Santiago de Ceni in 24 hours — with Xoán del Alcázar
In partnership with the Cenian Football Association to promote the upcoming Di Bradini Cup domestically, Wanderlust has decided to feature several players' perspectives on their favourite cities in Ceni. In this first installment, we hand over the reins to Xoán del Alcázar, who plays as a striker for the Cenian under 21 team.
My name is Xoán, and I'm happy to take your readers on a tour of Santiago de Ceni!
A few of you may be wondering how I got my name. "Xoán" is not Faroleran, but from a similar language called Finisterran. It's just their equivalent of the name Juan, but my parents wanted me to have a more unusual name. And an "alcázar" is just a word for a specific type of castle which apparently originates from all our ancestors back in Endemia. Unfortunately, I've never seen one in person.
The publication and our manager, Andrew Arrowsword, asked us to write about one city or neighborhood that is really meaningful to us. Although I've played in Lexington for the past couple of years, I grew up in Santiago, and it's definitely my home.
So with that out of the way, let's start our day in my favourite place in Ceni!
If I'm not making myself coffee at home, I like to eat out at
El Jardín Secreto, which is hidden behind an old Spanish-style wall with ivy and vines hanging over it. But when you knock on the blue pastel door, you enter a verdant garden covered in the branches of trees and with beautiful flowers all around you. There, you can have a Santiago de Ceni classic breakfast: a cafe bombón with tejeringos. They are so good together: the sweetened condensed milk goes really great with espresso, and the tejeringos have a nice, chewy texture, which is lightened by the powdered sugar on top.
I might then spend a few hours at the
Castillo de San Vicente, the old fort overlooking the harbor. Named after the Saint's Day when Valladar explorers reached this corner of Ceni, the castle was built to defend the city against pirates and the occasional kraken that might surface to wreak havoc on ships close to shore. Since the main atrium is outside, I don't like to spend a lot of time here when it gets hot, but then again, the tunnels and storerooms underneath the main fort are cool — in more ways than one! I remember vividly scampering around those tunnels as a little kid.
After the fort, explore Santiago's old town, which has so many colorful rowhouses. You've already walked uphill to get to the fort, so everything is all downhill from here, fortunately. Before you get to lunch, stop by
"La Iglesia Verde". It has a real name, but I can't remember it for the life of me. Besides, nobody I know calls it by its real name, anyway. It gets its nickname because it's... well, green! Lots of ivy likes to grow along the walls here, and I have absolutely no clue why.
For lunch, head towards the promenade — or
malecón, in Faroleran — to survey the vast variety of street vendors hawking their wares. You can get lots of stuff here: choripanes (chorizo sausage in a hot dog bun), freshly grilled fish that was literally caught this morning, the Cenian classic of fish and chips, or more "boring" Euran food like hamburgers and their ilk. Personally, I prefer to get empanadillas — little empanadas — and cod fritters, which we call bacalaoitos here.
After a delicious lunch on the malecón, continue strolling down the seaside area. To your left, gawk at the sunbathers, beachgoers, and kite-fliers on the popular beach; to your right, enjoy the trellises that have a variety of plants hanging down them. One of the reasons why I like Santiago so much is the greenery; I kind of miss that in Lexington, which is more urbanized.
We're headed towards the Taurendil Institute, which hosts the Tomás Hernández Academy where a lot of my teammates here at the Di Bradini Cup play. But before we get there, let's head into the uniquely designed
Centro Cultural María Belén Sastre, named after a famous author who wrote about life in Santiago during Cenian unification. Its circular motifs remind many people of a snail, so lots of people call it "El Caracol". They have a small cafe (so you can have another cafe bombon if you already missed its sweet, milky deliciousness), a library, a bookshop, a performance space, and a rooftop terrace to enjoy the sea breeze. Today, I'm watching a flamenco performance. It isn't a distinctly Cenian cultural production, but the dancers are still amazing, and I had fun regardless.
Finally, we reach the
Taurendil Institute. Frankly, it's not the biggest tourist attraction out there, but if you like Colonial Revival architecture mixed with lots and lots of glass, this university is for you. (And, I guess if you're a fan of either the Taurendil Tigers in NSCAA or the Academy team, you'll be quite familiar with this campus as well.)
For dinner, let's take the tram back into Old Town for one of my favourite restaurants:
El Carnicero de Santiago. No, it's not a butcher of people; it's just a restaurant where they serve lots and lots of meat dishes, from delicate veal milanesas to hunks of lamb chops to the finest steaks (imported from Electrum and New Gelderland, of course). It's really emblematic of the cuisine up here, which features a lot of meat despite the decided lack of pastures in Ceni.
If you want a good time as dusk settles in, then I recommend
Club Solo in the business district, which is another quick tram ride away. In the daytime, the business district appears slow except for rush hour because there aren't as many tourists crawling around. But at night, the modern, gleaming portion of town transforms into the nightlife hub of Northern Ceni as DJs encourage you to dance the night away with reggaeton, salsa, cumbia, and other beats. But I certainly wouldn't recommend spending too much time there the eve of any important football match...
Well, that's it from me — catch me in the upcoming Di Bradini Cup in Valanora in our trademark red and orange bench tracksuits, and go Tir Snakes!