Lovely Leon

After a five hour bus ride from Madrid we finally arrived in Leon after a long evening and morning of travelling. Katrina met us at the bus station and took us back to her apartment to shower, make some Sangria and get ready to go out to the festival that was on in Leon to celebrate their patron Saint. The city is absolutely stunning. Beautiful old, colourful buildings, all the balconies lined with bright flowers, cobblestone streets lined with tapas bars and relaxed, happy Spanish people. Just the perfect picture of a traditional Spanish city. We went down to the river to meet up with Mum and Dad and then to the festival where all along the river were stalls set up selling all kinds of South American food. There was music and dancing, everything smelt amazing! We stopped at an Argentinian BBQ and shared platters of different meats and vegetables - delicious!  It was such a vibrant and exciting atmosphere. We then moved onto the fair where all the rides were. We tried churros which is a delicious pastry with sugar and you dip it in rich hot chocolate sauce and then get to drink the left over chocolate. Katrina then took us to a few bars to meet all her friends and we enjoyed a fantastic night dancing, speaking Spanglish and enjoyed the lively Leon nightlife.

In Leon it is tradition to get free tapas with your wine. There are a large number of little tapas bars all in the same area in a social centre of Leon where everyone goes most nights to meet for tapas and drinks with their friends. Each tapas bar is famous for one dish, so it is traditional to have a wine and a plate of tapas at one bar and then move on to the next. The tapas and the wine is absolutely delicious. Some of the tapas we enjoyed included potatoes with blue cheese sauce, jamos (ham) and other meats with bread, squid, mushrooms with potato and cream and morcilla which is essentially blood mixed with herbs and spices...this was surprisingly definitely one of the favourites! Spanish food is so full of flavour, each dish was mouth watering. Both nights we did tapas we changed bars about five or six times, it's definitely difficult to call it a night when everywhere smells so good! The atmosphere is very lively and happy, everyone around us involved in expressive and animated Spanish conversations and lively Spanish music in the background. The staff were very forgiving of our Spanglish when Katrina wasn't there :)

Another great thing about Leon is that they never really get tourists. Katrina said whenever she heard someone speaking English outside the exchange student program it sounded out of place and was very rare! The only tourists they really get are the pilgrims walking the Camino in the summer months. The Camino is the pilgrimage walk from France and ends in Santagio. You can do as much of it as you like, but the full pilgrimage takes about four weeks if you only have one or two days rest. It's very intense! But would be absolutely amazing to do, something I might try and aim for one day! Leon is the last stop before Santiago, so we saw quite a few of the pilgrims travelling through. Traditionally you shout out Bien Camino! to the pilgrims as they are passing so we definitely got into that!

During the days we just explored the city. The Cathedral was a central point, and where Katrina said everyone would always meet regardless of what they were doing. It was a stunning building both in the day and the night time and quite haunting inside. I find that religious building such as cathedrals, and particularly in Europe are so eye opening to what religion is to so much of human life - the dedication people have to it and the power it holds. It's a truly overwhelming experience standing inside cathedrals such as the one in Leon. We explored all the little streets and ate Menu del dia (Menu of the Day) for lunch which is a set menu where you choose one option from Group A and one option from Group B and then wine or water and dessert. A definite highlight was the potatoes in soup and the beef. Just so full of flavour!

All in all I thought Leon was absolutely stunning and such a fun, relaxed and exciting Spanish city. I am so jealous of my sister Katrina who got to spend a year there! Looking forward to travelling up North with the family to see more of the untouched, traditional towns of Spain.