Warsaw: Rewired

One of the downsides of living abroad is missing out on important events back home. For example, weddings. Since I've moved to Galicia, a lot of my peers seem to be getting married. But unfortunately it's not plausible to just hop on a plane home for the weekend. So last year when a friend from home was set to get married in Poland, I was thrilled. Finally, my side of the pond! Not to mention Poland had been on my list for a while. The old country! Home to some of my favorite comfort foods which I couldn't find in Galicia-- pierogis and paçzek. I vowed to eat them everyday on our trip.

View from above:
Old Town Market Square

The first stop on our whirlwind tour was Warsaw. Only 11% of the city's housing dates back to before 1944. The rest was destroyed during World War II. Some of it was rebuilt respecting the older architectural styles. That is the case in the Old Town Market Square, one of the Old Town's main plazas. To my untrained eye, the pastel-hued buildings tightly squeezed together could have been centuries old. They sure fooled me! One such house of the Old Town Market Square is home to the Warsaw Museum. Here we learned all about the city's history, as well as enjoyed a rooftop view of the plaza. On top of that, it was free because it was a Thursday. 

Other top historic sites of Warsaw include a Castle (more like a palace) and the Barbican. We didn't go in either, but observed them from outside. The Barbican is a 16th-century wall fortress. With origins in the early 14th century, the Royal Castle was home to Polish rulers for centuries. Later it was pillaged by Russians and most recently by Nazi Germans. On the side of the Royal Castle facing the river are some gardens we wandered through. The other side of the palace is part of an open, spacious plaza in the Old Town. Again, like the vast majority of Warsaw's historic sites, both the Royal Castle and Barbican were mostly rebuilt after WWII. The Castle along with the Old Town are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 

Plaza with the Royal Palace on the right

Barbican in the background, to the left

  Wooden Synagogue in POLIN   

While we spent most of our sightseeing time within the Old Town, another highlight of Warsaw in the ¨new town¨ was the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The place was enormous. And rather than just focus on the tragedies of the Holocaust (which were also included, of course), it went through Jewish history in Poland throughout the ages. Interactive with lots of maps and information, it also includes a beautifully-painted reconstruction of a wooden synagogue.  

Mmm! Pierogies everyday!

Our hostel in Warsaw was a 30-minute walk (or speedy subway ride) from the city center, in a very industrial part of town. Perfect location for two evenings out, feeling like real Poles. The bars/restaurants in the area felt very hip, and not at all touristy. One such bar had an open lot, sheltered from the wind by big brick buildings on all sides. It actually reminded me a lot of my ¨industrial¨ hometown. Except it was full of groups of people lounging on beach chairs. Here we were treated to a concert by a fun band with a ukulele. Another cool, candlelit bar used antique sewing machines as tables. And for dinner, a small, casual restaurant for locals and foreigners alike: Pyzy Flaki Gorace, a Polish diner with delicious, delicious food for cheap! I knew this trip would be a treat for my tastebuds! Don't get me wrong, Galician cuisine is great, but variety is the spice of life. And using spices other than paprika and oregano also helps. I'm not even sure what I had at this diner exactly-- it was potatoes, bacon, sauce, and dough inside a Mason jar. Now that's comfort food! Plus my new favorite soup: zurek (sour rye). Seriously, so good! I had it several times throughout the trip and even bought a packet to make it at home. Obviously it won't be the same though-- no kielbasa here. :( 

The mermaid of Old Town Market Square

The morning of the wedding, we had a train to Krakow, where the ceremony was held. Risky? Nah! Except, while riding the subway to get to the train station, we had a typical travel incident.¨Where's the suitcase? I have the backpack, and you're supposed to have the suitcase.¨ I imagined our poor, lonely suitcase forgotten on the platform as our subway car sped further and further away. Luckily, though, we had left it while checking out of the hostel. At least it wasn't lost. We had to go back three subway stops and then someone had to run to the hostel and back to the subway stop. That somebody was not me. Despite the hiccup, we made it to the train station in time to board with dozens of other travelers. This is why I always leave early! Next stop, KRAKOW! 

Going to Market

A bouquet of garlic

How I adore the market! I really have to start going regularly. Two mornings a week, people come from the nearby countryside with their produce, cheese, and eggs. While the Plaza de Abastos contains numerous shops (butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, etc) open Monday through Saturday, the biweekly farmer's market takes place in the hall below the permanent market. The vast majority of sellers are women over 70 years old. But every rule has an exception; in this case, a guy my age. 

I realize farmer's markets exist in the USA, but I never had the habit of going. Also when I think 'organic,' I associate it with a bigger price tag. Here that is definitely not the case. Although in general the insanely cheap prices in Galicia-- specifically in Lugo-- are normal to me, every once in a while I remember how inexpensive everything here really is. Case in point: at the market today I got seven garlic heads for 3€. Garlic is usually the most expensive food per kilo that you can buy at a produce store. I was thrilled to find some homegrown at the farmer's market. Next on the list: onions. As the lady was tossing them in, filling my bag, I thought to myself that was way too many onions for just me. But she wanted to get it to a full kilo (about two pounds) to charge me the euro. One euro for a month's --or two's-- supply of onions! Lastly for seven peppers (light green, smaller than our green peppers, these are from Ourense) because it was half a kilo (one pound) it was only 60 cents. SIXTY CENTS! Can you buy anything in the USA for 60 cents?!

I honestly wonder if the money they make even pays for gas or the bus fare into town. How can it be worth it? They must break even, at least, or I doubt they'd go back week after week. The only people that I imagine go home with more money in hand are those who sell eggs. A dozen free-range eggs goes for about 3.50€. But as I've been learning from personal experience, gathering a dozen eggs is no easy task. The ¨extra money¨ for fresh eggs is well earned. 

The farmer's market: what's not to love?!

• Supporting local families, who in turn spend their money around here. Economics, my dear Watson
• Hardly any emissions from the transportation, unlike when you just have to have bananas imported from the Canary islands, or quinoa imported from South America
• Very few pesticides, if any. Most likely some compost or similar natural products
• The price tag! 

World Heritage Sites Visited in Spain

As I've been trying to be ¨productive¨ this summer for once, I've been tidying up old blog entries. Not the content so much as correcting spelling mistakes (apparently I wasn't a fan of spellcheck), fixing confusing (or just plain bad) grammar, and the like. I've also been improving and increasing the tags for posts. One of the things I've noticed reading through old entries-- aside from the fact that I use the word ¨STROLL¨ entirely too much...maybe because it's the Spanish way-- is that throughout my travels I've seen a lot of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. So I've decided to compile those I've seen in person. Not all received an entry the first time around. That's due to my own laziness, not their lack of ¨blogworthiness.¨ So now's the time to briefly summarize those places that didn't make the cut. And if I wrote about it before, the title is a link to the original post about each place.

Since there are a ton of World Heritage Sites throughout Europe, I thought I'd start off with those visited closest to home, in Spain. It's no surprise that Spain is high on the Eurocentric (four of the top five are in Europe) list of countries with the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites. As of 2019, Spain is ranked number 2 or 3, since first place is a tie between China and Italy. Again, this is only a collection of places I've personally visited. The full list of sites is available here. And because I'm not one to make a countdown list (one might say that I've picked up the Galician traits of diplomacy and indecisiveness in my years living here), they are in no particular order.

 Get ready, this is gonna get long!

Miño (not the River)

Recently I learned that half of Lugo capital heads to the beach in Miño in summer, while the other half heads to Foz (in Lugo province's coastal region A Mariña). That's why some people jokingly call Miño ¨Lugo's beach,¨ despite it being in the province of A Coruña. Since I've already been to Foz a few times, now was my turn to check out Miño--the town, not to be confused with the Miño River which separates Galicia from Portugal.

After a straight-shot hourlong highway drive, we arrived in Miño early Friday afternoon. We quickly settled into the apartment --with views of the Ría on one side!-- and headed straight for the beach. At that time there weren't many people around, perhaps because at 4 PM people were still having their dessert, coffee, and post-lunch chats, or perhaps because it was kind of cloudy and barely 80º F. Nonetheless, I decided to test the waters. And it was actually bearable!  Compared to the dozens of afternoons spent at numerous beaches of the Rías Baixas (Galician's southern sea inlets) with people who are used to the water temperature and consistently tell you ¨Está boa¨ (it's nice!) even though it's so cold you can barely get in past your waist, the water in Miño was so warm! During our 48-hour stay I got in all the way 6 or 7 times. That's unheard of for me! I probably got in as many times during two years at Rías Baixas beaches. Logic would say that the further south, the warmer the water. So why are the Rías Baixas in the south colder than the Rías Altas in the north? Something to do with currents. I don't have all the answers

Friday evening we stayed around the beach to see the sunset and a folk-punk concert. We dined with a friend at a food truck serving up American treats. I thought the apartment buildings, and handful of bars/restaurants near the beach were all there is to Miño. But Saturday morning I discovered that the town is bigger than I thought. There are around 6,000 year-round inhabitants, and what I thought was the town was actually just the beach district. Miño has a city center with multiple bakeries, butchers, and banks. You know a town is ¨big¨ here when it has two or more banks. First we strolled around the port where a smattering of people were fishing. Then we passed Miño's second beach, less appreciated because once you get in it's swampy rather than sandy. Once in the city center, there wasn't much to see, but there were plenty of people enjoying a lovely, warm day on the terrazas.

 In addition to it being a Saturday, it was also Galicia's national holiday, the day of Santiago the Apostle. That would explain why the beach got quite crowded early on: daytrippers from Lugo and A Coruña. The beach is long though, and there was still enough room to maintain a 2-meter distance in between towel groups. I was also happy to see most people abiding by the mask rule-- wear it when walking around the beach, but not necessarily when swimming or sitting on your socially-distant towel.

For dinner we ate out with some more friends, once again on a terraza. Hopefully any potential viruses wafted away in the fresh air. I never was a huge fan of seafood or fish, but when in Rome! Now I'm starting to actually enjoy typical dishes here such as clams (almeixas), mussels (mexillóns), (there's a difference in English--who knew?!), and fried big and small calamari (in Galician/Spanish they have two different words-- chipirón and calamar-- but apparently the only difference is size). On the other hand, in spite of numerous Galicians' attempts to convert me to fish, I still only like tuna and smoked salmon.

Flat Earthers (Lugo's Terra Chá)

To round off a perfect summer weekend, on Sunday we decided to spice things up and explore the waters of Terra Chá-- a region in Lugo which literally means ¨flat Earth.¨ Terra Chá includes nine municipalities, flat and fertile thanks to its many rivers and streams. And all of those grassy pastures mean a lot of cows. This region is one of the biggest producers of milk in the European Union.

View from the observation deck

Because the day started off cool and covered in clouds, we first checked out A Lagoa de Cospeito. This little lake is a nature preserve home to all sorts of wildlife. The trail surrounding it is about 2 miles, to give you an idea of its size. It used to be even bigger, but in the last century it was slowly conquered to make more of that aforementioned fertile farmland. On the trail around the lake we identified honeysuckle, birch, European alder, chestnuts, oak, and what I swear were olive trees (I am currently working on my plant-identification skills that I learned as a Girl Scout but have since forgotten.)! Along the way there were also few cabins on stilts to observe the lake and birdwatch. We didn't see any of the park's resident mammals or birds, but I did hear an unidentified bird we don't typically hear closer to the city.

Dam and non-existent ¨waterfall¨
in the background

Our next stop was Caneiro do Piago. For those of you keeping track at home, it technically isn't in A Terra Chá, since Outeiro de Rei is part of Lugo's capital region, but close enough. Caneiro basically means dam and piago means pool (It's also the name of the nearby village. Funny how toponymy works). Attached to the dam is an old  hydro-electric plant which still works. In summertime the waterfall produced by the dam was a trickle compared to what it must be in winter. But more exciting than the dam and virtually non-existent waterfall were the rock formations carved out by the river. We hopped along the riverside boulders until we found the perfect place for a picnic. By the time we had taken a quick post-lunch sesta, the sun had come out! We didn't go swimming like other people, but I did stick my legs in. We could see trout as well as some tiny fish that will nibble dead skin off your feet. Just like at the spa! I definitely hope to return here to cool off on another hot summer day. Can't resist those amazing rock formations!

Lastly we went to another swimming hole, this time in Guitiriz. Sete Muiños is the name of the recreational area of this village because it has several abandoned mills. They made the river into a pool by putting cement borders and ladders to get in and out easily. It gets progressively deeper: on one end you can wade, and on the opposite end you have to tread water. The nice thing about river swimming is that there is usually plenty of shade on both sides. We got their later in the afternoon, at which point less than half of the river was in the sun. I went for a dip in a sunny section and then dried off in the shade. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this peaceful river pool.

After living in Lugo for four years, discovering these great ¨flat earth¨ spots reminded me that there is still a lot to be seen nearby. I've started making a detailed list of places in Galicia to visit. With Coronavirus still looming, travelling by plane just isn't in the cards. The plus side: it's the perfect excuse for everyone to finally explore places close to home!

Western Towns of Asturies

This weekend to keep our quarantined spirits up, we had an Asturian themed afternoon. Asturies, party of two! It was complete with fabada (bean soup typical of Asturies), sidra, queso de Cabrales (a strong Asturian goat cheese), and Asturian tunes. Not long before the quarantine, though, I was actually in Asturies. So here goes another post:

A couple of months ago, we took a little getaway to the western part of Asturies. Despite being the part closest to my home in Galicia, the west was essentially the only part of Asturies that I hadn't yet seen. I'd been to the major cities of Xixón and Uviéu; as well as up and down the coast in Cuideiru, Avilés, Llanes, and Ribadesella; not to mention the national park region in the southeast.

Salas

Salas and its market

Salas is the capital of the municipality of the same name. This region of Asturies is full of green hills, but then again so is most of Asturies. Salas is small but with a really cute Medieval town center. When we arrived they had a decent-sized market set up. I would have thought we had travelled back in time a few centuries if it weren't for the stalls selling socks, bras, and fuzzy pajamas! There wasn't much else to see here, so we strolled around and soaked up the winter sun.

Malleza

An indiano complete with palm trees

This parish of Salas has a smattering of houses, including some really lovely indianos. Indiano describes a style of large house built by returned emigrants. In the early 20th century, many Galicians and Asturians emigrated to Cuba and South America in search of a better life. Those who struck it rich returned with enough money to build a mansion in their homeland. Bonus points for bringing back palm trees! There are many indianos in A Mariña (northern part of Lugo province) as well as in Asturies. I'm not sure if all of Malleza's indianos are inhabited, but they certainly were well-kept with colorful, fresh coats of paint. Unfortunately, the same is not always true for historical buildings and sites in Galicia.

Tuña

Neighboring hórreos

This little village had a surprising number of mansions. Two or three, actually. My favorite was a noble palace from the 18th century. It still appears to be occupied, although I imagine they only live on one floor. Apart from the architecture, I liked the amount of sun it got. It was also just a hop skip and a jump from the Roman bridge over Tuña's River. Convenient! In Tuña, just about every house had its own hórreo. Galicia also has hórreos, but in Asturies they are around 3 times the size. And they're pretty uniform: almost always brown and square. (In Galicia they're made of a variety of materials and rectangular, with lengths varying on wealth.)

Cangas del Narcea
After visiting hamlets of barely 1,000 habitants, this town of 12,000 people felt so cosmopolitan. The fact that a lot of people were better-dressed than us helped, too. But the pedestrian shopping street also felt like a European city. Here we had lunch at a sidrería. When in Rome! The highlight of Cangas was actually in the village ¨next door,¨ Corias. The top (re: only) attraction in Corias is a gigantic monastery, now converted into a Parador. And that's where we spent the night. A luxurious, centuries-old building. Inside it has a museum of the ruins the present monastery was built on. And the old wine cellar has been converted into a swimming pool!

Just one section of the Parador. It was huge