Segovia!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present the long-awaited post about the trip to Segovia (September 2, 2011). We had to meet "promptly" at 9 at the school to leave for Segovia. Of course, nothing happens "promptly" here, so I was on time for waiting for fifteen minutes. And mind you, I live at least half an hour from school by public transit. (And I hadn't mastered the bus yet, and the metro takes longer.) Anyway, two hour bus ride, sitting with my friends Boris and Matt, taking in the scenery, and then we arrived at Segovia!

I'm going to do this basically through pictures - this is a very small selection of the almost-100 photos I took that day. If you're friends with me on facebook, they're all there. If not, I'll try to upload them to a share site like shutterfly in the near future. Here we go:

This is a Roman aqueduct. Yeah like from 2000 years ago. And it still functions. And on the right is a café that Hemingway really liked.

This is what pretty much all the streets in Segovia look like. And beyond it you can see the mountains. (Mountains! Not prairie! I'm confused.)

Which means there are also a lot of hills. And stairs. Like these.

This is me on top of an old Roman wall, with the Cathedral in the background, included mostly as proof that I was there.

Don't remember exactly what this was, just thought it looked cool.

Typical Segovia.

Inside the cathedral!!!

Many different types of art are displayed, because the cathedral took over 100 years to build.

Cathedral hallway, to give a sense of scale.

This is an organ. I don't know why this picture is sideways. Blogger won't let me rotate it and I'm too lazy to go fix it. Turn your heads if you're really curious. :)

You get one guess why I took this picture.

(It's because of the stained glass light reflection. Duh.)

Monastery hallway, from the 16th century.

Commence Cathedral obsession

Okay so I like to be artsy sometimes. (Okay all the time.)

To the CASTLE! I've been obsessed with castles since I started reading Harry Potter. In case you didn't know. So I've been obsessed with castles since I was eight.

Alcázar, the castle, one of two castles upon which Disney based the Cinderella Castle. No joke. Can't you see it? (I think this is also the basis for every lego castle, based on the left-hand side.)

Guys, it's like a freakin' Gryffindor shield. On the wall of a castle that is at least 500 years old.

Armour. So cool.

Gryffindor bed! (This is really all just because the colors of Spain are red and gold, like Gryffindor.)

Artsy picture of the Spanish countryside through some windows, and my friend Yasmín. (Hi I like backlight it makes things dramatic.)

Possibly graffiti that is 15 years older than me?

View of the Cathedral from the top of the Tower of Juan II - 152 steps up

One last view of the Cathedral, with a flock of Hitchcock-esque birds flying in front of it.

After a two hour bus ride there and three hours of walking around, we were let free for lunch. I ate with a couple girls from my group in the Plaza Mayor and had croquetas. I'm not quite sure how to explain croquetas. They're made of a sort of paste of flour and milk (that I thought was potatoes until my cooking class), with various fillings - most commonly jamón, like these. The paste gets cut into pieces and breaded with breadcrumbs and then fried, so they look a lot like mozzarella sticks. And they're really delicious. After lunch we all met back in front of the cathedral (where I took that last picture) and headed back to the busses. We were all pretty tired and most of us, myself included, napped all the way back to Madrid.

Gosh it's gotten late as I've been telling my story! Well goodnight, friends, and see you again soon - when I must tell you about my failed attempts at finding live music, and also my success. ¡Buenas noches!