I love castles

Suppose you are wondering where I've been hiding since I keep lacking on the posts...we'll see if I'm able to keep up because I'm going to be traveling and MIA for about the next month as well...

Just to get us all on the right track...this weekend I did end up traveling and had a crazy, fun-filled weekend with some really great people. First off, I finished work on Thursday but was running around like a crazy person because i still had a class in the evening, needed to take a shower, pack my bags and get to the bus station. Luckily I made it on time to the THAT bus, no problem, and made my way up to Cordoba. Why? I had to go catch the train to Madrid- I loved that train! Only about 1hr 45min later I was in Madrid! It was already late and my friend just came to pick me up, we went to her place, hung out, slept (well only a few hrs, we didn't go to bed until like 3am!) and at 7am the next morning to go catch a bus to Salamanca.

SALAMANCA


I'm not sure if you've ever head of Salamanca but its famous for the University there. The town itself is relatively small but full of college students so it has a great atmosphere. I ended up meeting with a friend in Salamanca and together we explored the town. We checked out the cathedral, the convent, the university, the big plaza they have and a lot of the rest of the town. We even went to the wall of the university and I found the frog! Let me quickly tell you the story behind that... There is this wall of the university and all the new students, on their first day, are supposed to find  this little frog that is somewhere on the wall (will about a million other little sculptures). If you find it, its good luck and you'll graduate...or something like that. I was told that the frog was added to the wall by some students a long time ago and now its just turned into a tradition that when you go you HAVE TO find the frog. Therefore if you visit you will see an overabundance of frog related souvenirs. Its actually pretty hard to find especially because its now old and so the sculpture has been worn down. With all of that tho I still managed to find the frog! go me!

wall w/ the frog...

in front of the "wall of shells"

The town is pretty cute but its more a town to see at night because that's when all the students come out and when things really get busy. I ended up staying the night there so I was able to see some of the nightlife there and also meet some great people. I stayed at this great hostel, Revolutum Hostel, and staying in the same room as me were 2 girls from northern Spain and an Italian man. After chatting in the room for a little bit we all went out for tapas.



Now originally I wasn't going to go out that night since I had an 8:30am bus to catch, but now with my Spanish mentality i figured, what the heck, why not? We hopped around to a few different tapas bars and ended up at this bar next to the Plaza Mayor. It was  actually really fun because when you get in it seems like a normal bar but if you walk to the back you can see there are these two big doors that open into something. What the bar does is they wait until the bar starts to get really full, then they open the doors into this dance floor type area. The night we were there they had these 2 girls and guys basically dressed in underwear and dancing on this small stage. They were dressed in red and white for Valentine's day and even before they went up on stage they gave out red carnations to everyone. It was great! Also, not only were there people basically in their underwear dancing around, there was a guy there dressed in a chicken suit. Yep- i'm serious. He was there with a group of guys for his bachelor party so I suppose the chicken costume was appropriate lol












So after some dancing and meeting new people I decided to head back to the hostel- it was already 3am...and i had to get up in less than 5 hours. Not to mention I did the same thing the night before-LUCKILY my bus rides between the towns I visited were all over an hour so I had some time to nap :)

SEGOVIA
I got up the next morning, ended up having to run half the way to my bus and made it just in time. This next part of the journey was to Segovia. Let me just start off saying- just go to Segovia! It was amazing and I absolutely loved it. To educate you a little bit on what all is in Segovia, they have:

-Alcázar (a big, real castle; its said to be the inspiration of Walt Disney's Cinderella castle)
-el Acueducto (the long wall type structure made SOLEY of stones- no cement or anything; it was used to transport water from the mountains into the town...pretty amazing I have to say)
-the hostel where Antonio Machado lived for about 6 years (he's a famous poet, writer from Spain)
-a huge synagogue, cathedral and convent
-and did I mention a CASTLE?!?!? i just had to mention it again because its awesome

This town was just TOO cute and I loved every minute of it. I ended up going on a tour of the castle (well worth it but if you only speak English then just get the audio tour guide) so I learned lots about the castle, how it worked, what certain rooms were used for, etc. Interestingly enough, the royal people who had castles tended not to live in them or they only lived in a small section of them. Why? Because the castle is HUGE and cold, its much easier just to live in a different area (or sometimes completely different, smaller castles) and just use the majority of the castle when entertaining guests. The castle really was freezing though so I completely understand. I also had the opportunity to go up to the top of Juan's tower. I think I would compare climbing those stairs to climbing a small mountain, my legs were sore for DAYS after that (oh i need to work out my poor calves more!). I mean each stair was about 2 feet tall so it just killed my legs...and everyone else's too. *Below is a video from the top of the tower*

Besides the castle and the amazing Aqueduct they have my two other favorite things there were the pension where Antonio Machado stayed AND the restaurant where I ate. To start, I went on this tour of the pension (its only in Spanish but I recommend it if you understand some spanish) and it was just great. Everything was left as it was, including newspaper clippings from the 1930's. We learned about the history of his life including the people he knew (Picasso and other famous artists/writers/etc), his love life (he married a woman who was 18, he was 34ish, she died 3 years later, a while after he had a "love affair" with a married woman but only through letters and it lasted 7 years!), and about his death (he moved to France when the war started in Spain, died there no too much after that and 3 days after he died his 80 year old mother passed away; he is buried in the South of France with his mother). So we learned a lot of interesting bits about his life and it was absolutely great.

Now to tell you about the restaurant I ate at. I love food, this is obvious, but this place was EXQUISITE. I was just looking for somewhere to eat and typically I dont like to eat in the center of the town where there are large groups of tourists, so I walked around to find a place "off the beaten path." I saw this restaurant next to the convent in Segovia (on the street to the left of the front of the convent) called "la Panera." The place wasn't very big but it was completely full inside. I just hungry so I decided to stay instead of wandering around to look for somewhere else. I ended up just eating at the bar since I was there by myself and didn't want to wait for a table. *Just as a side note, I was told by EVERYONE that in Segovia you HAVE TO try cochinillo (pig) because its just THE food of Segovia, so that was my mission there* I decided to order the "menu" (which in spain is a 3 course meal- if you get it I swear you will leave 5lbs heavier) because I wanted to try the cochinillo but also something else in addition. In all I order "Judiones de la Granja," "cochinillo asado" and "manzana la panera." Here are some pics to give you an idea of what they all are:

Judiones de la Granja (large beand w/ morcilla, chorizo, and other meat)

Cochinillo asado (small pig w/ fried skin, potatoes)

Manzana la Panera (pastry dough wrapped around an apple and then baked)

I'm telling you- my first bite out of EVERY dish was heavenly. I fell in love with the food there and would go back just to eat there! Now just as a warning, any place you go to get cochinillo will be pricey because they're famous for. My meal was 24euro (about average in Segovia) but WELL worth it! My mouth is watering just thinking about it...

BACK TO MADRID

Moving on from yummy food, I stayed pretty busy all day and walked all over the town (I'm hoping I worked off maybe 1/4 of the calories from that meal! haha). That evening I headed back to Madrid to meet up with my friend and go out. I got back around 9pm and from there we had some dinner (even though I was still stuffed from lunch!), got ready and met up with her friends...around 2am. From there we headed out to a club where we stayed at until about 6am. There are some more crazy stories that go along with that night but you'll just have to ask me directly to hear about those ;)

Needless to say, we got home late (around 7am) and just passed out. The next day we woke up...around 4pm. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem except that day I had a train that left at 2pm. Oopps! Well, hmm, then I had to figure out how I was going to get back to Lucena because I had work the next day. Fun. LUCKILY I had remembered that there's a bus that goes back (directly) to Lucena and would leave later that night...much later- midnight. So I had the rest of the day to nap and hang out with my friend-yay! So that night about a quarter after 11 I headed out to go catch the bus. Little did I know that it would take me almost exactly 45min to get to the bus station...wouldn't have been a problem except my bus was to leave AT midnight! So I got to the ticket counter with 2 minutes to spare until my bus left. I bought my ticket, RAN to the bus and got on literally JUST in time. I think the bus driver was a little irritated with me bus I was just happy to have made the bus.
Well to end the weekend, I got back to my apt at 6am…only to have work 4 hours later. I was wide awake though so I talked with my mom and Mike a bit on Skype and then took a nap before having to wake up and go to work (I had slept on the bus so it wasn’t a big deal). So to finish, the weekend was crazy and busy and I’ll pretty much be doing the same every weekend from here on out until June… fortunately for my I don’t have too crazy of a work schedule so I should be able to manage all this traveling without going to nuts.

This weekend I’m headed to some towns nearby to see some friends and then next weekend…my parents will be here and we’re traveling almost every minute of every day. We’ll see when you hear from me next haha.