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A Short Spanish Quiz from Portomarin

Day 13: Total distance 10kms. Total descent: 316m
Weather: Clear and hot. Temperature: 28+

The countryside in this part of Spain is quite similar to New Zealand – rolling hills, lots of ferns and pine trees, and it is green. Even at the end of summer you can see that Galicia gets plenty of rain. As we walked towards Portomarin we could see that the whole valley and town was shrouded in mist – just like being in the Waikato! Portomarin was rebuilt in the 60s because they built a dam down-river and the old town was flooded. You can still see evidence of the old town as you walk across the new bridge. They did see fit to move the church however, and it was rebuilt brick by brick – you can still see the numbers carved into the bricks from when they did this. A Spanish man who was doing his third Camino (one by bike, two on foot) with his 76 year-old mother, who we met at the albergue at Ferreiros, wrote a note to us in the visitors’ book in the church challenging us to find out how many bricks were in the church building. We had to give up on this challenge as the walls appeared to be double or triple bricked, but we estimated at least 14,000 stone bricks per wall.

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As we walked, we discussed some of the ways in which Spain is different to New Zealand… at least our experience of walking in rural Spain (which we are sure is quite different to life in the big cities like Madrid!). Here is a short quiz for you. Answers tomorrow – another chocolate fish up for grabs to whoever can answer these all correctly!:-)

1. When entering an albergue once you have your allocated bed, you should:
a) open the windows and shutters wide
b) close the windows and shutters
c) don’t touch the windows or shutters at all

2. When parking your vehicle behind another on the street, you should:
a) leave at least a metre to allow the other vehicle to easily drive away
b) park about 10cm away from the other vehicle and don’t worry about how the other car will exit.
c) park at least a meter our from the kerb so you block the road

3. In Spain, the best place to store food stuffs long term is:
a) in the pantry in the kitchen
b) in a brick or wooden storehouse two metres above the ground
c) buried in a hole in the ground

4. In September the sun will rise about:
a) 5am
b) 8am
c) the sun never sets

5. When you stop after an hour’s walking you will change:
a) your direction
b) your socks
c) your mind

6. You will follow:
a) the guidebook
b) painted arrows and a variety of shells
c) road signs

7. At the end of the day, you should put your shoes:
a) neatly under your bunk 
b) outside the bunkroom on a rack 
c) you shouldn’t take off your shoes, someone might steal them!

8. You will eat:
a) pavlova
b) empanada, pasta, olives, bread and chorizo
c) Chinese takeaways

9. You will meet:
a) elegant women in high-heeled shoes
b) normal-looking folks who appear to have not walked to their corner store in a long time, but in the past three weeks they’ve walked 700km
c) lots of children

10. When entering a hospital waiting room in Spain you should:
a) sit down quietly and wait for your turn
b) walk into the room and greet everyone with loud “Hola”
c) talk loudly to your friends and ignore everyone else



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2 responses to “A Short Spanish Quiz from Portomarin”

  1. Nova says:

    Well #4 is a ‘have you been paying attention to the blog?’ question.. there was a photo of you all rugged up against the cold (gloved or not!) and it was definitely dark then.. I *think* you said you were on the road at 7.45am..??!

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