Oh summer, where art thee?

Yesterday I was putting together photos for this post when, in one of my breaks, I stopped by Blue LaReve. We're entering the beginning of the end of summer, she says. What?

Realizing that made me sad, even though her words are beautiful, and yes, it's true.

I'm always excited for a new season to come. Everything changes (at least here where I blog from). The nature, the smell in the air, the light, the clothes, people's faces and moods... but where is summer?? What happened to the hot days? They come and go, and never really stay. (hot days during labour days don't count as such, not for me they don't, period.)

I want to take the car and drive to the beach on sunday, just because its hot and we need to refresh... And start the evening with a beer and a plate of prawns or snails (if your giving me that look over the snails, well, you just need to come to Portugal) on a terrace bar as the sun goes down over the horizon...

Two weeks ago we wanted to do that. It was our first anniversary and we felt like we really needed for a bit of honeymooning. The summery ones, with hot days, long beach baths, short clothes, fresh drinks and lots of ice cream.

Need I say we had none of that?

Instead we had rain and cloudy sky the whole time. And an immense sea looking at us underneath the mist. After driving 400 km... Oh summer, where art thee? Not in A Coruña. (and this was supposed to be our second honeymoon!) Well, I guess we're just not lucky this year...

So, no sun, no beach. Let us do what we like when we go to a new place. Walk. Walk the large and the tiny streets, the crowded and the quiet ones. Admire the architecture, the old and the contemporary buildings. Breath in the culture, sit at a terrace having a drink, and relish how life goes by in that place. And taste local food, of course, local delights...

 

Definitely, these were not the vacations we've planned, but we loved every minute of it. Galicia is a beautiful spanish region, with an impressive shore made of bays, estuaries and capes, that create fantastic beaches (even thought we haven't had the chance to try them...). The old city of A Coruña itself is placed on a peninsula with the sea surrounding it. At one side you have the marina and the harbor, at the other you have the beach bay.

"Feira das Marabillas", the medieval fair that happens there every year in July

I personally love the antique galician buildings, with those white balconies.

football fans at the Riazor (the stadium was a disappointment, but photographically I had a blast!)
and the water fall at the Opera house

There are plenty of things to see, I assure you. But if you're not a city kind of person you can always take a drive along the shore and you'll find beautiful pueblos, with lovely beaches and small harbors as well as small typical restaurants, facing the sea, serving delightful fresh fish and sea food.

Oh, and did we ever got to see the sun? Hell, yes! In both of the trips from and back home. No, I'm not joking, this is just how lucky we are. Next week we're driving south for a few days at the Algarve (Portugal most famous beach area), wish us luck!! I'm not ready to let go of summer yet.

**

all photos by me

except for this last one, taken by a sweet spanish girl, who offered herself to take us a picture and ended up taking 5!
if by any fortune's chance you happen to cross this, thank you!