Night Time In Valencia

When the show had finished everyone piled into the street and made their way to their own respective places, and me and Cassi and Missy and Paige decided to walk over to the falla that we wanted to see burn so that we would be sure to get front row seats! So we got there around 8:30 or 9 because we were thinking that we would need to be there early to get front row and what not, so we chilled at our falla of choice for a really, really long time. And during this time, we really began to worry about this. I mean, here we are about 20 feet or so away from this big statute thing, which is in the middle of a residential area and tall buildings, and they are going to set it on fire. Who thought that placing a large burnable object in the middle of the city and buildings, placing people close to it, and then lighting it on fire was a good idea?! But good idea or not, we were ready for whatever cam e our way! We thought that we had the prime spot, but then we were moved because they were going to burn another one that was a little ways down the street. So after practically pushing us out of our spot, we walked around and found another group of people from our group who had been waiting on the other side of the falla. So we sat there with them until around 11:30 when once again we were pushed from our spot and into the streets where they were setting up the barriers. The good thing about the spot that we chose, though, is that was where they chose to make the cut off, so we were right in the front row! It was rumored that the burning was going to start at 12, then we would stay till it was about done burning and try to find the bus to head home. So when 12 o’clock came and nothing was happening, everyone started to doubt the validity of our source that told us it started then. The fire fighters were just kinda chillin’ around the falla, talking, walking back and forth pretending that they were doing something, when really if you watched them, they were just walking. Meanwhile there were hundreds if not thousands of us all packed like sardines into the street behind the barrier waiting for something to happen. When 12:15 came around and they had turned the lights on and off once or twice making us think that something was actually going to happen, people started to get restless and start chanting things like “we want fire!” and sometimes other things that were not so encouraging to the people making the fire possible. The little old people next to me even got into it and started yelling things at the fire fighters so that they would know that we were ready to get the show on the road. It was pretty funny! I even joined in a couple of times with a “Madre Mia” or a “Vamos” or something here and there so that I could really experience everything, ya know? That and my feet were killing me from standing there in the same plaza for a good 4 hours and I really was ready for this fire to start. When 1 o’clock in the morning rolled around I was considering just crowd surfing it to the back or something because I could barely stand, but just at this point on of the firefighters walked up to the section where I was standing and said something to the effect that the zone that I (and everyone around me, obviously) was standing in was a really hot zone, and if we got the urge to turn around and run away, don’t! Just bend over so that you are behind the barrier or other people and stay there until you are not so hot anymore. Well that was just the thing that I wanted to hear after standing there for hours to see this. So here I am thinking that I am going to walk out of there without eye lashes now, or I might get trampled by the people who just can’t take the heat! So comforting! I wonder if they have ever had problems with stampeding people before. But on the other hand that at least meant that they were going to start sometime soon! It was a good half an hour later that everything was set up and the gas had been poured on the falla, and all of the firefighters had taken many pictures with it, that Ms. Falla (or something like that) came and set the fuse on fire. It was right then that my camera decided to die, so I missed the one event that the whole day had been leading up to! Sad! (no worries, I got copies of pictures and such from other people) This is one of the coolest things ever! As the fuse continued to burn it went and set the giant lantern on fire that was the top of the falla, and from there the falla was history! And the fireman was right! We were definitely in the hot zone, not to mention the wet zone too! There were firemen standing in front of the buildings, spraying them with water from fire hoses so that the buildings wouldn’t catch on fire, so every once in a while we would get a few drops of water falling on us. We stayed to watch the whole thing burn down, and when we finally left the falla that was once as tall as the surrounding buildings was nothing more than smoldering ashes! It was pretty intense!
After that we were all pretty beat, so we headed over to the train station to use the smelly bathrooms one last time before going back to the bus, and ended us sitting on the floor of the train station for a while, waiting for people to come, and use the bathroom and such. We finally made it back onto the bus around 3 o’clock in the morning and crashed into the seats. The ride home is kind of a big blur of trying to get comfortable on the bus, and waking up, and trying to fall back to sleep, and once again nothing good can come from trying to sleep on the bus! When got back to Alcalá at 7 in the morning, and Paige and I walked like Zombies back to our house, and crashed in bed! We slept till about 3 that afternoon. It was great!

Valencia Evening

By this time, we had been wandering for a good long while, and by a good long while I mean ever since we had gotten off the bus that morning, so me and Cassi and Missy and Paige decided that we were tired and needed desperately to find a park to siesta, so telling Shumway that we were breaking off from the parade, we went our own way, first to find ice cream for Missy, and next to find the park. After even more walking we found a little store that had some ice cream to satisfy Missy’s sweet tooth, and we sat outside at the tables with our map spread over the top, trying to decide where the park was. Now, Spanish maps are a little bit different than the ones that you normally find in the US, there is nothing telling you which way is North, South, East and West, and the markings on the map, like where the churches are and such vary from map to map, and some maps are distorted to accentuate the better parts of the city, or things that people normally go to see so that they will be easier to find or something, which just makes everything confusing. So there we were, 4 directionally and apparently map challenged girls, trying to figure out where the park is in relation to where we were, and all we wanted to know what how to get us to the big green area on the map that said Parque. It took us a while to find the street that we were on, on the map, and once we did, it took us even longer to figure out which way we would have to walk to go in the right direction of the park, but after much discussion and debate about where we were gonna go, we set out in what we decided was the right direction. We walked in the right way, and after just crossing the street and coming to where the park was supposed to be, and really what the map had shown as a vast green area was in fact a vast brown, dirt area that were soccer fields. We were a little disappointed that we couldn’t go chill there and take a nap, but while we were walking across the bridge that looked down on the park we noticed a little ways farther there were trees and grass and other greenery that looked quite inviting. So we crossed the bridge and headed to the other side of the street to then walk and go to the nice part of the park. Now let me tell you about this park. It’s kinda weird, but because the park is below the rest of the city, kinda like a canal, except for it’s a park. So while we were along the road, trying to find a way into this park, but I think this is one of the LEAST accessible parks that I have ever seen! We walked along the road for a good 20 minutes without even seeing the slightest inkling as to where the entrance is. We passed other parks while trying to get into this one, just because all of a sudden entering this park became some sort of challenge or something that we just had to do! We even stopped and asked a guy that was already in the park, how in the world we were supposed to get in there! He laughed at us and told us that there were stairs a little ways farther. So we walked for a while longer until we finally found the ramp entrance to the park, located right in the middle of the park and nowhere else. How convenient! When we finally got in, made it past the small children throwing fire crackers and underneath another bridge we found a place to sit down and eat the sandwiches that we had made the night before.All of our efforts of getting into the park were kinda lame, because after we were done eating, we sat there for a bit and decided that it was too cold to really lay down and take a nap or something, so we got up and walked back out of the oh so enchanted park and back into the streets of Valencia. We just wandered some more for a while after that, and after finally finding some bathrooms (the porta-potties on the side of the road, these ones are high tech! they had a place for you to wash your hands! Sweet, I know!) we found a place where crowds were gathering so we thought that we would stop and see whats going on. Where there’s a crowd, there has to be something exciting going on, right? Upon further investigation we found that they were going to do a fireworks show in a little bit, so we made camp right next to the seating that was reserved. We figured if it was reserved it would be a good place to see things! This is where we stayed for the next hour or so until it was dark enough for things to happen. But before the fireworks started going off, there was a parade that came through on the street with dancing girls and dragons spitting fireworks, the works! It was pretty intense! So intense, as a matter of fact, that one of the dragon costumes got hit by some of the sparks of the fireworks that it was spitting and started on fire! It was just on the tail, but the parade had to momentarily stall so that the person who was walking behind could stomp on the fire and put it out! But once that was taken care of, things went smoothly! By this time the crowd had collapsed passed the previous barriers and we were now standing right by the street in great anticipation of the fireworks. When the parade ended, we all just stood there for a second, wondering what was going to happen, but once the fireworks started shooting out of the ground around the little building in the center of the plaza area, we knew the show had started!!! It only lasted about 10 minutes or so, but let me tell you what, the Spaniards know how to do fireworks! It was so loud and the sky was lit up for the whole time! One of the funniest things were the German guys that were standing behind us. They were laughing so hard at just about everything that you couldn’t help but laugh too!

Valencia Afternoon

But after somehow surviving the challenge of the horrific bathroom, we found out that there was some kind of fireworks show that was going on at 2 somewhere around the main part of town, so we started to head in the direction that we thought it was in, and soon found out that we were going the right way because every other person that was in the city was headed there too! So we were almost pushed in the right direction, going with the flow of people towards the genie and the center of town. I think I now know just how a sardine feels packed into those little packages because that’s about how close we were with the people around us, waiting for the fireworks to start. We waited, and waited, tried to turn to talk to my friends that were behind me, but there was no movement that could be made without causing a domino effect of people all the way down the street, so I had to be content standing there in the sun packed into the street with thousands of people that I don’t know surrounding me, waiting to see the fireworks in the middle of the day, which seemed a little strange to me, but hey, it was still cool! We had been standing there for a while, waiting for them to start, when we finally decided that the heat of the sun bearing down on us and the body heat from the people we were sandwiched against was too much. So we decided to follow the small parade of people in our group that had formed and were making their way through the masses of people, so I grabbed the arm of the last girl in the line and began to make my way through the rest of the people that had gathered there. As we were making our way out, the fireworks started, and I got distracted and lost the arm of the girl in front of me, and there I stayed. I have found I am not talented in the ways of making my way through a large crowd of people who are standing right next to each other, so once I lost the arm, all hope for leaving the crowd early was lost! So I turned around to face where the fireworks were supposed to be, and I got to see the smoke that was coming from what used to be fireworks, and that was it, accompanied by very loud noises, which normally come with fireworks, claro. Once the festivities of that time were done, we tromped along with the other people until we reached the plaza area where there was more room to roam, and were able to take a breath of fresh air and with for the other people in our group to come. We waited for a bit, and finally a couple more people came, and we decided that a smaller group was better, and made our way out into the middle of the plaza to decide where the market was. The map was not very helpful, seeing as a lot of the streets didn’t really have names on them, and we couldn’t find the plaza del marcado. So we were going to ask someone like we normally do, you know, the people who look like they are natives, but when you are at something that millions of people go to, how are you supposed to know who is a local and who is not? So rather than take time trying to distinguish who knew where to go and who was just wandering and looking like they had a purpose, someone got the idea to ask a police officer! We then were able to kinda find out where to go! We walked down the main street for a while, marveling at the different fallas, passing other tourists. I felt right at home! Haha! I even got offered some cerveza for only 1 Euro, and almost convinced the guys to give it to me for free! What I would have done with it had I gotten it for free, I don’t know. Maybe left it on the curb for a surprise to a passerby or something, but it would have been funny to get it! We kept wandering for a while in the direction that we thought that the market was, and finally found it tucked back off the main street a ways. There were shops on the side of the street selling random things like t-shirts or knitted tops for girls (which would not have covered very much, they were not very well knitted so they had somewhat large holes in them. Maybe that’s the point… but I am just not sure). Apparently the indoor market that they have here is one of the biggest ones in the world, but as we wandered to find the entrance to it, we found that it was closed. Sad day! But I believe that it’s a huge market, the building was pretty monstrous itself!!! But with that loss, we just kept wandering around the market and the city, seeing what there is to see!

Morning of Valencia

That morning was one of the earliest mornings of the whole trip! Someone decided that it would be a good idea to leave at 7 o’clock in the morning, so that’s what we did! But for me that meant a 6 o’clock wake up, or more like a 6 o’clock drag myself out of bed and try to get ready as quietly as possible so that I won’t wake the family up, all while trying, against all of my better judgment, not to crawl back into bed. But we were ready to go at 6:45 leaving once again a little early to get those prime spots on the bus. We snagged them just in time, and I used a technique called “have someone come over and talk to you that is already sitting in another seat technique” so that by the time everyone else is one the bus and has found their seats, and we are getting ready to leave, the person I was talking to will go and sit back in their seat, and I have the whole row to myself to sleep! Alright, so that’s not really what I planned, but that’s how it happened, and it was AMAZING!!! It’s too bad that I am not really able to sleep on busses really well, because conditions were perfect for sleeping! I even brought my little neck pillow thing and my BYU blanket for comforts sake. But alas, I did not sleep the whole way, but I was able to relax somewhat comfortably sprawled out on 2 bus seats listening to my iPod curled up in my blanket, and resting on my neck pillow. Ya, it sounds nice, but it wasn’t really as nice as it sounds. I lost feeling in my leg a couple of times and had to readjust positions and then when we went over bumps my head would smack on the window. Haha! Oh man I love busses!We finally got there around 11:30 in the morning and the bus pulled over to the side of the Plaza de España and we waited for one of the padres of a couple of the girls in our group to show up. So while waiting the logical thing to do was try and make a dent in our rations for the day, so we ate the sandwiches and bananas that originally wouldn’t fit in the backpack, and patiently waited for Juan to show up. Juan is native to Valencia, but lives in Alcalá right now. He was there visiting for Semana Santa because its so famous there, and he agreed to come and show us around for a bit! So when he got there, we all piled out of the bus and into the warm air of Valencia. I always feel weird when the whole group of us is walking around a place because I just feel like we are a bunch of ducklings following their mother. So that’s how it was again as we walked through the city for the first time. We started out just walking from Falla to falla. Fallas are the almost statute like things that each neighborhood makes every year for the festival. They have a competition between all of them. There are lots of different categories, at least as far as I could tell, and each big falla that we went to had several little banners hanging in front of them saying what place that had gotten in the different areas. There were big ones that we just as tall if not taller than the buildings around us, and little ones that were about the size of a small car, and medium sized ones that were about in between the other 2 sizes (hence they are the middle sized ones, haha) , and just about every corner that you turned, you saw another one! We started being able to tell where we were based on what falla we had just seen. At the center of the city was one that looked like the Genie from Aladin, so if we wanted to get there, we would just ask people where the genie was, and then they would tell us how to get there. So we wandered through the city for a while, following Juan from falla to falla, through the streets and between people, and finally ended at the train station. I still wonder why he took us there, I mean, its cool but it was not like we had never been to a train station before. Maybe it was for the girls who needed to use the restrooms, which was all of us. So the 29 girls who were on the trip all paraded over to the bathroom, making the like about 3 times longer than it was before. And I don’t know what was worse, waiting in line, or actually making it into the bathroom itself! This was the worst smelling bathroom that I have ever entered in my life!!! I think I would almost rather hold it then ever enter that bathroom ever again!!! It was so bad that I had a headache when I left, and I was not the only one with these symptoms! There were like 4 other girls who left there with headaches too! It was that bad!

Bike Riding!!!

A few weeks ago we found a place that rented bikes for free, that you can take and ride around the city. So the next day we decided that’s what we wanted to do. So at 11 o’clock the next morning, me Paige and Clara were there along with 3 other girls in the program were at the little square in the middle of the city, ready to rent bikes! We had to fill out forms that said that we were going to be good to the bikes and such and give our information so that if we took off with the bikes they could track us down or something. I mean, I was planning on riding all the way to Italy with it, but after that there is no way I would ever make it! They would catch me way to quickly! Dang it! But once we signed our lives away, we jumped on these little green bikes with baskets on the front and little bells on the bikes that you could ring as you were going down the street to warn people that you would otherwise plow over that you are coming. At first it was a bit shaky, seeing as I have not ridden a bike in a few years I felt like a little kid having to learn all over again! The handle bars were shaking when I was riding, which kept me from going in any sort of a straight line for a good 5 minutes, but hey, its like… well ya know… riding a bike! So I finally remember what to do and was able to do alright after that. It’s a good thing that Clara came with us, too! She took us to this part of the city that is up by where we are living that none of us have ever been to before! There were not as many people and the sidewalks were nice and big, not like the ones that are in the middle of the city that can fit about 1 ½ people on them, which makes walking when someone is coming from the opposite direction kinda awkward. But you manage. So we rode around for a bit, went off roading (rebels, I know) till the path ended like 2 minutes later then came back to the pavement. On the way home there was this one incident where I was about 4th in line, and we were turning out of this park, there was sand on the ground, and as I was turning I was heading straight for a pole! So, with my life flashing before my eyes, there was nothing I could do but scream and drop the bike and myself right in front of the pole, which then caused a chain reaction with Tina, the girl who was right behind me, and she fell too. Luckily Laura was a bit behind and didn’t get involved in the fiasco, but I was pretty embarrassed about it, and we had a good laugh when we found out that Tina was alright. A few hours later we took the bikes back to the place, had a hard time walking home because we were already so sore, then spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching a movie with Clara.

Leon Part 3

From there we thought that a park that we found on the map would be cool, so we set out In the direction that we thought it was, and after wandering around for a while we ran into some missionaries! It was kind of a shock for them I think, because when we saw them we all started yelling “ELDERS!!!” and walking towards them. I’m pretty sure that’s not something that happens to them every day. So we walked up to them ,and one of the was a native to Spain and so he only spoke Spanish which was fine, we are on a Spanish study abroad. But the other one was from Cali or something like that, so he thought he would talk to us in English, but that just made things even more awkward than the situation already was! So he was trying to speak to us in English, while the other one was speaking Spanish, and we were all just trying to find out how to get to the park, and really it was just one big mess! In the end we got about half Spanish, half English directions on how to get to this park and set out just about confused as we were before, but eventually we found it! It wasn’t amazing, not like some that I have seen in Alcazars and such, but we did see a couple getting a little too friendly and we had bets going on whether it was 2 girls, or a guy with long hair and a girl. The guy with the long hair and a girl won, and then we walked away and found one of the coolest jungle gyms that I have ever seen in my life! It was quite large and had 3 basic round sections to it, 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top, and then inside the whole thing were just a bunch of ropes that you could climb on and through and such. It was like a Spiderman thing! That took up a good half an hour of our time, just playing around on the jungle gym, and when we finally decided to share with the little kids, we got off and made plans to go to the river.
We had to ask someone how to get there, which turned out a lot better than the missionary experience did, and we found our way to the river! We couldn’t actually go down to it, we were a little too far up, and there was a concrete barrier. So we walked to the bridge, took some pictures with the concrete lions that were posing on the bridge, the only downside to that was that the one that Erika chose to take pictures with was missing the mouth part, which to me is the part that kinda makes the lion, ya know, but that’s alright.
Just up the street we found a hotel that our Spanish teacher told us was one of the most amazing hotels in Spain in her opinion. When we got there the outside was really gorgeous, so it was believable! It looked a lot like a palace, with a big, concrete courtyard in the front, with random little fountain that came right out of the ground and ran over one of the concrete squares like a spring out of the ground. And I am sure that the inside would have been just as cool, if we could have gone in! We walked in and there was a little foyer area, then big glass doors with a sign posted saying “this area is for paying customers only”. Apparently most of us missed the sign, because we just walked right through those big glass doors and in to the part where the check in desk was. I think just about everything stopped when we walked in, and we got some pretty weird stares which stopped us in our tracks and finally someone noticed yet another sign that they had posted after the doors saying the same thing, and we turned around and walked right back out. Talk about awkward! So we decided to walk down to the little church that was connected to the hotel that was supposed to have a museum in it too. And it did, the catch was, you had to walk down this long awkward hall way right next to the place where people are praying, and the only thing that separates you from them are columns, spaced too far apart for comfort. So as you are walking your footsteps are echoing, and you can see people stopping their prayers to look up and see what that sound is and then throwing out mean looks as they go back to praying. We even had to leave our hall way area and enter the actual praying area to get to the door that would then lead to the museum. I think we stayed a whole 5 minutes in the museum, 2 of the 5 being the time we spent talking to the lady who gave us our tickets and told us that the better part of the museum was on the other end of town. Good trick! So then we had to walk back through the same hallway with the same loud echoing footsteps and odd looks from people and we practically ran out the door at the end so that we could escape everything! It was intense!
After that we had to go and meet someone at the market again, and at 12 in the after noon is when that place really comes to life! We almost had to do the whole primary, lets all hold hand and walk in a line so that nobody gets lost thing, so that seriously no one would get lost! It was a stroke of luck that we saw John-Charles buying some fruit, otherwise there would have been no way that we would have found him! After everyone had bought what they wanted, and we followed a nice old man to a bread shop, it was time to head back to the bus. So we would our way through the streets and found the place where the bus was supposed to be to pick us up, but there was no bus to be seen! Well… that’s a lie. There were busses to be seen , but they were not our bus! There was a group of girls sitting on the grass next to the parking lot that were from our group, se we walked up to them to see what was going on, and apparently Prof. Shumway had taken the bus to go and pick up his family at the hotel and would be right back. That “right back” turned into about 45 minutes, so we had the entire group there including the ones that are normally late, sleeping on the grass and waiting for our professor and our bus to come back and get us. When it finally did we all climbed in and got settled down for another long drive home!
We did stop at a place called Coco castle on the way home, which was pretty cool. Its one of the oldest castles that we have seen, dating back to the 1300’s or 1400’s. We only had half an hour there, 10 minutes of it trying to find a place to use the bathroom, so we ran around on the inside for a while, seeing what there is to see, then got back on the bus for the last leg of the trip! We made it home around 10 or so that night, just in time for dinner! Haha! It was a good trip!

Leon Part 2

The next morning was a lot like all the other mornings on the trip, wake up early, get ready, go to breakfast, eat a croissant and some hot chocolate then pack up. We were all out of the hotel by about 9:15 or so, with bags and everything, ready to go to the Cathedral in León. The bus took us there, I am not really sure why, and dropped us off in a parking lot a little ways away so it was just a short walk to get there. Supposedly this is one of the prettiest Cathedrals in Spain for some people. We got there and went to what we thought was the front, but the gates were locked so we figured we got opening time wrong and just stood around taking pictures for a while, starting at each other and what not. Then I finally decided to venture out of our newly found comfort zone and walk around to the other side of the church, that turned out to be the REAL entrance, and luckily people decided to follow me, so I just walked in, and slowly but surely, so did everyone else! It was a really pretty cathedral! Its not one of the biggest ones that I have ever seen, but the thing that set it apart from the others is the other cathedrals that we visit is the stained glass windows! All of the windows in this place were GORGEOUS! You couldn’t see it from the outside, but the colors on the inside really made the whole interior of the cathedral come to life! But other than the windows and colors, there was not really much to see. The one room that was available for people to go into had a sign posted next to it saying that you could only enter if you were going to pray. I considered going in and just saying my own prayer, obviously not to the Virgin Mary, but so that I could see the room. But then I figured that’s not really what they meant, and they were probably trying to keep people like me OUT by posting the sign, so I just looked longingly through the glass door for a minute then moved on. There were no good acoustics in this cathedral, seeing as it was one big open space we would have had to hum really loud to get any kind of cool echo, and yes we tested it.
After that we had free time to walk around the city and get a feel of this area of Spain till we were leaving, once again, at 2. So we headed out to go and see a museum that ended up being closed for renovations, so that left us will little choice but to turn around (it was at the end of the street, haha) and head towards the market. This is what you would really picture a market in Spain being. There were a bunch of tents all over the place with people selling fruit and veggies and flowers and meat and anything that your heart desired! There was even a little stand, outside in the plaza area, where they were selling cheese! We were there for a little bit, standing in the middle of the market, and apparently we were standing there by a tent that had a boy that was about our age selling strawberries, and he thought that we kept looking at him, when we were really looking at the amazing strawberries, or the people that were behind him. Well… at least I was. So there I was trying to take cool pictures of the lamp post in front of the building with a big clock on it and make it look all cool, when this boy comes around, out of his tent, to have us take a picture of him with Kate! It was hilarious to see him come strutting out of his tent and put his arm right around her and smile for the picture, you just know that he’s thinking “ya… I totally have these American girls checking me out! That’s right!” haha. We laughed about that for a while!!!

Going to Leon

We made a couple stops along the way, one was a bathroom stop at a gas station in the middle of no where, but every time that we stop we have to stop for a half an hour, I guess there’s some law like that or something. So we occupied ourselves by playing tag where you either have to keep all your joints straight or extremely bent, and then when you are tagged it changes. Its become quite the popular game among the group, and we play it at about every gas station we stop at now. But the other stop was pretty cool! It was a little town that is super old, called Castrillo De Los Polvazares, and I am pretty sure they have never done renovations on any of the buildings ever, so we were getting the real thing! It was still kinda siesta time so when we were walking through the streets it was a lot like we were walking through a ghost town. Some of the doors were even awkwardly open and creaking in the wind, so that made the effect of the ghost town even more real! But we wandered through this little town for an hour, taking random pictures and getting weird stares from the viejos when they decided to come out of their houses for paseo. We actually left from this stop on time, because I think the people that we normally wait for did not enjoy this place so much, so they were on the bus early, and we could leave on time!
It was pretty late when we rolled in and got all checked into our hotel and what not, so this was another night of chillin in the hotel. There were a bunch of us girls that had food that we had gotten at the grocery store before, so we all got together in one room and had a picnic with whatever we happened to have and talked the night away. But not too late this time! We had an early start the next day, and I have learned my lesson about 2:30 to bed and 7 to rise! It doesn’t work out so well, and I would not suggest trying it often!

Santiago De Compostela Day 2

Well this day was a lot more productive in the whole getting to know the place that I am in aspect of things. We woke up that next morning, really whenever we wanted, although breakfast was between 8:30 and 9. So we got ready for the day, went to breakfast which was the same enjoyable croissant, bread and hot chocolate that we had had the last couple of days in a row. After that we headed back up to our room to pack up our stuff and throw it into one of the rooms that are usually used for sitting and resting, something that could be considered a lobby but was separate from the check-in desk, and then me ,Cassi, and Missy headed out to check out what we had missed the night before. Its not a huge city, so we were able to make it back to the cathedral area, which is where just about everything on our list of suggested things to do was, fairly quickly. We tried to do some shopping on the way there but Santiago stores open even later than the stores in the rest of Spain do, so it ended up being more of a nice mid-morning stroll by the store windows, and then a game trying to remember the stores that looked good, and where they were so that we could come back and check them out later. We wandered past some of the sites on the list of suggested places, most of them were parks and convents and such, then eventually re-found the stores that we had liked before, and did our shopping. By the time we had hit most of the stores that we could remember where they were, it was about noon, which is when Missy and Cassi were going to go eat lunch at a little Chinese place. I am not a big fan of Chinese food, especially not when I am in Spain. So we headed back to the hotel, where I met another group who was just heading out to occupy some time before we had to be back at the bus at 2.
So we walked out the door of the hotel and after much debate, decided that we should turn left and head up the hill and see if there was anything more up that way that we had not yet seen. So we wandered for a while, window shopping, kinda talking to the locals, until we reached another street that had a big, modern art piece on the corner of it which was just a bunch on metal plates screwed together to form something that looked like a giant blade of grass sticking out of the ground. We decided that this would be a good place to go another direction, and someone started walking down the street, so then the rest of us followed. It was a good choice! We found a half pipe type thing that Andrew decided would be cool to pretend that he had a skate board and run up and down it, jumping on both sides of it. Really he just looked kinda funny running up and down this half-pipe, but I got some pretty sweet pictures of him with his camera when he was jumping, and then when he decided it would be a good idea to try back flips on the half-pipe, too. He had a few successful tries, but all that was kinda overlooked when his last attempt failed and he fell on his head. He was just fine, so it was really funny and we all got a really good laugh out of it. We continued to walk down the dirt path that was by the now not so liked half-pipe and came upon one of the greatest inventions that I have ever seen! It was an outdoor gym!!! Who needs Gold’s Gym?! This place had little inclined benches where you could do crunches, a chest press, a rowing thing, something to work off the love handles, and oh so much more! It was amazing!!! I think its really there for people who are older and it will help them with range of motion and such because everything was just run by man power using your own body weight as resistance, but I am still sore in my abs from it! So I was thinking about bring it back to America! I am convinced that it would help the obesity problem, and I could cancel by Gold’s member ship! Haha! Well we were all pretty excited about this discovery, so we played here for a quite a while which I guess would be a good explanation for my soreness. When we were finally done playing around, it was time to go back to the hotel and load up on the bus. So we walked back, but as we know time has really no meaning to anyone in the group, so by the time we were all on the bus, in our seats and ready to go, it was around 2:30, and we settled in for the long drive to León.

Santiago De Compostela

I was pretty upset when the alarm went off at 7 in the morning for me to take the first shower of the day. But after contemplating breaking the alarm clock and just rolling over and going back to sleep, I rolled out of bed and got into the shower to start my day before anyone else in the room, those lucky girls! But we were all in the little restaurant next door by 8, eating our breakfast of another croissant, some bread with jam and more hot chocolate, so that we could be on the bus by 8:30. But as we all know, that’s really code for “show up whenever you want”, so we got on the road after debating whether or not to leave some people at 8:50. The bus took us to a hill outside of the city where there was a statute of a couple Pilgrims, and left us there to do as the pilgrims do, and find their way to the Cathedral in the heart of the city.
This cathedral is the Cathedral of St. James, and this is where James, one of Christ’s apostles, is reputed to be buried. People come on Pilgrimages for hundreds of miles from all over the place to see this cathedral and attend mass here. So the thought was that we were going to do the end of this supposedly well marked pilgrimage on our way to attend the Pilgrims mass. But the thing was that we couldn’t find any markers to tell us which way to go to finish this well marked trail. So after a little while of wandering on random trails that took us to a park, or right back to where we had started, we kind of abandoned the whole follow the trail idea and walked along the highway in the direction that we thought the city was, which did take us to the city, but the supposedly 10 to 15 minute walk ended up taking up the whole morning. It was still quite the interesting walk tho! We wandered through the outskirts of the city for a while and someone finally flagged down a car and asked for directions. Once we were headed in the right direction we would come across the path that we had originally wanted to be on, and followed it for a while, got a picture, then took a turn and lost it again. So we would walk a little bit more, take some random turn then stumble upon the right path again, then eventually end up losing it. Dang tourists. I am sure that if we were real pilgrims we would have been able to stay on the right path, but seeing as we are not so learned in the ways of the pilgrim path, we struggled a bit. But in the end we made it to where we were trying to go, and we even got there before mass started! We sat outside for a while, obviously exhausted from our lengthy pilgrimage, and enjoyed the beauty of the cathedral. It really is a beautiful building!

After we felt thoroughly rested, we decided to walk inside the cathedral before attending mass, to see what there is to see. On the way we were stopped by a merchant who told me that my Spanish was very good (woot! His flattery didn’t work, I didn’t buy anything from him) and after we finally got him to stop talking to us, we could walk through the big wooden doors and into the Cathedral of St. James. It was cool walking in because its beautiful inside, but it was kinda creepy at the same time. There were 3 hallway type things with pillars that separated them, the middle area had the pews for mass and the outside 2 were more like a walking area, but along the walls were tons of little confessional booths with priests sitting in them, a little light shining on their faces, and as you walk by, they just stare at you! I mean, I felt like I had to walk up to them and start confessing or something! “um… forgive me father, it has been 20 years and 3 months since my last confession…” (I don’t think that would have gone too well). So once we were inside we avoided them for a bit. We walked around and saw the supposed burial place of St. James himself. When we were walking back to the hall of the priests to sit down for mass, Missy all of a sudden got really curious about the whole confessional thing, and decided to go and talk to one of the priests. So after much hesitation, right in front of the booth I might add. The guy probably thought we were losers, looking at him then pretending like we weren’t really, then kinda walking towards him, then going back to where we were before. Haha, I can only imagine how we looked! But once we finally got up the guts, we walked up to him and Missy asked him where a famous pillar that all the pilgrims touch is. He told us that we aren’t allowed to touch it, and then asked us why when we came up we didn’t do the whole kneel and cross your chest thing, and we told him that we weren’t Catholic, then he was like, oh well do you have a religion? So we told him that we were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He smiled and nodded then said “que bueno”. Well that was kinda a conversation killer, the Mormons and the Catholic priest in the Cathedral. So we awkwardly walked away and back to our seats and waited quietly for mass to start.
Luckily a nun came and sat right in front of us, otherwise I would have never know when I am supposed to stand or sit or kneel or pretend to know what they are singing and sing along or whatever. This mass was different than the one in Toledo. There weren’t men sitting in the choir singing for this one, and the ceremony was a lot shorter, and I don’t remember ever kneeling. I was probably supposed to sometime in there, but I didn’t. Oh well. And in this ceremony, they didn’t offer the wine to everyone, just the priests. A funny thing is that while everyone was getting the bread, the priest that was supposed to be cleaning out the cup for the wine basically chugged the rest of the wine that was in the cup, poured himself some more, drank that, then started wiping out the inside. It was pretty funny!
When mass was over, Cassi, Missy and I were all a little tired from the lack of sleep that we had gotten the night before, so we headed back to our hotel for a little siesta, along with the rest of Spain. We got there and sat on our beds, saying that we didn’t even want to fall asleep, just sit for a while. But that did not turn out so well! Our planned short siesta turned into a 5 hour power nap!!! We woke up around 6:45, starving because we missed lunch. So we ran across the street to the little grocery store they had there, bought some granola and yogurt (and ice cream, of course) and headed back to our hotel room to enjoy our feast! That was about the highlight of the night, dinner was really good! We hung out in our room the rest of the night, being lazy. People would wander into our room for a while, hang out, chat, and leave. Then we went to bed! It was another good day in Spain!

Salamanca y Santiago De Compostela

I woke up early that morning to get a shower in before Amy and Rachel got back from running (which is what I SHOULD have been doing, but sleeping won), then went down to the front desk and picked up a ticket to go down to the Plaza Mayor and eat lunch at one of the little restaurants there. It was a good breakfast of a croissant and hot chocolate, with the croissant crumbling all over the table and my shirt, thought it might be a good idea to, ya know, save some for later. After breakfast we walked over to the little building where they had the town market, and it smelled a lot like the markets in Mexico when you first walk in, the overwhelming smell of raw meat hanging everywhere. Which was fitting seeing as there was raw meat hanging everywhere! But once you got past that, it was actually a pretty fun little indoor market! There were some guys who were setting up their veggie stand that kept eying Kate, so she bought some carrots from them, then we headed over to the stand right next to them, and it was here that I tried my first kumquat ever! It was kinda fun. We got a group of us, and before we ate it, we asked the lady that we bought them from how you were supposed to eat it, and she gave us a nice demonstration by eating one herself! Just bit right through it! Haha! So after wiping them off on our shirts, which probably just made them even dirtier but did good for our piece of mind, we all counted to 3 and bit into one of the weirdest things I have ever put into my mouth! The outside was sweet, but the center was sour! It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth! It was actually pretty good! Not something that I would want to eat as a nice snack between meals or anything, but good for every once in a while when I feel like throwing my taste buds off! But after that life changing experience we headed back to the hotel to pack up our stuff and throw our bags on the bus by 10, but being us we weren’t ready until about 10:30, and after that it was basically a day spent on the bus! I sat next to Christy and we talked for a long time, got to know each other a little bit better, she shared her granola with me and now we are best friends! Haha! I tried to sleep a bit to make the time go by a little faster, but its impossible to sleep on those busses, crammed into the little seat- next to someone else who is crammed into their little seat, can’t stretch out, can’t curl up in a nice little ball, can’t put your seat back without hitting the person behind you in the face. Nothing good can come from trying to sleep on the bus!
Fernando, our bus driver for this trip, decided that it would be a good idea to take us to this little beach that was kinda off the beaten path, which was pretty cool! Some of us had our suspicions that he had a friend there that he wanted to visit or something, but none the less, we spent a good 45 or so minutes wandering around. Cassi, Missy and me scaled some rocks, took some very windblown pictures. Got some pretty sweet shots of what we figured was a row boat graveyard because just about all the boats in this little area were sinking, including one that had been tied right on top of one that was already submerged. We also got kicked out of an unmarked construction area while wandering down what we thought was a dock, but no. I guess the big cranes that were moving large pieces of steel to an unfinished building should have tipped us off that this was no normal area, but for some reason it didn’t. we also found out that Spencer, the 16 year old son of our professor, had been skinny dipping on the very beach we had just left, at the promptings of his mother, who video tapped the whole thing! Haha! But after the thrilling beach experience, we got back on the bus and headed to yet another beach that Fernando thought would be a good place to go see. But this one was so much better than the other one! I don’t know if it was the HUGE lack of doing anything all day or the fact that I had consumed large amounts of sugar over the past couple of days and the effects were just kicking in, but seeing that large stretch of sand and water before me brought out an energy that I have not had in quite a while, and there was little that anyone could do to keep me from running full speed down the beach, barefooted, throwing in the occasional heel-kick. It was so amazing! By the time we were leaving I couldn’t feel my feet anymore from being in the freezing water for so long, but it was SO worth it! After about 45 minutes of pure excitement, we all ran back to the bus, loaded up, and about an hour later we finally got to our destination of the day, Santiago De Compostela! When we arrived, we lugged our bags up yes, another hill, and past some locals in a bar who were less than welcoming, throwing “the bird” our way as we headed to the hotel. Once we got there and got all checked in, it was too late to go out and really do anything in the town, so we just chilled in our hotel room and talked till about 2:30 that morning! Oh dear. That probably wasn’t the best decision ever, but the conversation and the company were good, so it was alright!

Salamanca

We got there around 2, which is right during siesta time, so we checked into the hotel and met with another professor (Dr. Ricecamp I think) who is here for genealogy, who is also from BYU, who was going to show us around the city. After he briefed us on what we were going to do for the day, and where to meet him when siesta was over, we set out to look around the city for the half hour or so of free time that we had, which turned out to be just the right amount of time that we needed to find the place that we were supposed to meet him. We started the tour, and it was really cool to have him there, because he knows just about everything about just about everything in the city from all of the genealogy work that he has done there. So we got a first hand tour from someone who really knows his stuff! We went to another Cathedral, the Cathedral of Salamanca, which was like a nice new cathedral at first, which was then connected to an older cathedral that was off to the side. In the older cathedral on the floor you can see different colored tiles, which were burial places for people in older times. I guess back in the Renisance times, you could have it written into your will that you wanted to be buried in the cathedral, and then when you died, they would open up one of the tiles that had a space underneath them for the purpose of burying people , put your body in, then seal it back up. Then every so often they would go through, clean out the bones and put them in a graveyard near the cathedral, or something like that. That would not be my ideal job, bone cleaner outer. In fact, I wouldn’t do it at all! Good thing they don’t do that anymore, or if they do, good thing I don’t know about it! After telling us about the cathedral, we had about 15 minutes of free time, so Kate and I went around from room to room testing the acoustics either by coughing or clearing our throats rather loudly, then waiting for people to clear out so we could hum a hymn or 2. I was a little disappointed with the acoustics of this one, and we weren’t able to have quite the same humming experience as before, but it was still fun.
We then made our way over to the University that is in this town. It’s really famous for its linguistics programs and had some pretty cool architecture! Before walking in, we were told to look at the façade and look for the hidden frog, which if found is supposed to either bring you good luck or marriage within the year. It was kinda funny because the girl who found it first is the one that is engaged, so I guess the myths must be true! Haha! We walked around and saw the university as is was back at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, and they told a really cool story about one of the professors that used to teach there, who was kidnapped by the Spanish and tortured for 5 years, and upon returning to his classroom to teach, with people packed into the classroom to hear what he was going to say, he started his class by saying “As I was saying yesterday” and then taught like nothing had happened to him at all. Kind of a cool story.
After the university, we said good bye to our cheery tour guide and headed back to the hotel to grab the rest of the lunch our madre had made us, and ate that for dinner. After the very enjoyable sandwich me and the girls I was rooming with decided to head down to the old Roman bridge that they have right there in the city. Apparently it has been there since before Christ and was still being used as a road a few years before. Obviously it has been re-done, but it was still cool to walk across it and see some of the ruins of other parts of the bridge sprouting off in random directions. There was also a really neat view of the cathedral, all lit up at night. I wasn’t able to get such a great picture with my camera because it was dark and the cathedral was far away, too far for the flash to reach, so you will just have to trust me that it was really pretty.
After enjoying the brisk night walk, we originally were going to go back to the hotel and watch a movie on someone’s lap top, but it turned into a big girl talk night, which was still good! I really love the people that I am here with! Most of us are getting really close with each other, we all know just about everything about each other’s lives and everything, and I feel like wherever I go, I am just surrounded by best friends! Its so much fun!

Avila

We got to the small town of Avila about 2 hours after leaving Alcalá. We all ran off the bus and out into a frigid wind, then ran right into the visitors center that is conveniently located right outside of the place that the bus dropped us off. So we huddled together there for a minute while we figured out where to go, then we all followed Prof. Shumway out into the cold once again and then into the city, where we found the Basilica that we were looking for. I guess we went here instead of the Cathedral because this place was the one with a story behind it, which is actually pretty cool. Apparently at this spot there once was a Jew that was just chillin’ making fun of the Christians, and then out of nowhere a huge snake sprang out of the ground and was about to eat him, until the Jew “repented of his ways” and became a Christian, so they built the Basilica to commemorate the moment. I personally think the story is a bit of a stretch, but… ya know. The building was pretty cool, not like the Cathedrals that we have been to previously, but it still had the high vaulted ceilings, and this one even had a basement with statutes and such that we could go down into. That part was kinda creepy but cool all at the same time! When we were done wandering around the Basilica we headed over to the main attraction of the city, the walls. You can walk around on the walls that used to be surrounding the city, but with expansion and such they no loner surround the whole city. But we were able to walk around on the top of them and have an amazing view of both sides of the city and the surrounding countryside. It was really nice, still really cold, but really nice! You could walk up into the towers, which is where me and Erica M. and Andrew and John-Charles did a nice loud version of the Elephant Love Medley off of Moulin Rouge movie while standing on the tower, singing to the people in the next tower who thought it would be funny to take pictures of us. We continued to walk around on the wall for about an hour or so, and by that time it was time to get back on the bus, so we pushed our way against the strong winds back to where the bus was and jumped on, settling down for another long ride to Salamanca.

Bella y la Bestia

We went to Bella y La Bestia (Beauty and the Beast) the musical! There were about 12 of us girls that got all dressed up in Sunday best to go to this musical that I think is something like Broadway in the US! From the very moment that I stepped through the doors I couldn’t stop smiling! Just the atmosphere was one of fun and excitement, and I think it helped that we have been looking forward to this for a couple weeks now! There were people everywhere shuffling up stairs and grabbing a last minute drink before we were all seated. We, being poor starving (alright, not so starving right now, we have someone to cook for us! SO NICE!) college students, didn’t exactly have ideal seats, but they were alright for the price that we paid for them! On the balcony, kinda towards the back, but it was still quite the view! And the musical itself was quite enjoyable! I think that if I didn’t really know the story line beforehand, I might have had a problem understanding what was going on, but luckily I have been an avid watcher of Beauty and the Beast in my younger years, so I knew what was going on, and sang along to the Spanish songs in English! In my head of course, I didn’t want to get kicked out, haha! One bad thing about the show was the boys that were sitting a couple seats down from me were quite annoying!!! I really don’t know why they were there, a couple of teenage boys taking a week night to go and enjoy the musical of Beauty and the Beast, on their own, without dates seems a little bit weird to me, but hey, to each his own! But I think they were having a competition between themselves and the rest of the people there to be the first ones to start clapping after a song, and then to be the last ones to stop, which sometimes was into the next scene. Then I guess they felt it was alright for them to talk about whatever they wanted when the play was going on, and then start another game to see who could make the most noise and make it seem natural, like kicking a seat, or the bar that was in front of them or something. I was about to open a can of… well… you know what, but that whole getting kicked out thing stopped me again, that and they randomly would stop for a while then start again, then stop. So that put a slight damper on the experience, not enough to ruin it, but still! My favorite part of the whole thing was the Be Our Guest song! It was so fun! They had the dancing napkins and forks and spoons and everything! Picture the Disney movie, put it into real life, and then that’s about what you got from this song! It was so great, included were fireworks shooting off the stage and confetti shooting out over the crowd when the song was done! Quite the spectacle! When it was over, and when the standing ovation and clapping had ended, all of us, still smiling, ran out the front door and into the Metro station to try and catch the last train that was leaving for Alcalá for the night. There was much singing that came along with the running, claro! We just came from the musical, can you blame us?! But we didn’t end up getting home till around 2, then helped the oldest sister of the family with cutting out some paper stars for her elementary school kids, so needless to say it was quite the late night!

El Escorial y Valle De Los Caidos

This weekend was the weekend that we were scheduled to El Escorial and Valle de los Caidos, so that’s what we did! We were supposed to be at the bus at 9, and this time we weren’t helping the Shumway army (there were even more of them this week, the mom’s family was visiting, so that added another like 7 people.) Me and Paige figured we would avoid the stampede towards the bus and just get there on our own. So we actually got there early and got PRIME seats on the bus, and we finally headed out at like 9:15 or so. The ride wasn’t that long, but I was in one of those moods where I just did NOT want to be riding on a bus at all, so I was a little bit like a 3 year old always asking “are we there yet?!” but its alright because that was the mood that the girl sitting next to me was in too, so we sat there in misery together! But after what seemed like an eternity, we pulled into the small parking lot of the Valle De Los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) and got off the bus. This place was built only like 50 or so years ago by Franco (the last dictator of Spain- its argued both ways that he was good and bad) as a memorial to those who fell in the civil war. Some of us think it was more like a memorial to himself, because only him and his general are actually buried inside the basilica, but it could go both ways. It is the second largest basilica in the world, only because there is a law that says that no basilica can be bigger than that of St. Peters Basilica, so they didn’t dedicate the front half of it, so technically it’s the largest in size, but not the area that is dedicated. And another cool fact, it’s built into a mountain so all you can really see is the entrance and some pillars and such on the outside of the mountain. We got there right when they were holding mass so we weren’t allowed to go in and tour while this was taking place, obviously, so some people went in to attend mass and the rest of us stayed outside taking pictures and playing random girls camp games (good ol’ girls camp!) until mass was over and then we could go inside and see everything! Its huge! Its basically this one long hall that leads to the area when mass is held, with one big cross with Christ on it that is lighted in the center of the round room. There are big statutes on the side or the mass room that are big hooded figures and are kinda creepy, but the ceiling makes up for all the weirdness that the statutes bring! It’s a mosaic done with tiles and its gorgeous! I would have a picture but they weren’t allowed and I was not in such a rebellious, take a picture anyways mood, so… I am waiting to get pictures from those who were! Haha! The rooms on the side are separate worshiping areas with their own statutes and benches, and have some GREAT acoustics in there! Katelyn asked me to hum something in there for her, so I sat down and starting humming “Abide With Me, ‘Tis Even Tide”, my favorite hymn. And then after that we just kept humming hymns till some people came in and started praying. We figured this was our cue to stop humming our Mormon music and leave these people to do their thing! So we went to the other side and did the same thing till more people came and started praying. By that time it was about time to leave. There is also one of the biggest crosses that I have ever seen that is on top of the mountain that the basilica is built into! It’s made of stone and I think its somewhere around 500 feet tall! There are also statutes around the bottom of it that are bigger than any statute I have ever seen either! We weren’t able to go right up to it because the tram that goes to it is broken, so we were forced to admire it from a far, but it was still pretty grand to look at!
After that we had to leave to make it to our appointment at El Escorial, which is a palace that Phillip II built for himself about 500 years ago. It put him into debt, if I remember correctly, because it was so huge and expensive, and he had tons of other things he was supposed to be funding, like wars. Anyways… I don’t know why we ever have “appointments” to go places, we are never there for them, but we entered the palace around 3, and had till 5:30 to meet back at the bus. But it was not enough time to see everything! I think we lost a bit of time because we got lost and couldn’t figure out where we were for a while, all the halls look the same, but once we got oriented we were able to complete the tour, with one of the largest old libraries kept by one person, and all the books are stored with their spines to the wall, to protect them, which seems weird to me. You would think that you would want to preserve the pages of the books, but… to each his own! I think we should go there when you guys come! It’s pretty cool! So after getting lost in the building and wandering aimlessly for a while around till I think we saw just about everything except for the gardens, we went back to the bus. Professor Shumway thought it would be a good idea to go see a castle that was a bit out of the way for a photo op, so that’s what we did! The castle was actually pretty cool, unfortunately it was closed when we got there so we couldn’t go inside, but we got some good shots from the outside! Its what you picture when you think castle, with the tall towers with flags flying and the big, wooden gate in the front and the works! Some of the boys got kicked off the grounds for trying to forge the castle and scale the walls, including 2 of the professor’s sons, so we left pretty quickly after that, and drove the rest of the way home!

Walking around Madrid

It's been a pretty normal week, nothing too exciting! We did go and do a couple “walks” around Madrid for our Madrid Walks class, and one on them we did in the rain! It was pretty intense to be walking around in the rain, trying to see these places that are supposed to be super cool all while trying to stay dry underneath my bright orange Xango umbrella! On the subject of the umbrella, I was walking down the street on my way to school the other day with my neon water protector and this guy actually came up to me, and told me that he LOVED my umbrella, then walked away kinda giggling. It made my day! Haha! Anyways… back to the walk! On the first one in the downpour (alright so it wasn’t really a downpour but it made it sound better, haha. To my defense tho, by the end of the walk there were streams of water running down all the roads and my pants were wet almost up to my knees, so it seemed like a downpour from where I was standing!) It was called “Medieval Madrid”, and although I didn’t really get the medieval feel from anywhere that we walked, it was cool! We saw some nice buildings and historical sites, including the world’s oldest and longest operating restaurant! I was tempted to eat there just to say that I have, but then I saw the prices and quickly changed my mind! It was like $25 a plate! I guess they think that if they are in the Guiness Book of World Records that means that they can charge whatever they want! So… I passed that opportunity and headed to another street, and it is known as something like the marriage street or something, because according to legend, you had to walk down this street and then you would be eligible to get married! (Really its because this street is where they issued the marriage licenses, but now its just a fun tradition!) So, I guess now I am eligible! Haha! Woot! The other walk was kinda lame, it was called the Museum Walk, or something like that, and all we did was walk around and see different buildings that house museums. We didn’t go IN the museum, which would have seemed logical to me because most of the time the outside of the museum looks just like any other building that you would pass on the street, but hey, at least now I know where they are so I can avoid an “I don’t know where the museum is” crisis! Not that I would really ever have one of those, but just in case! After doing the walk we were all kinda in a museum mood, so we found a museum for the blind and went to that! It was cool because it was a bunch of art pieces and miniatures of buildings that you could touch! So there were about 10 of us fully able to see (with the help of glasses and such, technology is wonderful!!!) walking around this museum touching everything. It was cool!

Segovia

We got on the bus the morning of the 15th and drove for about an hour before we got to Segovia, and our first view of the city was from a place where the bus pulled over and you could see the Alcazar de Segovia from below. Apparently this is the building that Walt Disney designed Cinderella's castle after, so they look a lot alike, and it’s gorgeous! We also walked around in the forests that are by the little pull over place, then got back on the bus, which took us another like 5 minutes to the outside of the city, where we then got out of the bus to walk to the inside of the city.
It seems like just about every city that we go to has quite the climb to actually get to it and this one was no different. We walked up the streets, following our fearless leader, who really had no idea where he was going either, but finally found the main plaza where the Cathedral was, and we still had about half and hour till we were supposed to be at the Alcazar for appointment to go in. And seeing as we didn't know where the Alcazar was yet, that was just the right amount of time to wander in the direction that we thought it would be, and eventually find it! The group sat outside for a while eating our packed lunches until they were ready for us to come in, and this is the first Alcazar that I have seen that has a mote around it! It was empty, but it was still really cool to see how deep it was and kind of picture what this would have been like when it was actually in use. When we got inside the palace whose outside was the inspiration for Cinderella's palace, remember, it was kind of disappointing, especially compared to the other places that we have been. Lots of it was under construction so we couldn't go to the second floor or out onto the balconies, but the rooms were gorgeous and the ceilings were very ornate and most of them done in gold, and then some other color to accent it. It took us about 20 minutes to go through the whole thing, and then we still had a good hour and a half until the group was meeting to go to the Cathedral. So... we walked through it again, taking random pictures with the armor that was on the wall and cannons and such, then we met these young French children who were there, too, and they were playing some game with their feet, its hard to explain, but they would jump and knock their feet together in this cool pattern and it looked really fun, so for a while we watched them intently and tried to learn the art of this game, then we jumped around pretending to know what we were doing when really nothing we were doing was the same as them, but at least we were trying!
After just chilling in the patio area of the Alcazar for a while, we rounded everyone up and walked back up the street to the Cathedral in Segovia. This one on the outside looked kind of like the sand castles that we would build in Mexico, the dribble castles. Obviously there was a little more structure to the building, but there were certain parts that definitely resembled the dribble castles! On the inside, it was a lot like the other cathedrals with different areas on the sides where you can go to worship, but usually there are big gate like things in front of them so that you can’t enter, just enjoy the splendor of the room from the outside, but here, some of the gates were open! So you could just walk right in and see what’s going on in the otherwise forbidden rooms! I felt a little rebellious walking onto one of them and apparently so did others! When me and Cassi walked by one of the rooms, Paige was just walking in, but she was walking like she wasn’t supposed to be in there, but was going to anyways, but being really sneaky about it. She was all hunched over, walking really slow (like 1 step every couple of seconds slow), holding her pamphlet really close to her and looking around the room with a really guilty look on her face. When we saw her, we just had to stop and laugh because it looked so funny, we were literally about to fall on the floor we were laughing so hard!
When we finally gathered ourselves after that, we finished the tour of the cathedral complete with a courtyard and museum area, then took off to go find the aqueducts. This city had some of the oldest functioning Roman aqueducts in the world, over 2000 years old! So this was one of those have to see things. But I think that we took the longest way that we possibly could have to get there because it took us forever, trying to follow the street signs to get there, and when we finally made it there, the rest of our group, who were planning on leaving a while after us, were just getting there too. But it was so worth the journey! It was amazing! These things are in the middle of the city, towering over everything that is around it. And so gorgeous, they are made out of stone, and I am sure that there’s something holding them together, but I don’t know what it was and you couldn’t really see it all that well. It was really cool to see history though! The aqueducts haven’t been redone or anything, they are exactly the way that they were 2000 years ago and still working!
After taking in the sight of the aqueducts, we walked around the city for a bit more, and then got back on the bus to take us to a small city about an hour outside of Segovia called Pedraza. I guess this too is a really old city, not much has been done to the buildings to modernize them, so just about everything there is antique! We got there kind of late, so we had enough time to walk through and around the city a few times (its really small), go and see the old castle that is right outside the city walls, and then it got dark. It was kind of creepy though, when we got to the city nobody was outside. Literally there was not one single person in the streets, the stores were closed, there was nothing going on! So it was almost like walking through an old abandoned Spanish ghost town! But once it started getting a little darker, people were done with siesta and came out of the buildings and were walking around, so it was a little better. When it got dark, some people chose to take the 15 Euros that the program had to offer each person to go and get a discounted dinner of roast suckling pig and lamb (and you still had to pay an extra 13 Euro), but I chose to put mine to better use and put it towards a trip to Valencia to go and see Las Fayas. So me and a couple other girls headed back to the bus, ate some bread, and talked. It was actually pretty fun! But once everyone was done eating we headed back to Alcala! It was a good day!