Santiago de Compostela, Spain:

As it happens, the big winner of my personal travel lotery was Santiago de Compostela. I’d wanted to see Galicia, which due to its location in the extreme northwest of Spain looks way more like Ireland than it does Spain. Even better, there really are traces of Galica’s Celtic past everywhere, from the language to the random Celtic music. The historical fact I like best about Santiago is that it is the world’s oldest tourist destination – people have been coming here continuously for 1200 years, back when most people never made it out of their village. How cool is that? The route (OK, pilgramage) even inspired the world’s first guidebook back in 1130. And all this because someone decided that (a) St. James came to Spain, (b) his bones miraculously came to Galicia after he was killed in Jerusalem, and (c) the remains were found 750 years later. Good job, guys.

Yesterday was a travel day as I had to transfer trains in Madrid. It was my first time getting away from the ocean in 7 weeks, which was strange, I hadn’t realized how accustomed I’d become to sea are. As we rode into the Extremadura I watched as the landscape change from Northern California to Colorado to Nebraska and back. While I can’t wait to get back to Madrid to check out the city, the land here is far more beautiful. Rolling hills, morning mist, and trees trees trees. I got into the train station at 7:20 and walked down the empty streets in the dark into the old town. By the time I had meandered my way to the cathedral, the sun and the city’s people had both risen and the day was starting to bussle with activity. Here’s to a new day, in every sense.