“Well….I guess this is downtown”
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Boyfriend and I tried multiple times to go to La Boqueria in Barcelona, and every time we went, it was closed. On our second to last trip to the market, we did not eat anything before so we could eat our fill at the market. Unfortunately, it was a Catalonia holiday and so it was yet again closed.
We decided to go to restaurant in the square as we were starving. While we waited for our food, we decided to book our next travel. Using my phone (thank you T-Mobile for global data), we looked up options for the next leg of our travel. We had initially planned on going to San Sebastian, but there was only an overnight bus and Boyfriend did not want to do that.
Next option was going to Porto or Lisbon in Portugal. We really wanted to be in Portugal the next Saturday to see the Sporting Portugal vs. FC Porto game, so we looked at options for Porto.
I was shocked. There were flights for 40 euros for one person. So cheap! How could we pass up this option! So we hastily bought our tickets and were satisfied that we found a great option.
Fast forward to the Monday we were leaving Barcelona to Porto. I looked into checking in and was confused.
VGO? What airport was VGO? I thought we were going to Porto.
Turns out I accidentally bought tickets to Vigo as it was cheapest option getting to the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The app I was using, “Go Euro”, apparently only provided the CLOSEST option to where you were intending to go and then filtered on price/duration. Boyfriend and I wasted ~1-2 hrs sitting at a cafe in Barcelona trying to fix my error. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to work out. Changing tickets would cost an additional 100 euros total + the cost of the BCN-> Porto flight (which was 200 euros total).
So we went to Vigo.
We landed into Vigo around 10 pm and took a taxi to our airbnb. Our airbnb host let us in promptly and highlighted areas of interest in Vigo on this paper map. The man spoke completely in Spanish, and Boyfriend and I did a pretty good job of understanding him and responding with answers/questions. Success!
After checkin, Boyfriend and I went to explore downtown.
Vigo is a bay city on the western side of Spain. It is 3 hr bus ride north of Porto. It is supposedly the 14th biggest city in Spain. It is much colder than Barcelona. And much foggier. The entire city is on a hill.
We walked down to the water, which is pretty much straight downhill. We walked around looking for a bar or somewhere that served food. After wandering for some time, we found a bar that served wine and had a soccer game on. So we sat and ordered a bottle of wine and watched the game. The bar was so gracious/nice that they gave us a plate of cheese, jamon, and bread as well. This was perfect because i made this my dinner for the evening.
After drinking some glasses and eating some snacks, we decided to go back to our airbnb. We walked past a random bar that had some good music on, so we went in. Here is where we had the weirdest drink ever, it was a beer/tequila mix. It was bitter, yet sweet. It was such an interesting drink. This place too gave us snacks (yum!)
The next morning, we woke up early and got ready to eat and head out. From the kitchen window of our airbnb, we had an excellent view of the bay, as well as the fog. It was magnificent and reminded me so much of SF bay. We walked down the hill, at which one point we were along a giant ridge and a great view of the bay. We had breakfast by the water and walked around the main area of the city.
Then, we walked to the bus station and got to a bus to Porto
Tips on Vigo
- It’s a a pretty small city that’s on a giant hill. It’ll take about 15 mins to get anywhere down the hill, but add ~10 mins to go back up the hill
- The bars are really quant and provide snacks for every drink you buy. One bar gave us jamon and bread, another gave us homemade chips. It’s really dependent on where you go
- The fresh seafood is available on the waterfront after 11 am.
- Check the flight destination before you purchase the tickets, especially if the prices are too good to believe
Alisha Explores 