Galicia #1: Avilah!

This was the week of Galicia. We left on the bus really early and we were all way stoked because it was shaping up to be the next Andalucia. Right off the bat the bus ride was a lot of fun. I was putting myself into the mindset of a super fun week and thinking about all the stuff we would do and see and all the people I’d hang out with. After the interesting weekend I had had in Africa with all of the fights and drama I decided to revamp the whole social scene that was going on with the tour and try to make up for any lost time. I got to thinking about how my life was kind of reflecting the semester experience. There was just so much to do in Spain in so many different ways that I couldn’t limit myself to such a small portion. I wanted to see and do everything. In the same way, there are so many awesome people in the group that I really don’t want to be part of a “click” or anything like that. I want to be friends with everybody.

So, that was the mindset setting out from Alcala and I was very happy with it. Our first stop was Avila. I learned here that when a word begins with a capital vowel, it automatically has an accent over that vowel. So anyone who had written Ávila was wrong. This was according to our bus driver, Fernando. But anyways, Avila was awesome. We stopped first at a basilica, which was really pretty and detailed as usual.
Our gate keeper, José Maria, was a stud and gave me the keys to the kingdom…kind of. The altar was really awesome and pictures just don’t do justice.The coolest part was probably the underground cavern part of the cathedral.There they had San Pedro with the same keys that José had just allowed me to hold.I was pretty impressed. The story of the basilica is a funny one and can be expressed through a comic strip carved over a tomb.So these 3 poor Christians were being crucified (No, I don’t have any idea why they thought that that was crucifixion.) and along passed a Jew who started laughing at their misfortune. To punish him, God sent a snake to eat him and so he started to feel sorry. (Although I’m pretty sure it wasn’t true sorrow. Something about having to be eaten by a snake makes me think that he cared more about his own life still.) So, he repented and the snake went away and to thank God he built a church that was later remodeled into a larger basilica. I was going to confess but saw somebody having fun in the confession booth.From there we went to the wall.It was really cool, as was I.There was a pretty awesome view of the nearby Cathedral. However, it started to become apparent why my hair needed to be cut.What a mess! We tried a timed group shot but those don’t always work out.Sometimes they do.As we headed out we stopped for a Backstreet Boys moment.On the bus we grabbed a quick bite.Juan and Eva make us sack lunches for the first day of our trips and for some reason they always make 2 sandwiches and one has just cheese and the other just meat. Notice the thickness of my cheese sandwich. We usually stack the two and eat both at once to try to balance it out. So, it was shaping up to be a pretty darn fun week.