I don’t know where to start while sitting down to write a blog post about studying abroad in Spain. My home across the ocean, I spent too much time there to write just one post. I’m also stuck because although I lived in Vigo for 5 months and feel I have too much to write, I have limited amount of photos or experiences to share. Vigo is not a tourist destination, so there’s not as much to do, and the majority of my time spent there was in class. A positive was that it really allowed for language immersion. Walking into a store or restaurant, workers often didn’t speak English or an English menu wasn’t available. This was rare for my experience in Western Europe.

Normally when I visit a new place for a few days, or a few weeks I’m running around constantly. I want to see everything I possibly can. But when I had a 5 month period, it felt like there was so much time to do everything. Up until the day before it was time to leave and I looked back and realized I missed out.

Weather

Vigo is located in the region Galicia, on the West coast of Spain, North of Portugal. In the winter, it rains nearly 24/7, and my umbrella broke within a week. I learned to embrace being wet; my notebooks were constantly damp, I could never tell if my clothes were dry after washing them, and even at school the buildings were always leaking. We were pretty miserable a majority of the winter, which was why during the first full rainy day once I was back in the US, I was shocked how nostalgic I felt for the cold, rainy days. It was necessary to take advantage of any day it wasn’t raining.

The summer was the exact opposite, with warm, sunny days. Unfortunately we only had nice weather for a few weeks before I was leaving to backpack through Europe. But we hopped to the beach and enjoyed what we could. Off the coast of Vigo are Las Islas Cíes, three nature preserved islands with hiking and camping opportunities. I didn’t have a chance to visit the islands before I left Vigo, so someday I’ll have to return to the city.

Day to Day Life

But beyond the weather, living in Vigo allowed me to fully embrace Spanish culture. We bought produce at the Fruterias, bread and pastries at the Panaderias, and we found our favorite places for tapas. We learned to navigate our days around siesta, the time of the day when every business closed, and adapted to eating supper between 9 pm and midnight. The discotecas (dance clubs) didn’t open until 4 am, and we were shocked to find that when we headed home at 6:30 or 7 am, people were still only showing up to start dancing. A 15 minute walk to the bus seemed short, and our legs stopped burning after a week or two from constantly climbing up and down the steep hills of the city.

The City

While later in life I moved to Boston, studying in Spain was my first experience living in a city relying on public transportation and walking. The city is extremely hilly, but the city center and downtown is compact and easy to navigate. Vigo was a traditional fishing village, and started to grown in the 19th century. The old town walls were torn down for expansion, and a lot of the architecture is quite modern-for Europe. Different parts of the city are all centered on plazas (praza in Gallego), usually containing a statue or fountain in the middle. Praza de España and Praza da Independencia were two of the major ones.

Housing

The university has dorms, but the main campus is located a 30-40 minute bus ride from the city center. Instead we all found apartments downtown. I lived on Brasil street, a clock up from a plaza. There were three small grocery stores in addition to a panaderia and fruteria in the plaza I lived in. I lived with two other exchange students. We had 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a small living room, kitchen, and a small washing machine outside of the kitchen on the covered porch.

Shopping

I didn’t do a lot of shopping while in Vigo as I was saving my money to travel. I stopped in the university store for a school sweatshirt and some school supplies. There was a large department store near our apartment on a main street. It was on the expensive side but easily accessible. It had most of anything we would need, including a grocery store on the bottom floor. One day we stopped at a mall. With the architecture and hills of the city, you could only see the top floor from the street.

Galicia also provided a regional culture and language. Galician (Galego) is a West Iberian romance language, that stemmed from Galician-Portuguese, otherwise known as Medieval Portuguese. In my experience, it seemed like a cross between Spanish and Portuguese. I enjoyed Galician regional foods such as pulbo á feira (octopus), licor café, and tarta de Santiago. In Galicia, instead of saying hasta luego, we said sta luego (see you later). This contrasted with Southern Spain where they said ta luego, shocking us.

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