Travel isn’t always pretty. Despite its seductive Galician location, Vigo has a face only a mother could love. This scruffy, often crumbling port city is not what you imagine Spain to be. The fishing and canning industries  brought development, but often with little to no thought of aesthetics. In the 1980’s and 90’s with trafficked drugs flooding through Galicia, Vigo reached its lowest point. Its small, historic old town, left as a painful wreck – a haven for addiction and prostitution.  

But we cannot change our past. Today Vigo is striding forward. Large regeneration projects are underway throughout the city and the bland uniform grey of yesteryears is being transformed by colorful art projects. This battered ugly duckling has survived, and is roaring back.