We had a great introduction to Spain from our wonderful SERVAS hosts Juan and Anouk. They took us to see a number of awesome sights in their delightful home town of San Sebastian. We went up a super steep funicular and at the top we got to go on bumper cars! Our host also took us along a boardwalk to see an amazing art piece called Wind Comb by Eduardo Chillida that incorporated the natural power of the ocean’s waves. The art piece had some weird metal combs that came off the rocks along with about five blow holes that went into the ground, there were big waves that day and every wave smashed against the rocks and got channeled into the blow holes and came shooting up into the air.
Mom, dad, Juan Mia and I went to a school to give a presentation on our travels. The kids were really friendly and after the presentation we went out side to play a really fun game of tag. The students made us awesome t-shirts with the Canadian and Basque flags on them.
After saying good bye to Anouk and Juan we went to the town of Burgos. While we were there we stayed in an awesome four star hotel that used to be Juan’s school! We also had an awesome cathedral right across the bridge in front of our hotel. The Burgos Cathedral is huge, it has a gold staircase a gigantic chandelier and lots and lots of crosses. Spain’s evening meals are quite small, they often eat Pinchos. I love Pinchos, they usually consist of a meat sandwich or a small circle of meats, sausages and salads. My favorite Pincho was an open sandwich with crème cheese and smoked salmon very plain, very greasy yet very good.
I got a good look at my very first roman aqueduct in the town Segovia, now that is an amazing structure! It looks like it goes on forever, I took lots of pictures with my ipod (I got a really cool photography app that has lots of cool settings for taking pictures). We also went to Silos where we herd beautiful Gregorian chanting by the monks of the Silos monastery.
Well that’s it for this write up, till next week
Ruben !
Mia writes:
It has been a more than a week since I last wrote.
We took a boat from Portsmouth England to Santander Spain from there we took a bus to San Sebastian. We met our wonderful Servas hosts Juan and Anouk and set about exploring the city. In Spain there is a small meal called Tapas which the Spanish often have for their supper, it is small because their main meal is eaten at lunch. Tapas is mostly little sandwiches that consist of all manner of veggies meats and breads, all in a artful bite size morsels. In San Sebastian they are famous for their Tapas and they refer to them as Pinchos.
Juan took us to a school in San Sebastian where we did a presentation on our travels and home.
The children were so welcoming and so kind they even gave us t-shirts that had the flag of the Basque country and of Canada. They played traditional music and we danced. After the presentation we played a really fun game of tag and sang happy birthday to one of the students. We really enjoyed visiting the school and had a fantastic time. They were such friendly kids that I hope one day to meet some of them again.
Juan and Anouk took us to a fishing village just outside the city. We took a little water taxi that goes back and forth across the bay to the village. Juan and Anouk showed us around and took us on a little hike to an extraordinary point overlooking the ocean. We had a peek at a restaurant that had the sea food it was selling in a hole in the floor filled that went straight down to sea water. You could pick the fish you wanted as you watched them swim around. We went to a fish shop to get some fish for lunch but the fish man there did not have the fish we wanted because that type of fish is so easily caught and people get them on own. We went down to the docks to see if we could get fish from someone there. Just as we came to the docks we saw a man who was carrying a cooler, he ended up having the very fish we wanted fish and he generously gave us six fish at no cost! This was quite special! In the end we had a delicious fresh fish lunch.
We rented a car and visited the beautiful city of Burgos. Here they had a fantastic museum of evolution there was so much to learn and see that we we ended up visiting it twice. From Burgos we carried on until we arrived at Santo Domingo de Silos where we visited a beautiful monastery. The monastery inspired me to paint as it was so pretty. The monks that practice there are famous for their Gregorian chanting and we were able to visit during a service and hear them sing.
We continued on and then walked the Medieval wall in Avilla . We then made our way to Segovia. In Segovia there is a castle that looks like it is out of a fairy tale. Walt Disney supposedly drew inspiration from this castle for his movie Sleeping Beauty. Before making our way to Portugal we visited one last exceptionally beautiful city and that was Salamenca. In Salamenca we saw a Roman aqueduct that stretched for miles without using even a drop of mortar!
Your traveling student,
Mia st.k Gregg
