Segovia

I can’t believe I’ve only been here about 5 days. It seems much longer.  I’m finally somewhat settled in though, as I now have a PHONE so I can actually CALL HOME.  It was quite a fiasco trying to acquire it, involving passports and getting a bit lost trying to walk home from the store that was 2 blocks away.  It’s been a stressful week, for sure!  Hopefully next week will go more smoothly.

Yesterday our host mom made us paella for comida! It was SO GOOD.  She made it with chicken, sausage, and I think at least four different types of seafood, including shrimp… the kind that still have the eyes and antennae on.  I made myself get past the creepiness and tried to eat it like Carmen showed us how, but I made a big mess and got saffron stains all over my fingers.  The clams in it were good, as was the rice and peppers and, well, everything.

Last night I explored Puerta del Sol with Abby (Loyola friend/roommate) and Rachel (Madrid housemate). 

We went in a few shops, bought some things (I bought a scarf, a necklace, and a converter), and found a place to get some dinner after much wandering down many different streets.  We settled on a cervecería and I ordered Fanta de limón (Lemon Fanta. Delish.) and a fried calamari sandwich.  When we ordered our drinks they gave us little plates of food.  One was of chuletas, which is basically the fatty reject parts of the ham that have been fried and covered in salt. It was… interesting.  But now I can say I’ve tried it.  The other was French fries covered in this sauce that looked like ketchup but was actually extremely spicy and not ketchupy at all.  The calamari sandwich was pretty good, but after I ate it I felt a bit blah.  After dinner we decided to go to the Plaza Mayor, which took lots of touristy looking at the map and thinking we were lost. In fact, the Plaza Mayor is right next to the Puerta del Sol, as long as you choose the right street!  It was so cold outside, so after we found the Plaza, we decided to call it a night, especially as we had to get up early the next morning for the IES trip to Segovia.

I began the day by waking in a panic at 7:50 AM because my phone’s alarm, which was set and turned on, didn’t go off.  We scarfed a piece of toast each and booked it to the metro, luckily arriving at the IES center on time.  The buses left about 15 minutes later for Segovia.  The ride there was about an hour long, and during this time I enjoyed the scenery through the bus window.  There were fields and mountains and shrubs everywhere, and cows around every turn.  We drove up into the mountains and were soon surrounded by fog and frost.  We saw a massive cross atop one mountain and Abby pointed out that it was the tomb of Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain during and after the Spanish Civil War. I recognized it from the documentary I watched last year in my Spanish Lit class. He had ordered the construction of his own tomb years before he died. Below the cross was a marble edifice carved into the mountain, inside of which Franco was buried.

Franco's tomb

The first thing we saw of Segovia was the famous aqueduct.  It was huge, I’m not sure how many feet tall, and 2000 years old.  The Romans really did know how to build things to last.

Did I mention it was COLD? I mean freezing.  I was in my peacoat and scarf and I was shaking.  Everyone was.  I had been all prepared to brag about how warm it was in Madrid, feeling like spring and all, to everyone in the arctic wasteland that is Chicago, but I couldn’t really do that today.  We went on a little walking tour and then had about 15 minutes of free time during which Abby and I looked at some shops.  One thing I’ve noticed since I got to Spain: EVERYTHING is on sale. Rebajas por todas partes.  I didn’t buy anything (nor did I all day, in fact!) and after that we headed up to the Alcázar.  Which is this big castle built hundreds and hundreds of years ago which Walt Disney based Cinderella Castle on.  Ferdinand and Isabel, “Los Reyes Catolicos,” lived there, and the inside has a really cool mix of Christian and Moorish art, as well as multiple suits of armor, weapons, and a creepy painting of a child with black holes for eyes.  O_O

House with cool facade

Alcazar de Segovia

Once we finished our tour we headed down a VERY steep hill on a dirt path.  Bit scary, really.  We headed next to a very old Roman church in a field next to the hill where the Alcázar is located.  Aside from being super old and architecturally significant, it wasn’t super exciting, but cool to see.

What WAS exciting was lunch.  We took buses to another town where this restaurant, El Rancho, was located.  Here we were served a 4-course meal over the span of two and a half hours.  We ate roasted red peppers, tortilla de patata (kind of like a potato omelette but not really…), pan tomaca (which appears to be the Spanish version of bruschetta), croquetas, and this AMAZING roasted chicken that had this great crispy skin and just fell off the bone and smelled and tasted heavenly.  Because this apparently wasn’t enough food to hold us for a week, they served us a sort of pastry for dessert.  We also had coffee that came in tiny cups.

Pollo asado

Dessert

Mostly everyone slept on the bus back.  It dropped us off at the main metro station, I took it back to my house, and plopped myself down on the bed where I’ve been pretty much since then.  I’ve decided not to go out tonight and instead use this time to talk to people in America and catch up on sleep.

Buenas noches!