Boyfriend Visit!!

Madrid

So a very tired Corinne picked up a very tired Jake at the airport on Saturday morning, and we managed to find our hotel in the city without too much trouble!
From there, we decided to explore the city, given that we had very little time in Madrid. We went to see the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and the Cathedral of Madrid. Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor were insanely crowded, given that it was Saturday during the holiday shopping season. The Plaza Mayor also had a Christmas market set up, where they were selling everything from Nativity scene characters (they have really complex nativity scenes here…) to bubble guns. Because of this, it seemed like roughly half the population of Madrid was in this square. Extremely overwhelming.



To get away from the epic mass of people, we went to visit the Catedral de Madrid, and to see the Palacio Real. Unfortunately, the Palacio Real was closed for tours by the time we got there, but we did get to see the cathedral, one of my favorite parts of the city!



On our way back to the hotel after the cathedral, we spotted a Wyoming Cowboys sticker on one of the cars!!

That night was a bit of a trip. First, we both slept only two hours and felt like it was the whole night, and then I kept waking up every two hours… because I'd gotten food poisoning from either the terrible sandwich I ate earlier or the raspberries I'd bought afterwards to make up for the terrible sandwich. In any case, poor Jake's first night in Spain involved taking care of his sick girlfriend. Slightly unfortunate!

Toledo

Toledo unfortunately began with a missed train and a very grumpy Corinne. Not a good deal for Jake. Plus, I was still sick and Jake was jet-lagged. Not good conditions to travel in, not at all! I literally have no pictures of this day… Sorry team. I was pretty miserable. But we at least got to see some cool landmarks in Toledo, and had a pretty decent lunch in the city.

Salamanca

Sunday night we headed back to Salamanca, since I still had classes and finals during the week. I wasn't sure where to go for dinner after our bus finally got to town (I barely eat out because María cooks so well!), so we went to get kebabs at a restaurant called Isatis, where my friends and I go a lot when we're out in Salamanca. It's basically a gyro, for those of you who are wondering. But it's simple and only 4 euros, so we were happy.
It was also at this point that Jake started feeling sick… and we eventually decided (based on the ever-reliable internet) that he had strep throat. But because Jake's insurance doesn't carry internationally, we tried to get by on over-the-counter medicines for a few days. On Thursday we finally bit the bullet and went to the doctor's office, and she gave us an antibiotic for strep throat, after we'd navigated the maze of the Spanish medical system.
Before that though, he spent most of the days sleeping–which was a slight blessing for me because I still had finals to do (one of which was a surprise my professor dropped on me on Monday! SO much fun!). And I was a frazzled mess trying to get it all done, so at least Jake wasn't impatiently waiting for me to finish… Even if that did mean he was sick. Plus, he's now the only person from home who's seen where I have classes–that's cool, right?
We did make it to the big things in Salamanca though. The old university facade, the cathedrals (and towers), and the plaza of course. He also got to meet María, which was quite the experience! She's just so full of energy and he was still feeling sick… nothing like that mix of energy levels to make a visit interesting!

Segovia

OK, this is actually a good part of the trip, I promise! Jake was finally not sick, I was done with my finals and didn't have food poisoning, no one missed a train, and we got good food! There was a short chunk of time at the beginning where there was a chance of Jake getting sick on the bus… that's what I get for forgetting my boyfriend gets carsick. But we made it there without incident, and the hotel was right next to the bus station!
We made to all the big tourist spots in Segovia, those being the Alcazar, the aqueduct, and the plaza mayor. It's a small town. But I think this one was Jake's favorite.
The aqueduct was pretty simple–walk down the street and find the giant stone thing. Woo!





The Alcazar was really cool to see again. I didn't quite remember everything I'd learned on my tour (it was in October, after all) but I remembered just enough to make it a little more interesting! If y'all remember my previous post on Segovia, there's a painting in the palace of Isabella leaving the church after her coronation in Segovia, and in this mural no one actually has eyes, which makes it a little creepy. When Jake and I saw this painting, it was sunset and the castle was essentially empty, which made it a whole lot creepier. Two rooms later, in the king's bedroom, we saw a girl who looked just like Isabella from the painting, with similar hair and wardrobe. We're pretty sure we saw Isabella's ghost. (She did turn out to be a real person… but it was a freaky moment!)

In any case, the place was pretty great. We climbed the tower, which was a lot easier this time, I think because the weather wasn't swelteringly hot outside!
Plus, I got to have a little square of ponche segoviano in the Plaza Mayor again. I still don't know what's in this dessert, but I'm pretty sure it's magic. And possibly a whole pound of butter and sugar… But if you come back from study abroad rich and skinny, you did it wrong. So I'm going to eat my ponche!

Ponche Segoviano in a bakery

Plaza Mayor lights

For dinner, we found a pretty good traditional-Spanish place, and got a pretty great meal. The town was all decorated for Christmas too, it was so pretty!

Madrid (again)

Saturday morning we headed back to Madrid to meet up with my familia! Our day with them was kind of a repeat of Jake's first day in Madrid… but with better food at least! For dinner we went to a place recommended by the hotel where we had some super classy food that Jake and I never would've had if we'd been on our own. Yay for family vacations!

And on Sunday morning, Jake went off on the Metro to catch his flight, and I began my family vacation!

Spanish adventures with the boyfriend! #segovia @rostan21

via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/Th7fvaoVVK/

Pigs & Aqueducts (AKA Segovia)

So our adventure to Segovia began at the lovely hour of 8 AM, a time when the streets of Salamanca are basically completely empty.

Luckily, it was at least light outside when we got to the bus pickup point. The bus ride to Segovia was two hours long, just enough to get a little nap in before our long, long day of walking started. The first thing we did when we got there was go to a potter's studio, because this is apparently a pretty big thing in Segovia. 

So he showed us how he does pottery on the wheel, and made a piggy bank as an example. Pigs in Segovia are kind of like frogs in Salamanca–they're in every single tourist shop, in a thousand different forms. In Segovia, they're known for cochinillo, roast pig. Unfortunately, due to being cheap and having a free sammich from María, I didn't get a chance to try it on this trip. Anyway, after a few of us in our tour group attempted to make some pots with limited success (except for that one kid who was in AP art in high school and already knew what he was doing…) we left the studio for the Alcázar, a palace on the end of town.

Large, made of stone, lots of towers… you get the gist. It's a pretty place, but it's one of the less important palaces in the big scheme of Spain, as far as I can tell. However, it is where Queen Isabella was staying when she got the news that her brother had died, and was then crowned the queen of Spain at a church across town, at the age of 23.

Here's a blurry photo of the mural in the Alcázar of Isabella (in the white) being crowned. It's a creepy mural though, because, for reasons I do not understand well enough to explain (the phrase "Blind Man's Day" was used), no one in the photo has eyes. If anyone's ever watched the show Supernatural, the people in the mural all look like the demons from that show. It's freaky.

No eyes, super creepy. Especially on kids.

We got to climb the towers of the castle as well, which was 152 tall steps, which actually made me slightly sore today. 

But the views from the top were fantastic.

That's basically the entire city of Segovia, and the mountains beyond it. Ta-da! Worth the climb.

Britt, myself, and Camila at the top of the towers, with the city's main cathedral in the background.

The other main attraction in Segovia is the Roman aqueduct that's been standing in the city for over 2000 years. And it's literally just made of rocks. There's no cement or anything else in between, and the whole thing is at a perfect decline of 1% or something like that. Basically, the Romans knew their physics.

A few more highlights of the city were the Casa de los Picos, which is now an art school, and the city is well known for…

…the epic amounts of piggy banks in the stores, which I really wanted to buy, but unfortunately my suitcase is going to be stuffed enough as is…

…and ponche segoviano, the city's other famous food product. I'm not completely sure what was in this, but I'd guess there's about a pound and a half of sugar in it, it was very sweet. We shared this little square between three girls and didn't feel like we missed out on anything at all.

And that, my friends, was my day in Segovia! I'm enjoying a very lazy Sunday today, so I will probably not have more fun content until later this week.

Segovia Sneak Peak

No time to write a blog, watch for today's adventures tomorrow!