aventura – PigTailz

Kinga Haudek Artista Joyera, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Kinga Haudek Artista Joyera is one of my favorite stores in Santiago de Compostela. This small jewelry shop on rua San Pedro is located in the historic old town. The stone walls and dark wood window frames lend perfect contrast to her organic designs. You can imagine yourself in the same place, making the same purchase 200 years in the past.

When you walk in, you may find Kinga hard at work crafting something new. Everything is crafted by her hand in the store. Her name is the brand, and the moment you meet her you will understand why. Lost in focus, she always looks a little surprised and delighted to see visitors. Her smile will be warm and welcoming when she invites you into the store.

Kinga is Hungarian by birth and Galician by spirit. A brilliant academic, avid adventurer, and an artist by nature. She studied sociology in Hungary, silversmithing at the Mestre Mateo School of Art and Design, and obtained the official Galician Craftsman Certification. Her curious and intelligent nature shines through each piece and gives a brief glimpse of something she saw or felt on one of her many adventures. Kinga is a highly talented artist with designs inspired by elements of the city and the sea.

For photos of her work, I suggest visiting the website. I could not do justice to her creations. Instead, I will document the jewelry making class I attended with my daughter!

Kinga offers classes in her workshop to make some of the more simple pieces. The price of the course includes all of the supplies needed and a half day of instruction. Instruction is limited to groups of 3 people to insure a quality experience for everyone.

Our course began at 10:00 in the morning. She walked us through the process in both Spanish and English. I am not sure how many languages Kinga speaks, but the course is available in English, Spanish, Galician, and Hungarian for sure.

I was admittedly a bit converned when she handed me this little pieces of silver and told me I was expected to turn them into something beautiful on the first try. But hey… I´ll give it a try.

She told us how to properly hammer each piece. We all set to work at our own station. We had a variety of tools at our disposal and a varying weights of hammer.

We would hammer a bit and then heat them before returning to more hammering. I was a little nerrvous to use a torch for the first time, but it was much easier than I anticipated.

I was a bit too timid and struggled to properly align my strikes. Kinga came and lent a hand to put me in the right direction. She helped me to correct the curvature for a more symmetrical pair.

My daughter, on the other hand, was quite adept at this process and managed to complete hammering more quickly than anyone else. This is her gloating.

After a bit of hammering and heat and I was pretty excited to have these to show for my effort!

Once the earrings were shaped, we oxidized them with an acidic sulfur compound and took a short break while they soaked. Next, we learned to craft and solder the earring posts, trim and file the excess, and finally to polish them on her rotary buffer.

The end result was exciting. Each pair was unique even though we all started with identical pieces of silver, similar tools, and used the same methods.

We completed our earrings around 14:00. With a sense of accomplishment and pride in our artistic eneavors, we all posed together for a final class photo and had a little lunch at a restaurant down the street on Rua San Pedro.

I think my favorite part of this was the sense of pride my daughter took away from the activity. She came home and called our family back in the US to tell them what a great job she had done. It was funny listening when she did not know that I could hear her. ¨I was so good at hammering. I finished before everyone else. I was much better at it than Mom.¨

Would highly recommend this activity when visiting Santiago de Compostela. You would need to contact Kinga before planning the adventure to see which classes might be available and which weekends. But definitely something worth doing in Santiago.

Fervenza de Toxa, Galicia, Spain

Fervenza de Toxa is only a short drive from Santiago de Compostela. It was not a long hike day, but a couple of short scenic trails. It looked like there was more to see if I wanted to follow the river further out, but I did not go too far this day.

I started my adventure with the trail to the bottom of the falls. It had rained so much recently that the main falls were difficult to approach from the bottom. The rivers were full and the water was coming with such great force that it created a strong wind. The air was saturated with a mist that left visibility low. I could barely keep my eyes open in the wind and my phone was instantly soaked in my brief effort to take this photo. A great finale to the long summer drought that hit Spain the last year.

Following the path down the river, there was another smaller fall to see. I could get a lot closer here.

With the rains, the views along this path were pretty incredible. Everything felt so alive. It was fresh and green. Walking here feels a lot like stepping into the fairytales my grandmother used to read. I joke a lot about being careful to enter the abandoned houses because we don´t want to anger the brujas o hadas.

After this, I took the trail up the hill to see the views of the waterfalls from the top. I was amazed to find the views to be equally spectacular from this angle. I think the photos are better from the top, but my curiosity is better saatiated exploring the setas and fungi and helechos up close. If you visit, I think you really have to take both trails in this place.

This is the fervenza de Toxa from a distance. I hope to revisit this place in the summer when the water is lower so I can get the view from the bottom as well.

Mosteiro de Carboeiro, Galicia, Spain

The Mosteiro de Carboeiro is maybe one of the strangest places I have ever been. This twice abandoned monastery has strong Lovecraftian horror vibes. Located in the municipality of the Concello de Silleda, this is next level creepy.

Mosteiro de Carboeiro was founded around the year 936 by counts of Deza, Tareixa Eiriz and Gonzalo Betótez. The monastic house was reformed in 1171 and construction of the new Romanesque church began. Carboeiro was abandoned and the surrounding lands were put up for auction in 1836. There is more info on the website here.

The engravings around the door in the photo are influenced by the Pórtico da Gloria of the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. The images represent the the Elder Musicians of the Apocalypse.

Before entering the mosteiro, I went to buy the entrada. There was a woman working alone in a dark room. The room was very large, but everything was brought to a small triangle of light from the doorway. The light fixtures hanging behind the small desk were not in use. Around the corner everything was completely dark.

She explained that the renovations of the buildings had been made with the thought that the concello would run electricity to the buildings. In 1931, Carboiero was deemed a historic site, and in the 1990s the Xunta de Galicia began renovations to preserve the mosteiro. Lights had been installed during the 20 year renovation, but the project was abandoned before completion. She did not explain why. My best guess is that this is a cursed shrine to Dagon. But who knows.

After paying, I explored the courtyard. Remanants of the old stone fountains were strewn about and covered in moss.

Inside the church were exquisite roman arches. I had a laugh at how many lights were installed but not in use. But it was absolutely stunning.

And this is where things start to get weird. Paint from early frescoes appears to depict the outlines of giant, man-eating sea creatures and demonic eyes.

Oh… and the terrifying demonic symbolism? There´s more. On either side of the church is a door. Above each door, there is a symbol combining christian symbols with nautical or pagan symbols that are representative of the local culture.

A closer look at the doorways reveal this is actually a passage way to the shrine of Cthulu below.

If you are brave enough to pass through the archway, a narrow spiral stairway winds its way to the catacombs(?) below.

After returning up the stairway, I found the remains of Francisco sin Cara. I do not actually remember who the tomb belongs too, but the headless casket made me laugh a little in my belief this place is maybe a bit cursed.

My final piece of evidence that this is a cursed ritual site is a ponte do Demo… I mean seriously this is how they name the bridge near the mosteiro.

León, Spain

New Years Eve in León!

This is another layover city. I arrived late at night. It was dinner and then bed. The restaurant was nextdoor to the cathedral, so I snapped a quick night time photo on the way back to my hotel.

I began the next morning exactly where I left off.

After breakfast, I wandered for a bit of shopping. There was a bit of a feria or rastro in the morning. I enjoyed the colorful buildings. The architecture/street/design

There were a couple of really fun stores selling ceramics and art from local artists. My favorite shop of the trip was El Escribano. There were a number of historical replications, if you will. It was a mixed media art shop containing recreation of various historic imagery in every imaginable form. That is a lot of sentence in one sentence.

These are some of the various sculptures around the city. There is not so much consistency to the style which makes things more interesting.

Praia das Catedrais, Asturias, Spain

I have been dreaming of coming here since before Covid and decided this year I was coming for my birthday if it killed me. The cautionary tale comes first on this post. When arranging my travel, I was not aware that this beach is only visible a few hours each day at low tide. I was fortunate to meet someone willing to give me a ride home if I wanted to miss my train to see the stone cathedrals.

Happy birthday to me, I made it to see Praia das Catedrales!

I arrived late the evening before. There is a train from Santiago de Compostela to Ferrol and Ferrol to Catedrales. This is an unacceptably long train ride, but only about 4 hours by car.

In the morning I went down to the cliffs to go and see the beach… but there was only water! I was quite concerned that I had traveled to the wrong place. There was a big cafe next to the camper parking and I sat down to Google my next steps.

Google reassured me I was not mistaken. I learned from some other visitors about the tide. My train was leaving about 30 minutes after the low tide, so it would not give me much time to see anything. They offered to let me come back with them later in the afternoon. And I said yes. Of course I said yes. I did not even care if they murdered me in the back of the van if I finally got to visit!

Once low tide rolled around, I climbed down the stairs to the sandy beach below. The weather was wet and gray and cold. Which is great for photos without so many people in the way. My dad always comments about the lack of people in my photos. He says it must be lonely to always adventure alone. I don´t think he realizes how long I wait for people to get out of the way!

The beach is named for these alcoves and hollows in the rocks that resemble cathedrals. The stone features have been carved out by the strong tides in the Cantabrian Sea.

You can see how high the water rises with high tide by how high the barnacles are forming. The beach is inaccessible except for a brief window around low tide. And staying out can be dangerous as the tide rises quite quickly once it comes back. Apparently many tourists have been stranded in the smaller caves further along the beach.

There is a place where you actually have to climb over the wet rocks to see the landmarks you find in the online photos. This adventure might not be accessible with mobility issues. If you time it just right, and are okay being a little soggy, this is a fantastic trip. Just be sure to get out when the tide starts coming back up.

Just as I was leaving the beach, I saw a large tour bus arriving just in time to not see the beach. I felt really bad for anyone that paid for the trip only to miss seeing the beach by 45 minutes. I hope they got to enjoy some of the natural beauty of the place, even if they missed the main attraction.