I hope to put up pictures in the next day or two.
Day 20
Saturday July 18th: Today we went to Segovia. We took a bus about an hour an 20 minutes North Of Madrid. When we arrived we walked about five minutes past the statue of the guy who invented cochinillo, which is roast suckling pig, to the aqua duct. He said that if you couldn’t slice it with the edge of a plate it wasn’t tender enough. He is holding a plate:
The aqua duct was very cool. Left over from roman times it is still standing without cement or mortar of any kind. You can even see the holes in the sides of the stones where they were picked up by some sort of crane system. I really wanted to climb it just because it looked like it might be fun, but I didn’t. We took the stairs to the top and were able to look out over the city of Segovia which was a pretty sweet view. Pictures:
From the aqua duct we walked to the cathedral of Segovia, which is the most prominent building in the city. Easily the tallest, and probably on the very top of the hill that Segovia is built on. We weren’t able to take pictures inside but the outside I can show you.
It was amazing. There was a wedding about to start in one of the side rooms where mass is held every week (or more often I’m not sure), which got me thinking about how crazy it would be to get married in this gigantic cathedral that is hundreds of years old, at an alter that is covered with enough gold to pay for the wedding ten times over. We ventured into the courtyard where I was able to take a couple pictures (since I was outside) of the stone work and the bell tower.
After we left the cathedral we hit up a vantage point overlooking the countryside surrounding Segovia, that was near the alcazar, which is the Arabic word for fortress according to fodor’s travel guide. This particular alcazar was the inspiration behind the castle that shows up at the beginning of every Disney movie with the star over it. Also, a very cool place to see. Here is the outside:
My camera started to die and so I didn’t’ take many pictures, but I got a few, including the thrones used by Ferdinand and Isabella.
Yes, they were the ones who Columbus bothered enough to let him sail to America. We got to see some cool suits of armor (that I didn’t take a picture of, but Nate did so I’ll get his pictures at some point). After a quick tour through the bottom floors of the castle we headed towards the tower. Which is the square section at the front of the building in the pictures of the outside. Also, it had a moat, many feet (or I should say meters) below. The tower could only be reached by a very tight spiral staircase. I had to pass some people on the way up and it got a little tight. However, once at the top I got some very cool pictures of the countryside and the city itself. Including one of La Mujer Muerta, which in translated the dead woman. This is really just a silhouette of a woman lying down that can be seen in the nearby mountains:
and the moat:
After we left the alcazar four of us and a random German girl that John had made friends with (she wasn’t with the school, but knew someone so was able to go with us), headed toward the nearest restaurant that served cochinillo. Before we got there we stopped to watch a newly wed couple (from the wedding that I mentioned earlier) walk to their car and hae rice thrown on them. I was surprised that they still used rice. It is Europe I guess. We found the restaurant pretty quickly. They had a menu del dia, that included a serving of Paella, cochinilla, and flan, of which I had never tasted. The Paella, as always in this country was excellent. The cochinillo was amazing.
It was super tender, and juicy, and I wonder how they pull it off. The flan was, interesting. It had a strange texture to it that I couldn’t quite place, and I expected it to be warm, which it wasn’t, except for one bite. The meal was overall amazing, I just wish that we had been able to take more time to enjoy it. We had to meet the bus at 3:45 and we finished the meal at 3:35 and it was a 5-10 minute walk back. Then half way there I discovered that I left, my ISIC, Taylor ID, and IN Driver’s License sitting on the table with my credit card. As soon as I figured it out I handed my bag to someone in the group and started sprinting for my life back towards the restaurant, hoping beyond hope that it was still there. I got there and as I arrived I checked my pockets one last time just to be sure so I didn’t bother them unnecessarily, and lo and behold, it was in my back pocket slipped in my map. I felt pretty dumb. But I still had to make it back to the meeting point in about 5 minutes on a wonderfully full stomach. I did so but it didn’t fell great. I was just happy that I am not as out of shape as I thought I was, and that I didn’t lose three forms of identification and a credit card in a foreign country. I even beat my professor back to the meet point, and only missed the group by about “10 seconds.” We took the bus home and the other two guys in the apartment with me thought they heard our host mom say that she was going to be gone for dinner tonight and tomorrow for breakfast and lunch, so on the way home they purchased a couple frozen pizzas for dinner. We tried to turn the stove on and it wouldn’t work. So the logical thing to do is obviously pull it out from the wall right? I was ready to forget it and figure out a different way to get dinner, but they couldn’t be dissuaded. They pulled it out and it was unplugged, so they switched the plug with the washer that is right next to it and put everything back the way it was and turned on the oven. Also, Dan had come home with us and was luckily in the back room, when our host mom shows up. She doesn’t like us to have visitors. I stay with Dan figuring that I can stall if she comes back so she doesn’t yell at him while she goes into the kitchen only to see the oven on and heating. She flipped out. Completely, I’m not sure exactly what she said, but it was something along the lines of don’t touch that, the American girls that were here before you started a fire in the apartment and everything was black in the kitchen. Our conclusion is that first the girls that stayed here before were idiots. We have heard stories of them breaking things and getting drunk and being loud all the time. So we are pretty sure that she thinks we are the same way. So Reed goes to put the oven back the way it was and she flipped out again understandably. We told her we would fix it and that it would be fine and finally got her calmed down and assured her that we wouldn’t touch it again. All this time, dan is hiding under a bed in the back room hoping that she doesn’t come in and turn on a light (they aren’t the biggest beds ever. As in I reach both ends of the bed with a good 6 inches of my feet sticking out the end.). She unloads the washer and hangs the clothes up the dry. We then gave her a table clothe that Reed had purchased in Segovia for her. She loved it and kept saying “gracias, Por que?” And, “que chicos este” which roughly translates to, thank you, why?, and “what boys are these” roughly. The entire thing was really funny once we were able to take a step out of it after she left to go make dinner, but in the situation I was doing my very best to smooth things over, for some reason I’m the favorite, and I don’t quite know why. Dinner was paella and pollo, while we talked to Valentin about his haircut and what we did today. The rest of the night holds emails and sleep hopefully.
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