Long Overdue All About Lugo,and our Stay with Anne and Simon

I was really surprised we've liked Spain (by Spain I really mean just Galica...the rest of Spain we saw looks too much like the ugly parts of west Texas) as much as we did, considering it wasn't even on our original itinerary.

This area of Spain has/had strong Celtic and Roman influences, so there are a lot of undercurrents in the culture the subtly remind us of home. That may sound a bit ostentatious, but one of the most celebrated heritages in the states is the Irish and you need only walk around any downtown area in America to see how much the Romans have influenced us. The folk music is great, they even play the bagpipes here; look and sound a bit different but still very reminiscent of the bagpipes we're familiar with.

Don't worry though guys, we still have too far to go to call anywhere other then Austin home.

Anne and Simon gave us a lot of great ideas and starting points for researching and eventually constructing our own (warning preachy buzzwords to follow) eco-friendly house, and living in a more organic sustainable way. When it comes down to it, we each have different ideas about what's most important, and the environment you live in certainly plays a factor, but there is a lot more we all can be doing to leave a smaller footprint.

Something else that really contributes to the atmosphere of the Area is the Camino, aka Pilgrim Route. Most of you guys know where I stand on organized religion, especially Catholicism, so you may find it odd that I count something like a pilgrim route as a bonus. Really it boils down to the same thing it always does with me, the people. You throw the bureaucratic bullshit and the “establishment” out the window and you get good honest people trying to do right. The positive energy the people walking the pilgrim routes brings to the area is palpable. One of our last days with Anne and Simon we went with them to meet another local former Brit and to see some properties they has an interest in. We meet him outside one of the monasteries on the Camino route and after seeing the properties he invited us to lunch at his place. He's restoring an old farmhouse/barn as well, and it sits literally right on the Camino route. He says he has 100-200 people walking past his door daily. Now I make some concessions to the loveliness of his house to the fact he's also a great painter and has certainly applied an artists touch to the renovation work, but the FEEL of the place is something truly unique. You step in the door...hell just look at his gorgeous geraniums for awhile and you cant help but feel lifted up.

Some cool stuff we found here that I wanted to buy lots of but couldn't due to the fact we're carrying everything we own:

You've all seen and probably know someone who collects blue and white pottery, with Asian or English designs being the most popular. These designs are usually to frilly for me, buuuut they make this stuff here in Galicia that uses traditional Celtic knot work and designs. Trying to find a link or images on the net but not having any luck.

Something else I came across is this clothing company, there were a few pieces in local shop that would be perfect for flipside etc. Unfortunately their website kinda stinks.

www.hunchha.net

Ok I know i'm leaving some stuff out but I still have a Santiago post to write before we catch our flight to Rome.

As usual, still working on the pictures

written by  Slade's Elucidation on July 29, 2008 from Lugo, Spain
from the travel blog: Slade's Elucidation
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