travel pitstop: galicia, spain -Life on Pine

when we were researching flights from berlin to portugal, we noticed it was actually much cheaper to fly to spain and take the train south over the border. kyle ended up finding a cool little surf town not too far from the airport, so we ended up booking one night at this airbnb // surf hostel. after a bus and a bus and a taxi to get there, we realized this might not have been that easy of a "pit stop" en route to portugal. but regardless, i'm so happy we ended up here. when we got settled in, it was clear arteixo wasn't on the usual backpacker trail which is always a fun experience.

after our first day we were already asking fernando, the awesome owner of the hostel / surf camp, if we could stay for another night. luckily he had availability. the town was so cozy and cute with a very strong community vibe. fernando brought us fresh bread in the morning and let us use his surf and SUP boards plus wetsuits at the pristine beach a block away. the waves weren't big enough to surf while we were there, but kp was sold on the potential when the conditions are right. the local restaurants were cheap, delicious and overall just felt home-y. we indulged in the local galician delight – pulpo – aka octopus, sipped 1 euro glasses of wine, and tuned in for the olympics (en español!) on our first evening. the next day was spent beachside again followed by cooking dinner in our cute little kitchen.

we also stopped by costa da morte surf club, another surf hostel up the hill where they offer "surfing, SUPing and skating". we hung out on their lawn while drinking beer, chatting with locals and other visitors while watching the guys take turns on the halfpipe. i think i would have liked to stay here a little bit longer ...