Vamos a la playa oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

It's so nice to have visitors! One of my best friends from college and her husband stopped into town on their 10 day tour of Spain. Tired from their many communication struggles, and not realizing that in Spain you really don't have to leave a tip after they were leaving 20-25% tips everywhere, they were very happy to be in Santiago and ready to just hang out and relax. Luckily they had beautiful weather the entire trip, and even here in Galicia summer has officially arrived with about two weeks straight of hot sunny weather. Craving relaxation and the beach we headed to A Coruña on their last day. We took the bus, a 6.90 euro trip from Santiago (one-way), and arrived in the city sunny, green, and with surprisingly uber friendly citizens who kept wishing us a wonderful day and to enjoy the city. A Coruña is most famous for the Torre de Hercules a Roman lighthouse that sits on it's coast...quite a lovely place. But mis amigos were tired of sight seeing, so we headed to the city beach-Riazor. Walking a quick paseo past street performers and rebajas from the plaza de Maria Pita, we started to see heavy fog funneling into the streets...and in the close beyond that was supposed to be the beach-a thick, cold cloud. We decided to stick it out, and go to the beach-which we didn't realize was just down some stairs from where we were-seriously visibilty was terrible. Surprisingly, the beach was full. We could hear the Atlantic in the distance, so we decided to act Coruñes and start "sunbathing". Well, there was some magic to it (Galicia's weather is a bit unpredictable), because less than an hour later, the fog started to lift, and the city that surrounds the beach appeared like a cartoon image and the ocean was suddenly huge before us...and before we knew it, there was no empty spot of sand and we were slathering on the sunscreen like no one's business. It turned out to be a perfect day and a perfect ending to their first trip to Spain. Gotta love the city beach.