Beginnings in Ribeira

Last week my friend Jesus met me in Santiago de Compostela to help me go apartment hunting in Ribeira. Now a little bit about my friend, he’s Valencian, an excellent companion on trips, honest,a bit maleducado some times, and does not speak a lick of English.  Truth be told, he makes any trip interesting.

La rata voladora según Jesus 

Jesus met me at the bus station in Santiago and we got ready to go and explore the town I’d be at for the next two years.  The  bus ride was a lot longer than it should have been.  It was supposed to be two hours but it seemed that we bumped into every bit of traffic that we could possibly encounter.  The trip ended up taking about three hours.   As we passed each town we kept  remarking at all their beauty until we got to one town and we both said “Uff que feo” without realizing that it was Ribeira.   Ribeira is a town of about 14,000 people sitting right on the river bank.  It’s the main fishing port of Galicia and I believe it is the most important port that Galicia has. After remarking about how hideous Ribeira was, we hopped on the bus and embarked on finding the hostel.  Jesus and I lugged my luggage up a hill which seemed to be the longest walk in my life (it’s amazing how adding 60lbs to any trek makes it take forever).  When my friend and I checked in, the woman asked us if we wanted the married couple’s room.  I am not sure what gave this lady the impression that my friend and I were married, but neither of us were wearing a ring.  We quickly declined and asked for a room with two beds.  We arrived in the room and relaxed for a bit before heading out to get lunch.

This church was our main reference point for traveling around the town. 

For lunch we went to a place and ordered the Menú del dia.  I had no idea, but the norm in Spain is to order a 3-course meal with lunch and dinner.   These 3-course meals normally include free wine and tonic water with bread.  And the best part, it’s dirt cheap.  For the first course I had potaje, which was awesome.  Potaje is essentially a chickpea soup with different types of meat and fatback in it.  Later on I found out that there are multiple types of potaje, and I cannot wait to try them all.  The serving was rather generous and  it was unbelievably delicious.  For the second course I had paella de marisco.  This is essentially seafood rice dish that is very rich and was loaded with saffron.   After eating both these dishes with a bit of bread and wine, I could not manage any desserts for the third course.  The Menú del dia was dirt cheap too.  It was 10 euros a person but the owner knocked it down to 9 per person because we didn’t eat dessert. The owner of the restaurant was a friendly man, he started telling jokes with us and goofing off.

Look at how gorgeous this landscape is. It's stunning. 

This is a view from the shore

After eating this large amount of food, my friend and I went wandering around the city to start looking for apartments.   Which was its own adventure in its own right. We soon discovered that although Ribeira is not the prettiest city with the most stuff to do, it is full of pleasant people with the most beautiful landscape.  Everyone from the hostel clerks to random people on the street were very pleasant to us and helped us navigate the town.   

This is another view looking back on the town from another part of the coast. 

My next post will be about my interesting experience with trying to find a place to live.