7 Countries in 30 days. Step 17: La Coruña (Spain)

We leave the hostel at 7 am, to abandon Porto with the train which will bring us in Spain again, to La Coruña. I realize, watching the city flowing away to leave space to the hills, that my journey is almost finished. Another couple of days moving and I’ll be on the airplane for coming back home. The hours of train to Vigo, and from here to La Coruña, pass alternating sleep and thoughts about how much this experience gave me the way to compare with myself, turning out even more beautiful than how I imagined.

In La Coruña we’re welcomed by Diego who, how Giacomo immediately suggest to me, is a double of Goofy. The reincarnation of the Disney character bring us to his home with his old Peugeot 206 and this last night of Couchsurfing seems in the run-in standard: day bed in the living room, complete freedom of entrance and exit from the house, complete disposability by our host.

The crystal city: so it was called this city of Galicia by who in the past, coming by ship, found themselves in front of the big windows which cover the corridors before the facades of the houses, created to maintain the heat in this impervious place. By now, I saw the ocean from a lot of points of view, but to think to be on the extreme tip of the peninsula is even more impressive. The ancient bastion, former prison which stands on the little promontory, is imposing; the pimientos del padròn, are delicious. Tapas of Galicia are really more abundant of pintxos of Basque Country. This city maybe is not fantastic, but it has something special: it pushes me to dream, to imagine travels over the boundless sea which surround it.

Diego leaves us the house keys on the following morning, so that, after our tour, we can go back to take our luggages before to depart, leaving the keys in the mailbox while he’s at work. After a month of Couchsurfing I still surprise about the confidence of people. We walk along the coast, discovering the peatonal longer promenade in Europe. The big tiled pavement follows snaking the twisted and jagged coast, separating te houses from the golden beach and the dark rocks. On the extreme tip the most ancient working lighthouse in the world attracts the interest of tourists, while my friend and me are content to lose ourselves in small talk watching the sea.

The last bath in the ocean, we do it in a really little and busy beach, making way through the people. I will miss this icy water which, in contrast with the dry heat of air, wake each torpor. An improvised sandwich with spicy chorizo and a can of warm beer, and we’re ready to go toward our last step: Barcelona. 15 hours in night train are waiting for us, but this time we have very first class recliners, so we expect to relax more that last times. Cards, music and crosswords are by now our standard pastimes before to sleep, along with any kind of speeches, which make the friendship, in the travel, stronger.

Andrea Cuminatto

READ HERE THE STEP N°1: Munich (Germany)

READ HERE THE STEP N°2: Bayreuth (Germany)

READ HERE THE STEP N°3: Bruxelles (Belgium)

READ HERE THE STEP N°4: Bruges (Belgium)

READ HERE THE STEP N°5: Antwerp (Belgium)

READ HERE THE STEP N°6: Delft (Netherlands)

READ HERE THE STEP N°7: Rotterdam (Netherlands)

READ HERE THE STEP N°8: Amsterdam (Netherlands)

READ HERE THE STEP N°9: Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

READ HERE THE STEP N°10: Marseille (France) 

READ HERE THE STEP N°11: San Sebastian (Spain)

READ HERE THE STEP N°12: Guernica, Bermeo, Mundaka, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe (Spain)

READ HERE THE STEP N°13: Bilbao (Spain)

READ HERE THE STEP N°14: Lisbon (Portugal)

READ HERE THE STEP N°15: Ericeira, Obidos, Figueira da Foz, Coimbra (Portugal)

READ HERE THE STEP N°16: Porto (Portugal)