Paseo en Panxón

The town I teach in is very beautiful, so whenever I have a break (and it isn't raining....too hard) I go for a walk. The beach is two minutes away from my school, and even though I can come here a few days a week, I will never grow bored of these views.

Winter vacation 2014

    As a teacher, I have almost three weeks of vacation, starting at the end of December. During that time I took a day trip to Santiago de Compastelo, went to Porto, Lisbon and Berlin. I then took a short trip to Barcelona (thanks to 20 euro plane tickets.)

I teach English classes to a girl around my age and she suggested we take the train to Santiago over the break. We sat next to two guys who were our age and we ended up spending the day with them. On the train ride back, the guy checking to see if our tickets were valid was laughing at us, because we were having the best time ever on the train ride home. We then told him that we all met earlier that day. Santiago is a medieval city and the center is absolutely beautiful. This trip was all about exploring and eating, so therefore I don't have many pictures or know much about the history. We had a great time and I will be back soon, so more on Santiago later!

On December 24th a fellow teacher at my school and I went to Porto, Portugal to 

spend the night in a hostel and explore the city before taking our flight to Berlin (with a long layover in Lisbon.) I absolutely fell in love with Porto's old world charm. Luckily Porto is a 2 hour train or bus ride from where I live in Vigo, so I will be back soon.

We ate dinner at the hostel with people from many different countries because all of the restaurants were closed. We ate bacalao (cod) which is very typical of Portugal, and one of my favorite foods.

We then arrived to Lisbon and had a long layover. I had been to Lisbon before and knew that the transportation from the airport to the city center is easy and fast, so we took the metro to the center and enjoyed the beautiful scenary, while drinking beer and eating the typical pastry of Portugal, Pasteis de nata.

 We somehow found our way to the most overpriced beers. 4.50 euros each in Portugal, which is ridiculous.

    I will be the first one to admit that I do not like Lisbon. I much prefer Sintra, a castle town 30 minutes outside of Lisbon and Cascais, an oceanside town also located 30 minutes from Lisbon. But it was nice to revisit a place I had been to two years ago.

     Then we boarded the plane to Berlin. Upon arriving we figured out how to take the U-bahn train to the hostel, this was not easy considering we arrived to Berlin at 2 a.m. After asking many people we eventually made it. One of the people I asked gave me a good tourist tip as well. He told me to take the local bus number 100, for one euro, because it goes to all of the important monuments in the city.

     I fell in love with Berlin, despite the bone chilling cold. On the first day my friend and I took a free tour in Berlin, we took it in Spanish. I enjoy taking tours in Spanish because I always pay more attention. It also makes it easier to describe my travels to my friends because I learn new vocabulary particular to the experience.

                                                                Holocaust memorial

                                                                Checkpoint Charlie

 Before the entrances of academic buildings there are engraved names of professors or other notable people who passed away during the Holocaust.

We loved going to the Christmas markets because music was always playing and there was always something interesting to eat! My friend from Spain also learned an important lesson at the Christmas markets. He was surprised when he ordered his hot chocolate and it came without any rum! He will always remember the differences between with/without.

A teacher at my school/ my big brother!

                                                            Inside the Christmas market

The largest part of the Berlin wall is known as the East Side Gallery. We went there several times during the five days spent in Berlin because our hostel was located within five minutes walking to this portion of the wall. It was actually impossible to get lost, even as a person as directionally challenged as myself. It is a 1.3 km wall of memorial of freedom. It was painted in 1990 and contains paintings from over 100 artists from around the world.

I love that in Germany there is always food and everywhere, no matter the time. You can always count on being able to get a sandwich or a kebab just about anywhere, which is something I appreciate. You can even have a romantic "fourth of July dinner" with skinny sausages, potato salad and beer.

We even found a secret bar, located under a bridge. A very fancy looking guy came out, he was tall and skinny and looked like he was from a movie. It was so classy inside, with earl gray tea infused gin drinks, while listening to a down to earth DJ from New York City.

The entrance is deceiving.

It was very cold when we went to Berlin, so we spent a considerable amount of time in the museums and eating chocolate. My favorite museums include the topography of terror, the Jewish museum and the checkpoint charlie exhibition held outdoors.

A tree of wishes for the world in the Jewish museum.

Chocolate.

We also enjoyed the outdoor monuments.

      Something that I will always love about Germany is the fact that the dark history is not hidden. Children are well educated in the schools, laws are strict and the amount of museums and memorials are abundant. Maybe I will visit this city again, and I can only imagine the changes that will take place.