"Agrupación Deportiva Fogar da Xuventude nace e legalízase en Carballo no ano 1988 como unha entidade privada deportiva, social e cultural."
I knew that was not Spanish, but I could read it, so it must be close. Portuguese?
No, the Portuguese word for "youth" is
juventude,
Catalan? No, it doesn't look like Catalan.
One of the Iberian languages that are often labeled "dialects: Asturian, Valencian, Aragonese?
Turns out that it's Galician, a "dialect" that is actually closer to Portuguese than Spanish, 80% mutually intelligible.
I want to sleep in your bed tonight.
Galician: Quero durmir na túa cama esta noite
Portuguese: Eu quero dormir na sua cama a noite
Galician is spoken by 2.1 million people in the northwest corner of Spain, a poor region, its people stereotyped as backwards, even barbaric, like the hillbillies in the U.S.
So imagine Galician as Appalachian English.
Other than the infinite number of swimmers and triathlon competitors at the AD Fogar, the main tourist draw in Galicia is Santiago de Compostela, a famous pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages with a marvelously ornate Gothic cathedral.
You can still attend Pilgrim Masses several times a day. They are held in Galician, Spanish, French, German, English, and Polish, but not Latin.
Santiago de Compostela also has a water polo team.
And some bulgeworthy cyclists.
The biggest city in Galicia is La Coruna, a port and industrial center. Its main tourist draw is the Tower of Hercules, the oldest intact Roman tower in Spain.
Plus some semi-pro boxers.
Pontevedra has banned automobiles in the city limits. The results are a pedestrian paradise. It's easily the most beautiful city in Galicia, with an excellent museum displaying Galician and Spanish art from the middle ages to the present.
And, of course, there's a water polo team.
