the holiday lights.  They decorate the entire city with lights for the holidays and have a little show and ceremony when they turn them all on at once.  This year's show was a dance rendition of Snow White where the prince brake danced and all of the dwarves were on stilts.  We then took a nice long walk through the city to enjoy the lights.  Here are some pictures of the lights:

 
The following day we went with Rosa and Jorge to a mirador that overlooked the city to take some shots of the view.

Later that night we went to an ice cream parlor on the beach with Vicente and Tina to have some coffee.  Here's the view:

The next night we went to this cool Tapas bar that is located in an old mill.  Here's a Grandma Lundberg table shot.  We went with Tina, Vicente and Begonia and their two kids Noel and Mario.

We had a bunch of your classic Galicia Tapas: tortilla, empanada, croquettes (I can now by the way, make all 3 of these :) and chorizo.  This wasn't just any chorizo, it was a flaming chorizo!!  Perfect for us tourist folk!  It is a cured chorizo that is placed above  bed of aguardiente (liquor), which is then set on fire.  You then rotate the chorizo to crisp the outside.

Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night with the flu :(  I spent the next day in bed.

On Wednesday, a national holiday we went Begonia, Vicente, the boys, and Tina to Portugal for the day.  We took an amazing road that winded along the beach.  It was like a mix of Maine and PCH in Cali.  It was definitely awesome.  We stopped along the way at an old monastery.  I climbed all over some rocks at the beach with Tina, Vicente and the boys and collected shells.  Mario gathered a whole series of smooth rocks, which he referred to as his eggs.  I got to go home with two of them :)

We then took a ferry into Portugal and got a bite to eat.  Afterwords we went to this strange place.  It was an old fortress but inside was a street market.  Super weird.  The market was a little too crowded for me, but Jonathan and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the view and the fortress together.

All and all we had a great time in Vigo, though it felt good to go back to Raxo.  There's nothing like being away for a while and then coming back to your home.  It's strange how this happens.  It took a long time for it not to be my parent's house anymore, for my parent's house to feel not like my home.  It was some several months after Jonathan and I had been living together in Buffalo.  And yet I have only lived here for 3 months and already feel that comfort when I return to our little apartment here.  I felt comforted to return to Raxo from Lisbon last month and was surprised at how quickly Raxo had come to feel like my home.