The old A Coruña

Today started with a social experiment. About twenty teenagers had to come up with plans for the day, find at least three other people, since we have to be in groups of at least four, who also wanted to do the same thing and then keep track of those people. Some people decided to add a challenge to the experiment by changing their minds at least one time, but finally, around ten o’clock, everyone had left the boat and there were only a few people who had to run back and get stuff they had forgotten.

Me and eight of my classmates started our day out by walking to the old part of the city, but we did take a detour via a café that served churros on the way there. In Cidade Vella, which is the spanish name for the old town, we saw an old roman church and noted that there was little to no consistency in how the roads were laid and how the houses were built. Today’s city planners would get a heart attack from the lack of neatly lined rows of evenly high houses, not to mention the roads that changed angle and direction like the Atlantic changes its weather. The area had a few small green areas which were filled with green grass, bushes and small trees. We smelled lavender and laughed when some of us posed so that the giant hanging flowers on the trees looked like hats and then we kept going.

We reached plaza de Maria Pita, a town square, named after the woman who fought against the English to defend A Coruña and took pictures with the impressive buildings and bought souvenirs. Then we started heading for the real goal of our day, Torre de Hercules, the world's oldest, still functioning, lighthouse. The many shops that lined the street we walked on did however cause some distraction, but we made it through and when we reached the beach we saw the top of the light house.

The clock had ticked away to lunchtime though, so we split up in two groups, one that wanted seafood and one that wanted something that was not seafood. I went with the seafood group since I’ve been really looking forward to trying octopus tentacles. We found a nice place a few blocks from the lighthouse and I finally got to order pulpo a la gallega, fried octopus with baked potatoes. Octopus really was something out of the ordinary, the inside of the tentacles were thick and chewy and the consistency reminded me a bit of crayfish, while the outer part was a bit jiggly and I really cannot compare it to any other food. Two of my friends ate shrimp with what I thought looked like gray thick spaghetti, but it was actually tiny eels.

The seafood here is really cheap compared to back home, so you really want to try everything, but at the same time you are a biology student who constantly hears about overfishing so it is a pleasure that leaves you with a tiny bit of guilt. But that is a topic for another time.

We went to the lighthouse after our lunch and made it just in time for the last entering of the tower. Torre de Hercules is an impressive building especially considering how old it is. It was built by the Romans around 100 A.D. and was originally a lot wider, but after over one and a half thousand years of decay, it was re-designed and renovated in the 1800s into the slimmer shape it is today. Inside the tower you could really see who built what. The romans stones were smaller, rougher and puzzled together without a clear pattern, while the renovators used big rectangular blocks that were carefully placed in even rows atop each other. I really understand why the building is protected by UNESCO because you could really feel the history inside it. The tower has been more than just a landmark throughout the years and all sorts of people have been to it. For example we learned that we were about a thousand years behind the first Scandinavians, the vikings, who reached the city, but on the other hand I think we are more welcome here than they were.

We spent the last bit of our afternoon on the beach in the sun watching how the waves created huge splashes, that was caused by the tide and then, when it got colder, we went to buy something to eat. That turned out to be a bit more of a task since it was a sunday, but we found a grocery store and bought the things we wanted, before going back to the boat.

So to quote the rapper Ice cube, “Today was a good day!”

Anna Engström, Starboard