Working in Spain is great because you get lots of holidays. In December in Pamplona you get almost a week off, 3 weeks before Christmas, for different saints' days, and our school closed for a week. Great news for travelling - but after 3 months in a new country money is a bit tight.
So we chose a coach tour at a bargain price, and spent 5 days in some of the most interesting and pretty places in Spain. The only minus point was that the tour guides spoke Spanish but it was good practice for us! And we'd printed lots of information off the internet anyway! The weather alternated between torrential rain and bright winter sun with blue skies. They say the weather here is similar to in Ireland and when it was raining I could well believe that.
It was a 12 hour journey to O Grove - the town we were based at, and it reminded me of an english seaside resort, like skegness or clacton which was a strange feeling but nice all the same. Being winter it was very quiet but that was ok, because the days were very busy and tiring.
We saw lots of interesting villages and towns but the most memorable were Combarro, a small fishing village where all the houses are made from stone and there are lots of old grain houses made from stone and stood on long legs to stop the food getting wet. It was a charming place, and there were little pubs selling jugs of local white wine which was also delicious.
Another nice looking place was Combados but our visit was spoilt a bit by high winds and heavy rain -so heavy in fact, that it was actually funny!
The place we didnt like was Vigo, which was industrial looking and looked ugly - it might've been the weather and I apologise if other people like it here.... but as my Spanish students say 'no'.
The other place was Santiago de Compostella which was superb, and the heavy rain there only made the place seem better - how could you visit Santiago in nice weather? I dont think it stops raining there anyway! The main attraction is the cathedral, of course but the whole town was wonderful.
Our fellow guests also started trying to talk to us - the token foreigners - and it was really nice. just the dinner times were a bit of a struggle with 2 old Brazilian ladies, whose Spanish wasn't much better than ours!
