Valencia on Very Little Sleep

Hola again! This weekend we went to Valencia. This experience has taught me never to take a 5:30 AM flight, even if it is only 10 euros, because the trains stop running at 11:30, so we had to camp out in the airport all night, on the cold floor. We got rather slaphappy around 4 in the morning, which ended with us speaking to each other in British accents since everyone seems to know right away that we're Americans. Anyway, I somehow made it through my first day in Valencia on about one hour of sleep. It was okay, though, because the first day we pretty much just sat around at the beach getting sunburned (well, I did at least). I also got my first experience of seeing toplessness at a European beach. And the creepy guys who watch.

That night I actually got to sleep. Hooray! Unfortunately, there were 10 of us, and only 8 could fit in a room at the hostel. So one other girl and I were put in a room with 6 strangers... who happened to be frat boys from Holland. Joy. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't gotten back at 6:30 in the morning and proceeded to have an unnecessarily loud conversation in Dutch.

The second day was more fun, in my opinion. Everyone went back to the beach except for me and the other girl stuck with the messy boys from Holland, since we wanted to do something else. We ended up on a free walking tour around Valencia. Our British tour guide was great and told us all kinds of interesting things about Valencia's history. Then we stuck around for the tapas tour, which took us to a few different bars to try things like tortilla española (my favorite food ever), ensaladilla rusa (Russian salad made with potatoes and tuna), and paella, which Valencia is famous for. Our tour guide was nice enough to try and speed things along so that we could make our plane that evening. A quick 40-minute plane ride later brought us back to Madrid.

Now for pictures.

Some buildings in the central part of the city. The one on the left is the post office.

The beach! I guess they have palm trees in Spain.

A gothic cathedral.

Next weekend: class trip to wine country with Butler group. Seriously, this is school?

More Cowbell! Hiking in Northern Spain

Our trip up north to go hiking in the mountains was definitely an adventure. We were on a bus for a long time, then another bus, and then a taxi (our driver was quite entertaining and serenaded us with Juanes songs). Anyway, we finally got there in the middle of the night, slept, and went hiking the next day.

It rained at first, but then it cleared up and we were all amazed by the mountains surrounding us. We were basically in the middle of nowhere, no civilization around at all. It was very cool. We hiked for a while, eventually leaving the path and climbing up a rather steep mountainside. I don't know how far we went in total, but it was far.

It rained again on the way back and our shoes got soaked, but then we curled up in our rooms and watched Harry Potter in Spanish. The next day we came back by bus, felt ill with the ridiculous amount of curves in the mountain road, and went to Noche en Blanco that night. Noche en Blanco is a huge festival in Madrid where all the streets are closed, everything (museums, etc.) is open and free, and tons of people are walking around all night. We only stayed until 11:15, us party poopers, because we were exhausted and sore from the hiking.

The reason this post is called "More Cowbell" is because the only sound on the mountains was the occasional clang of a cowbell. There were lots of cows, and whenever we walked past they all stared us down.

So I had to include a picture of them, with the snowy mountain in the background.

That little figure standing on the rock is me.

This picture looks oddly fake, but I guarantee you I really was standing there in front of those mountains.

Next weekend: Valencia! Hopefully with more beaches and less rain!

Adventures in Segovia

Today I woke up at 5:15 in the morning to go to Segovia! We made the 6:00 train to Madrid and took a fast train to Segovia, and when we got there, we discovered that 1) the Segovia station is in the middle of nowhere, and 2) we missed the last bus to the center of town for the next several hours by 5 minutes. So, walking it was!

We walked for about an hour down a road that went through empty fields until we got to civilization, and took about another hour to get to where we wanted to be. But once we got there, it was worth it. Segovia is full of all sorts of ancient cathedrals, castles, and of course, the most famous attraction, the aqueducts. The aqueducts are 2,000 years old, built during the time of the Roman Empire. Amazingly, they have no mortar or anything to hold them together: it's just stones and equilibrium. It was unreal to see them up close. I tried to capture the enormity of them in pictures. But first, me in front of a castle:

We also got to go to the top of the aqueduct on one side, and this is the view of part of Segovia from that height:

And of course, the aqueducts!

Though it was a lot of walking and it was really early in the morning, it was worth it. Segovia is awesome.

Me encanta Espana!

Hola from Spain!

Sorry it’s taken so long to update, but we just got wifi in my house (or, as the Spanish pronounce it, wee-fee), so I can finally get on the internet. I don’t know where to begin: it started with an 8 hour flight and a 7 hour time change, which was quite disorienting. Mostly because I have trouble sleeping anywhere that isn’t a bed. Cue jet lag.

Alcalá is a very beautiful city with lots of ancient architecture. It’s also the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes, which is why the center of town is called Plaza de Cervantes, with a statue of him in the middle. Everyday my friends and I meet at the plaza and walk around; the streets here are filled with shops, restaurants, and bars. I also walk to school, which takes about 15-20 minutes. My legs are going to be quite toned by December.

We took a short trip to Madrid and walked around there as well. It’s a stunning city, very different from cities in the U.S. because all of the buildings are very old, and there are lots of plazas and cobbled streets, like in Alcalá.

Spanish is becoming quite natural now that it is all around me. I talk a lot with my host mother; we understand each other surprisingly well considering she doesn’t speak English. The other students on the trip and I talk to each other in Spanglish, and we’ve already made some Spanish friends.

One thing that is slightly annoying is siesta. Everything is closed from 2:00-5:00 PM. We sometimes walk around at this time, even though it’s blazing hot outside, and we’ve noticed how empty the streets are. Later at night, everyone is out on the street, and even though we get tired at 3:00 AM and must go home to sleep, it’s normal for Spaniards to stay out until 6:00. ¡Qué loco!

I’ll leave you with some pictures from Alcalá and Madrid:

Casa de Cervantes. Not his real house, just the spot where he used to live.

Plaza de Cervantes.

Also in the Plaza de Cervantes.

A building in Madrid, the name of which I don't recall.

Another building in Madrid.

Hasta luego,

Joanna