After 10 hours on a bus (with the occasional stop) I made it clear across the country. I did run into somewhat of a snafu though. The bus ride took longer than I expected and the check in at the hostel I reserved closed at 10. I arrives at the bus station at 9:58. So with two minutes to try and find this hostel I decided tourist find the closest hotel and stay there. Luckily there are a lot of hotels Andi found a somewhat decent one for 38 Euros. Really not bad if you ask me (although if I end up with bed bugs...).
So today I walked over to the hostel I was supposed t stay at
Last night and find she as just about to cancel my reservation. She was a little annoyed with me but she was nice enough and understood.
While I waited for my room to be ready I decided to walk around Santiago and check it out. Santiago is actually the end of the Camino Del Santiago or trail of saint James,era which apparently is one of the holy Christian pilgrimages that lots of people do. The pilgrimage is to the cathedral of saint James,es or cathedral Santiago. So I paid he cathedral a quick visit. The cathedral was great. As you walk around Santiago you see people with back packers and walking sticks, its as if you walk into the cathedral and you find them all over the cathedral. I arrived as they were doing a service so the cathedral was packed. I was able to see the crypt of saint James,and was able to watch a little bit of the service. The church is very impressive especially in the rain.
Santiago sort of feels like the Seattle of Spain. It is in the rainiest part of Spain, it felt a lot like the pacific northwest. Its a very col place to visit I hope to see more since I've only been here a couple hours.
I know I'm doing a tarantino here but I figured I'd mention ,y last days at zamartze. On Saturday we went back up to San Miguel aralar for the day of San Miguel or day of saint Michael. The church of san Miguel is way up high in the mountains above uharte and is always cold and freezing. The monastery is amazing though. Especially for where it is located, it is so isolated. First we went to mass which was all in spanish but the singing was nice and occasionally the bishop spoke in English to particularly mention us (they decided to putisin the front row to honor us). Afterwards we went and had a big dinner with all the priests and the nuns. Basically we all justgpt plastered with the priests and nuns. The drummer everyone got the more they sang. Got to say that was a lot of fun.
All throughout the weekend they had a festival in the village as well so on top of the day of San Miguel we got even drunker and watched all the parades and dancing, it was a blast! Eventually it all had to end though. Slowly but surely people trickled out of the group till basically there were only a few of us. Of course I was one of the last to leave and it was sad but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be visiting other parts of Europesoon enough I'm sure. Overall great experience at zamartze and I learned a lot. I hope to do another field school real soon or hopefully try to get employment doing such work. I hope you all are doing well and I'll post pictures of the festival and Santiago real soon. I figured you at least deserved an update at least.
Cheers
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