atravelinsoul: Burgos-1st trip in Spain-October 9th & 10th, 2010

Traveling is one of the goals at the top of my list this year, since all of Europe is pretty much in my backyard. I was adamant about seeing as much as I could during my first year in Spain, and was agreeing to trip invitations to countries I had never imagined I’d visit [for example, Israel to stay with Sara’s sister who lives there]. They offered some of the best lessons and experiences in my life, and I am so happy and privileged to have been able to visit as many countries as I did, including:

-The Netherlands [Amsterdam]

-Scotland [Edinburgh]

-France [Paris]

-Morocco [Marrakech]

-Ireland [Dublin, Limerick]

-Israel [Tel Aviv, Jerusalem]

-Germany [Munich, Berlin]

-Czech Republic [Prague]

-Greece [Santorini, Athens]

As well as these very diverse cities in Spain:

-Madrid [obviously!]

-Barcelona
-Sitges

-Segovia

-Granada

-Sevilla

-Avila

-Salamanca

-Grand Canary Island

-Toledo
-El Escorial

-Murcia

-Malaga

-San Sebastian

-Ibiza

-Denia

The first puente [long holiday weekend] of our school year was October 8-12, basically the second week we had started working. Since holiday weekends are only pretty frequent in the beginning of the year, everyone wants to take advantage of them. While still at home in the states, I began to try and plan a 4-day weekend in Portugal, while the weather was still semi-beachy and warm. By the time I had spent about a week in Madrid, I realized that was not going to happen. All the money I had saved over summer [a decent amount!] was almost gone after moving into an apartment. It costs so much just to get started in a new country, with expenses like a cell phone, hostels/hotels until you find an apartment, eating out probably around 3 times a day [once again, until you find an apartment], and then once you find an apartment, paying the first months rent as well as a security deposit, metro passes until the beginning of the month [when you are finally able to get your abono [monthly metro pass…which is expensive, but saves you money in the end], etc. All I can say is that I made a smart decision by saving as much money as I did over summer. Anyway, to continue on, just starting out here in Spain didn’t leave any of us auxiliares [assistants] with much money, especially because they notified us upon our arrival that we wouldn’t get paid until the beginning of November! Haha. Talk about needing to be well-budgeted! Lolly, Jordan and I still wanted to make use of our long weekend, so we decided to take a short little trip to Burgos.

Burgos is directly north of Madrid, in the autonomous region of Castilla y Leon, and about a 3-hour bus ride. It is historically famous, for the hero of the 11^th Century, ‘El Cid’, was born and laid to rest there. The city holds one of the countries’ largest Gothic cathedral, as well as other Renaissance churches. Burgos is one of the stops along the Camino de Santiago [Way of St. James], a religious pilgrimage that thousands of people make each year, reaching the destination of Santiago de Compostela on the Northwest coast of Spain. I was completely uneducated on this topic before traveling to Burgos, but it was really awesome to see all the symbols of the pilgrimage around the city, as well as the hostels made especially for pilgrims.

Now, away from the history and back to the details of the trip! Many people travel to different cities in Spain by bus. Buses are so cheap and efficient, which makes it a great mode of transportation for people on a budget, like me [my bus ticket was 16 euros one way]. Our trip there took longer than expected—we learned the hard way that during puentes, EVERYBODY wants to go on vacation, and therefore backup the roads. It all worked out though, because it happened to be raining most of the day, and we realized afterward that we only really needed a little over a day to see the essentials of the city. We hadn’t booked a hostel before our arrival, and had previously decided we would just “wing it” and find one when we got there. The first two hotels we encountered happened to be completely full, which definitely took us by surprise. We asked for nearby hostels, and luckily we snagged the last two rooms in a hostel before another couple [who was following us] did. The hostel was rated a 1 star, and looked pretty shaggy, but it was functionable and all that we needed for a 1-night stay.

After dropping our bags off, we decided to go explore—my FAVORITE! You must always be careful whom you travel with, because I have learned over the years that everybody has different styles, and it is necessary that your traveling partners’ style meshes with yours if you want to have a pleasant trip. Some people have specific things they want to see at specific times, other people may only want to experience the nightlife and sleep during the day, etc. It turns out that the three of us meshed well together—we all wanted to go where the wind took us, and we were down for any little adventure that looked worthwhile. Luckily that was our style, because we stumbled upon a pathway that lead us to a castle, park, and amazing views of the city and further country. We also stumbled upon a free art gallery that rescued us from the rain.

One of my other goals in Spain is to talk as much as I can so that I can perfect my Spanish and possibly learn things about the culture and history I may have never known before. By implementing this in Burgos and asking an art gallery employee, I was able to find out some good pinchos [tapas/little appetizer-type things] bars, as well as other good places to get acclimated with the nightlife that the city had to offer. Turns out that the places he suggested had REALLY good pinchos, and red wine to die for! Dishes typical in Burgos are morcilla [black pudding/blood pudding…which is basically blood from a pig, mixed with rice, and held together by sheep intestine! HAHA], and cojonudo [a small piece of bread, topped with a small fried egg, chorizo, and a pepper] and cojonuda [the same thing as cojonudo, but instead of chorizo, they use morcilla]. These pinchos bars had house wine, which cost about 2 euros/glass, and was the best red wine I had ever tasted! I’m not a big fan of red wine, however I am a big fan of trying new things, especially those typical to cities I visit, so I knew I couldn’t go wrong with a cheap glass of wine. Turned out to be wellllll worth my euros. So much so that I kept buying more! Haha. We later went to another pinchos bar, which served us REALLY good sautéed mushrooms, filled with bacon, and served with fresh bread. And when I say fresh, I mean FRESH [because most bread in restaurants or establishments in Madrid is hard as a rock…I’m talking wacking-on-the-table-and-leaving-a-dent type of hard]. We thoroughly enjoyed our selection of pinchos, and spent the rest of our night bar and club hopping.

We saved the next day [our last day] to view the Cathedral of Burgos, as well as other churches and landmarks relating to ‘El Cid’. I’ll tell ya, there’s nothing like European cathedrals! Granted, I frequently find myself saying, “Another cathedraaalll?!” in many of the cities I visit, but the fact of the matter is that each and every one of them offers so much history and delicate beauty that they need not be passed up. They are so extensive, and many look the same, but the differences I notice are the formations of ceilings, ceiling paintings, and my favorite, stained glass. This cathedral had a beautifully colored circular arrangement of glass near the front, which I adored! After seeing all that we felt necessary, we caught an evening bus and were able to make it back to our apartments before 10 pm.

Overall, it was a great little overnight trip, and it made me realize how much all the different cities in Spain have to offer. Visiting many Spanish cities was not a high-priority before, but the proof of how cost efficient and memorably/experientially valuable these trips can be definitely changed my mind! Although I didn’t get to take a longer trip to another country, I know I have plenty of time to do so in the future.