A Coruña Travel Story
I’m in Galicia, Spain. In the northern part of the country. The people here are called “Gallegos”… pronounced Ga-Yay-Gous. This is where my great grandparents came from… specifically Lugo. They speak a Galician dialect which is a mix between Spanish and Portuguese… and it is funny how I can make it out most of the time.
The stores close for the most part at 1:30pm for siesta and reopen at 3:30 pm or 5pm and stay open late. The restaurants and pubs come to life at 7 or 8 pm, and really get good around 9pm… people will stay out until 1 or 2 am. Young and old…and the food, the wine, and the vegetables are amazing! Organic is a way of life here… it has always been in Europe.
My friend Anamaria and I drove from Monforte de Lemos in Lugo to A Coruña. The roads in Spain are wonderfully easy to drive. It is a beautiful city in the most northeastern coast of Spain and very near Portugal. The vibe here is great! It’s a perfect fusion of the old and the newer, high-end stores and everyday shopping, pubs and bars, quaint homey restaurants and modern slick establishments, charming narrow alleys and wide airy boulevards.
We went in search of a little street pub named “Cocodrilo”. This place is a staple in this part of Spain. If you grew up here…Cocodrilo is part of your story. We found ourselves sitting at a rustic high table right on the alleyway (which we were amazingly lucky to get) and ordered two Cocodrilos and two Mahou beers. It turns out that Cocodrilo is a skewer of “patatas fritas and solomillo” which is potato chip French fries and a thin sirloin steak.
I was lucky to hit upon the famous Malecón just in time to see a spectacular sunset. The Malecón is a very generously wide walkway that runs all along the beach coast to the east. I strolled slowly while watching the people playing beach fútbol or trying to catch the last rays of sun.
This wonderful city-town sports a large park that runs along the side of the Marina and it’s where you will see perhaps a concert or art event; or where you will just sit on a bench read a book or just soak in the atmosphere.
As I sat there enjoying my ice cream (strawberry and torta de queso flavor, yummy), I realized that this place feels like home to me.
