Arrival to Vigo

     I took a night bus from Sevilla to Vigo and sat next to a nice lady from Ourense. When I arrived at 8 in the morning I took a taxi to my hostel and walked to Plaza de América where I was meeting María, so she could show me the flat. I then went to a cafe to wait for my next flat viewing appointment. When you order a drink in Galicia the waiters or waitresses will give you a snack to accompany your drink, so I received churros with my orange juice. The cutest old man sat next to me at the bar and was telling me about how his grandsons also love to travel and how one of them is in a band in Vigo.

    I met my friend Ana who is a volunteer for ESN. Although I am a teacher, I am still considered an international student. We saw the next flat and then she showed me the University. The University of Vigo is in the mountains and so beautiful. We then walked around the city center and port area. I went to the hostel to sleep and obviously needed it because I slept through my alarm and missed out on meeting up with my future roommate. I then went to meet Ana and Fran at a bar called Oz, where the international and Spanish students were having some drinks. We went to several clubs and I even met someone from Sevilla!

    I woke up early Friday morning, excited to move into the flat. María told me to come at 10:00 because the owner of the flat was going to give me the keys and review the contract. This all sounds really easy, but there was one problem, I didn't have the address of the flat. Earlier in the week I had asked María for the address but she never gave it to me because we decided to meet at the shopping center near the flat, so that I wouldn't have trouble finding the flat. María's phone died the night before, so she never responded to any of my texts. I took a taxi to the general area of the flat and I realized that I wasn't as familiar as I thought with the area, so I asked a woman in a store if I could leave my suitcases with her for 10 minutes while I look for my flat.

    I walked up and down the street , looking through the doors of the entrances to the flats to see if I was able to remember something familiar. All of the entrances to the apartment buildings look the same and because I was essentially running on no sleep when I first saw the apartment (due to the overnight bus ride and the fact that I didn't sleep much in Sevilla) I walked up and down the street for 30 minutes with my red backpack probably looking super creepy as I peered into all the doors. I finally found the apartment because María yelled my name. The owner of the flat said that he was about to get me because he saw a girl that fit my description walking around. I am so glad that the owner stayed 30 minutes after I was supposed to be there because I would have had to stay in the hostel for a few more days, spending money I would rather spend on travel.

   When I went back to the store to receive my bags the woman told me "you are going to like Vigo more than Sevilla" she obviously saw my baggage tags.