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!

Week 1: Map

Hola de Toledo!

 Okay, today began with a long bus ride through the countryside south of Madrid. Mostly it looks like the dry sections of Colorado. That is to say, all of Colorado. When we arrived in Toledo, our tour guide came aboard and we drove up to the top of a scenic overlook, so we could all disembark and take a million photos of the city! After this, we drove back down and walked across el Puente de San Martín (St. Martin's Bridge) into the old city of Toledo. 

 

We then proceeded to visit San Juan de los Reyes, a large gothic-style church which is now owned by the Franciscan monks. It was very  large, very well decorated, and had a beautiful garden inside the church. It's very pretty, and was built by reina Isabel as a biblical thank you after her soldiers captured her brother's daughter in a civil war battle, leaving Isabel the throne. It's just a lovely family story, I must say. In any case, it's definitely a gorgeous church. Also, that picture in the top right corner is one of the gargoyles overlooking the garden, which is a very large frog jumping off a much smaller fish. Less scary then the Notre Dame. And inside the wooden tiles, if you look closely, there's a castle (castille) and a lion (leon) inside the colored parts, to represent the kingdom of Spain, Castille y Leon, where Isabel was queen.

 

After the church, we moved on to the Synagogue of Santa Maria de la Blanca. Yes, Synagogue of Saint Mary. Obviously there was some contention in history about what kind of chapel this should actually be… Oh España. Next we went to the Catedral de San Tomé, where the famous masterpiece of El Greco is located. El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz is very large, and apparently painted in a style two centuries later than it should be. It's pretty amazing though, all of his paintings are. And El Greco painted both himself and his son into the painting, they're the only people in it looking at you, with very creepy eyes. After all of this, we wandered on down to the main plazas of Toledo, one of which had the main cathedral of the city. Unfortunately, it only opens for important people like popes and presidents and whatnot, but we did get to see the carving of The Last Supper over the main doorway.

After this, we trooped back onto the bus and went off to the hotel, the hotel at which they'd been promising us a surprise. The surprise was a lovely outdoor pool which we're really not going to get to use… but it is pretty! I ran down there right after we put our suitcases in the room, so I could read and swim in the sun, which was very relaxing. The sad thing is we leave tomorrow so unless you took advantage of it right when we got in, there's no way to really enjoy it. Still, this is a very nice hotel, with real people sized elevators and non-miniature rooms. 

Then we had to have a long meeting about what to expect in classes and home stays, etc. Nothing truly revolutionary there, so I'll spare you all the details. The biggest news is I have to take a placement test on Monday… which is supposedly very easy, so that helps. Finally, when we were done, myself and a few others decided to take a taxi back to the Plaza to get some dinner (at 9:00. I was SO hungry, this dinner schedule is killing me right now). We found this little place on a corner in old town and decided to eat there. It was definitely the most successful food ordering process I've experienced yet. For some reason, the waiters are the most intimidating part about my trip so far. Our first night, the waitress kept getting all skeptical about the food we were ordering because it was more portions to share, not to eat yourself, but she didn't really help us fix it. The second night, the waitress spoke super fast and we were a disaster at ordering. Today was a lot better, at lunch our waiter just laughed at us for our extreme American-ness (the conversation literally went, Him: "Where are you guys from, the USA?" Us: "Yeah, is it obvious?" Him: *laughs and nods*), but we struggled through it and got done just fine. Tonight things went quite smoothly though, which made me very happy.

Anyway, if I have been supposed to Skype you and haven't yet, or if you're worried because my blog is late, the internet here supposedly exists but Megan & I have yet to find it! Maybe tomorrow. We'll be going to a monastery called El Escorial, then then to Salamanca finally to meet our host mom! Yay!