Islas Cíes - Best Nature Place Ever

Las islas Cíes, Natural Park, are situated very close to the city of Vigo, in the Northwest of Spain.

If you like nature and beaches, you will find in the Cíes a paradise to discover. Its big amount of nature and its heavenly beaches are incredible, and even the journal The Guardian chose the Rodas beach, which is there, as the Best Beach in the World in 2007. There are some nude beaches there too, I think.

If all the area where the Cíes are situated are a diamond to discover, Galicia, all its coastline of the Cantabrian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, this zone has one of the richest marine ecosystems. 

This archipelago is only equipped with a restaurant and a camping, admitting a maximum of 2.200 people per day. It is typical that tourists go there in the summer, and camp there. 

People arrive there by boat, there are some shipping companies that make some trips per day and in the summer, it is better to book in advance. If you are lucky and you have your own boat, you can go in it. 

I like the sea, and the islas Cíes are whitout any doubt, one of those magic places which I would recommend everybody to visit, at least once in their life. However, I am not a big fan of nature, nor of the sun, there the sun hits hard, and you can get burned easily. Furthermore, during the night, it is rather freezing... Fortunately I visited this place 3 years ago, with my classmates, they spent there seven days, but I only spent two days and one night, and I won't have to go back there again. I don't like nature, or too much sun, or sleeping in a campsite, eating in a campsite, having showers in a campsite... doing everything in a campsite...

But I know there are many people who really enjoy that kind of tourism, so I will list some useful links for you, if you decide to visit this paradise:

-Camping:  click here
-Boats to get there: click here  and click here



Have you visited the Cíes? Would you like to go there? Have you ever gone camping? Did I make it clear that this is a good place with many nice things to see, except for me?

Me as a Londoner

The first days I set foot in London, a year ago, I became a bit stressed....

Take your shoes off! Take your shoes off! You can bring bacteria from the outside, who knows what kind of illnesses it can bring... Those were the first words of my host family, when I went to London  last summer for 3 weeks, with a scholarship.

My landlady... was an Iranian woman, quite obsessed, who asked me to open the bathroom window five minutes before taking a shower and to close it 15 minutes later, and if I didn't follow those rules... burglars could come in.

Those were the beginning of a long list of rules...fortunately I am quite peaceful, and I managed to suck up to her...:) and furthermore, when 10 days later, a stunning Russian woman came home, she was so guilty of everything, that I became quite invisible, thank God for bringing me calm (and thanks Helen, for coming and introducing me to the marvellous world of "Shellac" for the nails, unfortunately I still haven't put Shellac on my nails, because I find it quite expensive...).

                                           Photo by tomylees @ flickr, license: cc by-nc-sa

I booked accommodation in a host family in zone 4 because it was the cheapest one I found, I had received a scholarship but they didn't give me much money, however, since the tube went through there, I though it wouldn't be so far... 

Reality was quite different. I lived in... Sudbury Hill,(more information here) a place in the very OUTSKIRTS of London, where there are many many many Indian people, that Iranian woman of my host-family and me and the Russian woman, in that moment.

                                             Photo by dgeezer @ flickr, license: cc by-nc-nd


This picture is quite similar to the first day I arrived there, it was raining, and I was alone... in... London???!!!! I asked myself... where is that circus of Picadilly so famous??!!

Fortunately, with a lot of luck, I managed arrive to that house, asking people from there, who were quite polite, and met that special woman... and her family.



Every day, I took the tube to go to the centre of London, it took me an hour to arrive there, imagine, 1 hour!! when we arrived to Kensington - or was it Knightsbridge? - I started to like keeping sitting in the tube.... but before... I was bored from so much time there, all the time watching so many people... from Sudbury hill...

Those are some pics I took those days, as you can imagine, there were many people, I don't know if it was because of the Olympics, or because London is a crowded place... but I discovered I don't like shopping, when in Oxford street, all women are so crazy to go to Primark.... I can't understand why all tourists are there, if there is Primark everywhere in their cities...

This place, Trafalgar square, was my favourite, I usually went there, to sit down, see tourists, relax, take some pictures, speak with some people there...what I love from the British is that they are quite talkative.

                                                    An interesting place, Covent Garden.

In this place, Canary Wharf... The rich people who went there for the Olympics, had their boats there... so I decided to go there because I love seeing luxury ships (I'd  love to see the inside of one) unfortunately nobody told me that if I was interested they would show them to me.

In London I learned something I never thought I could learn, and it was taking the tube on my own! The first days, I kept my mind thinking and thinking, and I was quite admired by how well they got their bearings, because I had always the same question, how can I know if I have to take the tube in this direction, or in the opposite side?

Thanks to a young sweet boy, who saw my lost face, I asked him why all people knew that, and he gave me the key of the story: you just have to see the posters which say "Eastbound" "Westbound" and know the meaning of those words. And just with that....taking the tube was easy for me!!!!!! Thanks sweet Londoner boy so much.

There are a few things I should write about, that I consider they are necessary you to know, if you will visit London at some point:

-You can use the tube for a long time, and remain single: One of the things more exciting for me, was to use the underground! However, that myth of knowing the boy of your dreams because he will see you in the tube and will start a conversation with you... it is a fake.. or at least, didn't happen to me...

-In London, the milk kills the microwave: If you have always lived in the country, as me, surrounded by cows, if your host family says to you "you can't warm up the milk in the microwave, if you do it, the milk, which is fresh, will spoil, and the microwave too" the first time I thought I didn't understand well because my English was quite rusty... the second time, I realised that I had no arguments to refute that.

-Leaflets about different religion everywhere: If you don't end up with a big amount of leaflets about religions you haven't been to London, and furthermore, the people who give you the leaflets are so so kind and they treat you as if you were such a beautiful and nice person, like a best friend! If they ask you about your religion, don't get offended, they don't consider it as a very personal question. Sorry but I had to throw them all away because if I didn't I would have to pay a good amount of money because I would surpass the maximum luggage weight.

-Churches are to have fun: The construction workers who took lunch seating in All Souls Church (in Regent Street) are all so so so blond and handsome. And they gave me free water every day (people from the Church, not the workers.... unfortunately).

-Chinatown is always the solution: If you want to eat well in London, without having to sell a kidney, go to Chinatown and eat in some non-Chinese restaurant (I discovered a Thai restaurant there which I really really loved!!).

-It is good you to know who is Usain Bolt: I realised that if you visit London in the Olympics and you don't know who Usain Bolt is, your friends will envy you a lot.

-Zone 1 is better than 2, this one better than 3 and this one better than 4: Which means that if you can be hosted in Picadilly Circus, don't choose others...

                                                          Regent Park

I am sure London has many things to discover and it is a city that in the beginning I didn't like at all... and in the end... I came back thinking it has something special, and I'd like to go back! London rocks, and I like the way British people are... In that time, I had the chance of visiting Brighton twice (I wrote about it in the first post of this blog).



Have you ever visited London? Is it one of your favourite cities, as it is of many people?
What do you think about the British? Have you ever lost a microwave to heating milk?

La Dolce Vita with Italian people

Today I won't write about a city or a place I like or I don't. I want to warn people who are planning to visit Italy, a very touristic country in the summer, about how Italians are!

First of all, Italians are, above all, a bit snooty, they all are very worried about their physical appearance, so they usually go to the gym. I have never met an Italian who didn't go to the gym, although to be honest, I've never been to Italy, and I just met two Italians in a disco once... and a girl in London from Naples, we used to go to Primark together every afternoon after English classes, she wanted to buy clothes, and I didn't want to go home early in order not to have to see my host-family...

                                                               (by Sovxx)

Italians are so worried about their appearance, that they spend a lot of money on clothes and on their cars, maybe they don't spend a lot on other things, which I consider more important (I am quite strange) like food, or the house. That is a very positive point, because everybody I talk with who visited Italy has said to me that they are so so handsome and so so good looking, men and women, both, because they always wear high heels, and very fashionable clothes. Everybody is pretty there.

Italian men know how to get round women: they have such a nice smile, and their accent is so hot. They are men who have plenty of women around. And they are proud of it.

Furthermore, it is said that they are quite male chauvinist, about this point, I really have no idea, but it is said by many people, so I trust it. But they are very polite and know how to treat a woman. That was said to me...

Italians never arrive on time, you will always have to wait for them. So, I recommend you to eat an Italian ice-cream, maybe the best ice-creams of the world?

However, there are big differences between people from the south, who are more talkative and sociable, and the north, who are... I don't know, maybe more influenced by Germany and Switzerland, serious countries, unlike the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain).

If somebody disagrees with my opinion, you only have to see the ex prime-minister, Berlusconi, who achieved many beautiful and young women, not for his money or for his power....but also for his Italian personality and his friendliness. He might be the prototype of the Italian man.

In short, I have never been to Italy, it seems like a country with many cities to visit. But as in my city, there are plenty of Italians with the University program "Erasmus", I just wanted to talk about them a bit, and wish my friends from class, who will go with this program to Milan next course, to study hard, I mean, to live la dolce vita, that they meet many Italians, and I can have a more serious opinion about them...

But what I can't avoid thinking is.... how can Italians have so beautiful surnames? They usually end in -i and they are so nice... maybe this is the secret why they are so lucky with girls....women are just looking for a nice surname for their babies... It is a reasonable possibility.

Do you advise me to visit this country? What part of Italy?  Have you ever met an Italian person privately? Which are your favourite italian ice-creams?

It is not raining in Santiago. Santiago is crying.

Santiago de Compostela is a city in the North-West of Spain, quite famous because of "the way of Santiago", throgh it, thousands of pilgrims come to Santiago every year, some of them for religious reasons and others just to live the experience. The most famous of the ways is the French way and even people who arrive to Santiago, decide to finish the way in Finisterre (which was supposed to be the "end of the world" in the Middle Ages).

Finisterre, by amaianos.

by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez

Aall through the way there are those symbols of Santiago and you have to keep following them, when you arrive to Santiago, they give you "la compostelana", a certificate that shows you have done the way.

by Dietmar Giljohann

The Scallop shell is the symbol of several Ways of St. James.

I arrived to Santiago five years ago, when I started University, Santiago has a quite big University, and as it is a small city, during the course, it has a quite big culture and University life. This charming city has involved me, and has made me like it every year even more.

by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez

The Cathedral of Santiago is the most famous monument, during the Middle Ages, Santiago was the main pligrimage destination for Christians, along with Rome and Mecca for the Muslims. Even during that period of time, so many people came that they only could stay there for a maximum of three days.



Santiago is quite small, but it has plenty of nice places to visit like the "alameda" a big tree-lined park in the centre, the Cathedral, the old town, with its narrow streets and its typical shops of traditional food (the cake of Santiago is very very tasty!).

by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez

The University of Santiago has 2 campuses in the city, the South Campus, also called the Campus Vida ( Life Campus) and the North Campus (I ask myself if the South Campus is called Life-Campus, is the North-Campus the Dead-Campus?

by Ansoutvi

If I have chosen this city to study it is because it is the nearest to my home, and therefore, the cheapest. I am happy studying there. Some people, complain, that in Santiago it rains a lot in winter, but even that is an advantage for me...furthermore, the bad weather is good to keep concentrated and studying!.


There is a famous film, called "The Way" the main actor is Martin Sheen, and it is dedicated to his grandfather, who was born in Santiago. I recommend everybody who is interested in this issue to watch it! He has said that the way starts being a physical experience and ends being something spiritual.

Have you been to Santiago? Has anybody told you that the way changed their life? Would you do the Camino de Santiago?

25 of July is the big day of Santiago, and all the Area, Galicia, with several days of events and parties everywhere. However, this year, has been devastated because of a tragic accident, a train derailment has left at least 80 dead. I have no words to express how much sadness we all are feeling, when something is so close to you, it is a shock.

Vancouver

Hello everybody! 
I am writing today about a city that is very special for me, that I had the opportunity of visiting when I was 18 for a month, and although it was not the most fun and enjoyable trip for me, I really think this was one of my top five beautiful places I've ever been, and will be, forever, and ever, it will be in a corner of my heart.

This is Vancouver... a seaside city in the west coast of Canada, with a quite soft weather in summer for my surprise. And I dare say, this is the city, by far, where I have seen so many many expensive cars... I never know when a car is expensive, but my friend who likes cars and those things, was all the time telling me about the price, he was delighted, so we took so many pictures with them...I don't know why, since, I have always loved more using public transport, I am such a cosmopolitan person... and I ask myself if those owners of the cars would astonish if they saw how  the Renault 18 of my parents at that time with a door which didn't open from inside, and the other door, from the outside...

Vancouver  is such a nice city to visit and I suppose, even more to live, its public transport is so good, Canadian people...what to say about Canadian people? they are so perfect people, so nice, so polite, so handsome, so blond and so tall... yummy, yummy.

I have been seeing in the last years that Vancouver is always in the top 2 or 3 cities with the best quality of life....and when I visited it, I even didn't know that those lists existed, and I thought it, every moment.

Vancouver is a beautiful, stunning, city where you can breathe quite fresh air, because it has a lot of nature around and in there, some big parks like Stanley park (absolutely relaxing and nice) or Pacific Spirit Regional Park. It is very common that you see many different animals there... what Canada has, which is impressive, it is its amount of nature... I am not a person who loves the country... but I just got astonished with that incredible mixture of city and nature...

As the majority of the most pleasant cities, it has some nice beaches, the most famous probably is English Bay.

In short, I think I am writing about a city which I would recommend everybody to visit not only for its beauty, but also for its nature, for its warm and peaceful atmosphere, for its people...

I felt so fortunate that I could have visited that city. I wish one day I'll  go back to Canada.

Nowadays, five years after that trip, I feel I didn't exploit as much as I should my time there... maybe because I was very young.
I didn't go out there, and I didn't visit the outskirts of that place, or the city well.

So, please, tell me, Have you ever been to Vancouver? Are there any discos and pubs to go out? Do you know if a car is cheap or expensive without looking at the driver's clothes?






(The pictures don't make it justice).

Jeju

Have you ever been to Jeju?
Jeju is an island of South Korea, quite famous in Asia.

It is a small island with many luxurious hotels and it is quite common that rich people go there in their honeymoon.

Who decides to go there, will keep in touch with nature and know the atmosphere of Korean life and its culture.

To get into Jeju, first you have to go to Seoul, and then to Jeju by plane. Taxis drivers... well...they don't know much English, and furthermore they don't know the place... and you have to keep holding well to the car... because they move quickly... but they have a mysterious and robotic voice which tells them how to get to the place and with a bit of luck, in the end, you arrive there.

Furthermore, they have a lot of oranges there, and they are very proud of their oranges.

In short, Jeju can be an interesting place if you like nature and not crowded places, a different and new destination to discover for many people, and it is in South Korea, which is always an advantage, with such advanced technology and furthermore, Korean women are very beautiful, and Korean people, like all Asian people, are very cute and polite...which is lovely. I feel quite identified with their personality... 

Would you like to visit Jeju? Have you tasted their oranges? Have you ever met a rude Asian person?

The Riviera Maya

La Riviera Maya is the main holiday destination in these days for many people, and I can't understand why.


I often keep my mind thinking, once in a blue moon, and I ask myself, what the fuck are people doing there? Where the only thing they have is too many hotels and too many tourists.

People go there to "have fun in the beach" (that is surprising, and doesn't have any scientific explanation, since the majority who say that are Spaniards... as if they hadn't seen the sea in their life...), but they even can't enjoy the beaches at all, because the majority of these people go to a luxurious hotel complex, almost without being able to go out of it... or even without the "almost".

And furthermore, what makes me laugh the most, is that they wanna go there to RELAX hahahahaha, of course!!!! the best place to relax is without any doubt the trip which is chosen by all University students in their graduation trips, and so many couples in their honeymoon... students crazy for becoming drunk and sweet couples of recent marriages... so nice company... it must suit a lot.

But there is even more! Some greedy people who dare say they want to visit the Riviera Maya to know the authentic Mexico, the Profundo Mexico, because, of course, the culture and the Mexican costumes are clearly shown by those so many Mexicans who are in the Riviera...These people are those who want to go to Disneyland Paris to know la France, too...

It is clearly that I wouldn't like to go there, a place where you will only meet drunk young Spaniards... Spaniards who have so many beaches at hand, might need the necessity of enjoying artificial beaches or luxurious swimming pools in hotels... 




What do you think about La Riviera? Is it your dream to go on your honeymoon there? Did I become crazy for not going there for my graduation trip?