Santander

Santander lies on the northern coast of Spain, on the Atlantic Ocean. It's known for it's beautiful sandy beachs, rocky costline, cliffs, and, at times, dreary weather. The plan this weekend was to be outdoorsy, and we were able to do just that.

We explored most of the coast, up to a sweet lighthouse hanging on one of the cliffs. The waves crash harder there...makes me miss the Atlantic just a little. There's also a large castle on an opposite cliff which was built for an English King in the 1800s...this helped spark tourism to the city.

We went climbing Thursday evening at a local bridge. We met up with 4 other Spaniards who were also scaling the 50ft bridge side. Other than a top-rope, we were clinging to small mortar holes and rock overhangs on the side of this bridge. I haven't climbed like that in years. My roommate Jose also climbs, so the next free weekend we'll make our way around Barcelona to do so. After climbing, we met up with Roger's ultimate frisbee team for some night sessions. I've never played ultimate frisbee, nor was I ever a huge fan, but I had a lot of fun, and met some cool people. About 2/3 of the folks were Spaniards, with the remainder being American Auxiliares (similar to the Fulbright English Teachers, Auxiliares are from all over the world and teach language to schoolkids in Spain).

Friday we set out on an excursion to a pueblo outside the city. There's a 150ft freestanding rock formation in the ocean that we want to work our way up to climb. It's pretty sick, but I don't think I can complete it in one piece. After exploring a small cave by the water, we made our way back to meet up with some of our friends from Madrid who made their way up. Friday night turned out to be awesome. I ran into 10 people I met at orientation and spent the night out with them. A light night led to an early morning plane back to Barcelona...