Aventuras en Madrid

terminar

I write this (probably final) post from my room in good old milford, ohio. I can’t believe that just yesterday I was in Spain, across an ocean away. wonders of modern technology aside, I can’t believe that my time abroad has come to an end - it feels like I’ve been saying for so long that I’m going to study in Spain, and now I guess I have to say I studied in Spain… crazy!

I am so thankful for the opportunity to have studied abroad, both for the experiences I had and, most importantly, the friends that I made on the trip. (Alert: shameless plug for Dartmouth ahead) I reaaaalllyyy appreciate how easy Dartmouth makes it to spend time in another country. I can’t imagine not having studied abroad now, and I hope that everyone gets the chance to do this at some point in their life.

Now, back to the swing of things here in the states! Crazy to think how quickly things change. I hope all the FSPers who are still eurotripping it are having an amazing time, and that everyone who’s already home has found their bed to be as comfortable as mine was :)  

hasta luego, españa

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this post is being written while I’m in the process of packing up my things to head back to the states. There’s really no way that 10 weeks have gone by - I’m in such major denial!

This past week was our Spain version of finals week - we had 2 tests, 2 presentations, a short essay for our art class, and then a 10 page paper for Antonio’s lit class. Lots of work, for sure, but we all powered through, and yesterday we had our final poetry reading/diploma ceremony that was hilariously funny. It is safe to say that none of us were taking the poetry reading very seriously, and so when probably 30 or so Spanish university students came into the auditorium to listen to our beautiful poetry, we were all pretty shocked. still, it went off without a hitch, and after the poetry reading we all got a “diploma” from the Universidad Complutense, and then said our goodbyes to our professors.

In good Dartmouth form, we all commemorated the end of the term together by playing a little dear ol’ dartmouth style pong at a local bar, just hanging out and soaking up our last moments together. 

Today is devoted to packing and crossing off those final things from our Madrid bucket lists - some people are traveling after the trip ends, but for almost everyone, this is the last time they’ll be in Madrid on this trip.

For me, I’m headed home to good old Milford tomorrow, but the trip is being made a little easier by the fact that I’m sitting between Aditya and Malcolm on the plane ride from Madrid to Atlanta… that should be interesting, to say the least :)

well, I’m off to keep packing… how do I have so much stuff? here’s hoping I meet the weight requirements for my luggage! 

thanksgiving, spanish style

happy (belated) thanksgiving! while it was pretty hard not being home for arguably the best holiday of the year, it was still a fun experience to have thanksgiving here in Spain. our day began with a typical Spanish thanksgiving, AKA a completely normal day. we were SO fortunate as to have an exam on thanksgiving morning, it was like our spanish version of the macy’s parade… lolz. that night though, we had plans to go out for thanksgiving dinner. while we were all pretty apprehensive of the restaurant we went to (when you google it, it comes up as a mediterranean restaurant - not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of thanksgiving!), it ended up being a great night! someone from our program had coordinated with restaurant to cook a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner. I had grand plans to take a picture of my plate, but I was too happy to have seen real turkey and mashed potatoes that I was a little overzealous and dug right in before I remembered. oopz. after going around the table and saying what we were thankful for (overwhelming consensus: having the amazing opportunity to be in Spain with such a great group of people), our professor got up and gave a toast that was really touching. It definitely hit home for a lot of us that these are our final days here in Spain (I leave a week from tomorrow!), and it was really nice to be in the company of people who we’ve all gotten so close with - it’s so hard to believe that just a few short months ago, I had never even met most of these people.

Tomorrow we’re headed to El Escorial, and then begins our final push (read: 1 final essay, 2 tests, a presentation, and a sure to be hilarious poetry reading/diploma ceremony/general shenanigans) until the program ends on December 1. I can’t believe it!

I hope everyone’s thanksgiving was full of happiness, good food, and even better company! ¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias! :)

granada

this past weekend, we took a class trip to Granada, which is in southern spain (fun fact: granada means pomegranate, which i did not know, so a lot of the ceramics in Granada are decorated with pomegranates!). and when i say weekend, i mean, we didn’t have class on wednesday and then left thursday morning, so we were relajando (relaxing) to the max.

when we got to granada we checked into our hotel and then hopped on a bus up to the Albaycín, which is an old neighborhood up on top of a hill/mountain. Granada was the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain, which means that the Arab influence stayed and flourished there while other places more north of Granada had already been re-conquered by the Christian armies. The Albaycín definitely showed this, with its architecture and small, winding streets. The best part about the Albaycín though was the view from the Mirador de San Nicolas of the Alhambra, the famous fortress/mosque-turned-cathedral/palace in Granada. It was beautiful, and we caught it right at sunset!

the view of the Alhambra from the Mirador de San Nicolas

After walking down from the Albaycín, we all went out for dinner, and experienced what may have been my favorite part of Granada - the tapas. They were no different from tapas in Madrid except that for every drink you ordered, you got a HUGE plate of tapas for free!! We went to a tapas bar that our professor recommended us, and we took his word for it because he studied in Granada while he was working on his PhD. he did not let us down, and the food was delicious, and super super cheap!

The next morning, we headed out for a guided tour of La Alhambra (pronunciation key: laaaaaalambra). It was a beautiful day, we couldn’t have gotten more lucky. The Alhambra was originally a mosque/fortress but, after the reconquista (the re-conquest of Spain by the Christian armies) it was converted into a cathedral, and the king at the time also constructed a palace right over top of the existing structures - rude, much? :) the entire place was so beautiful, and one of my favorite parts was when we climbed up the tower of the fortress part. from there you could see the Sierra Nevada mountain, already capped with snow, and the city of Granada below. 

the gorgeous view from the top of la alhambra

The next couple of days consisted of us trying to evade the rain that most unfortunately descended upon Granada, so we did quick tours of the cathedral of Granada and some other important sites before heading back inside to eat lunch/hang out.

One of the coolest experiences for me so far though was on Saturday night, when we went to a traditional Spanish flamenco show! While there wasn’t as much dancing as I was anticipating, the music was incredible. It’s very different from any kind of music we have in the states, but it is hauntingly beautiful and so intricate.

Now we’re starting our second to last week here, which is completely unreal to think about. We only have 1 weekend left! And of course, that means that it’s “finals” time, so we have an exam on thursday, one next monday, a presentation on wednesday, and a final paper for our literature class left to do. ah! and thursday is Thanksgiving, so I think we’re going to try and find a restaurant that will do an American style dinner - it will be an experience, to be sure :)

toledo!

well this week has definitely reminded me that I am in fact here for school… after we got back from our vacation week, it was like all of our professors realized that we only had  month left and so they needed to make up for lost time! this tuesday we have our first history test, and we have an essay to write for our literature class. however, after tuesday we don’t have class for the rest of the week! Wednesday is the Huelga General, which is a big strike across Spain, and I think in other countries as well, and basically everything is going to shut down. Then Thursday we leave for Granada, so this week of school is an uber-short one!

Yesterday, we took a trip to nearby Toledo, which came very highly recommended. While there were the usual cathedrals and museums, what was coolest to me were the old synagogues. Toledo used to have a pretty big Jewish population, but then Spain decided to expel all of the Jews (#inquisition) and because of this, most of the synagogues all over Spain were either destroyed or turned into cathedrals, so there really isn’t any big Jewish presence in most of Spain. In Toledo, however, there are 2 synagogues that managed to survive. The first one, the Sinagoga del Tránsito, is now a museum about Sephardi Judaism. Coming from an Ashkenazi (aka Eastern European) background, it was cool to learn more about the Sephardi Jews (who come from Spain/Northern Africa). The temple itself was beautiful, and the influence from Arab countries definitely showed - the architecture and the decoration felt very middle-eastern. I wish I had a picture, but the temple itself was very dimly lit, to preserve the art on the walls I’m assuming, and we weren’t allowed to take flash photography (ergo, my pictures from the temple are pretty much just black). you’ll just have to google it!

The second temple, Sinagoga Santa Maria la Blanca, looked just about as much like a temple as its name sounds like one - as in, not at all. Props to the 15th century Spaniards, they did a really good job de-Jewish-ifying this one! It was a pretty building, but had I not known that it was a synagogue, I would have just assumed it was another church (there was still a cross up in the front of it!). 

What was really cool to me was that all throughout the Jewish quarter, there were little tiles placed sporadically throughout the roads of menorahs, the word chai (which means life), and another word which Erin and I think maybe says Sephardi? It was unclear though. When we first noticed them, we thought it was just a few random tiles, but then we kept seeing them everywhere! 

a chai tile :)

Today I went to the Rastro again, the open air flea market, and walked around and got some regalos (gifts) - family, get excited! :) On vacation week, we all realized that we have to take advantage of our weekends in Madrid while we can, because we have so few left! Next weekend, we’re going to Granada as a class, and then the weekend after that is our last weekend here! I cannot believe that that is true. At the same time though, when I look back at all I’ve done, it amazes me that we’ve packed so much into the little time we’ve been here. 

Well, off to study some 19th century Spanish history…

#vacationweek

Disclaimer: this is gonna be a long one - vacation week was full of stories :)

While I guess technically I started my vacations by going to Salamanca last weekend, our real “trip” started on Tuesday. We (Erin, Abby, Kristy, Malcolm, Aditya, Romen, and I) woke up early (again…) and cabbed to the airport to catch our 7:45 flight to Lisbon, Portugal. We arrived in Lisbon at 8:05AM (thanks time zones!) and we found our way to our hotel - Holiday Inn Lisbon. Kind of nice to have a familiar place to stay. The hotel was great and we had gotten a great deal on it (thanks to Kristy, our hotel-finder extraordinaire) so that made it all the better. After dropping our stuff of at our room, we went out to explore Lisbon! We meandered down a main road until we got to Baixa, a neighborhood right on the water. We walked around there for a bit, popping in the occasional cathedral, and generally taking in the Lisbon ambiance. While Lisbon was pretty, it was just generally a little bit more run-down feeling than any of the other cities I’ve been in, although I did love all of the buildings that, instead of paint or stone facades, were covered in colorful tile. After eating lunch at a restaurant with the most well-meaning but incredibly pushy waiter/owner, we went to the Castelo de San Jorge, a medieval castle on top of a hill overlooking Lisbon - needless to say the views were incredible.

The view from the top!

While we were there, we ran into Antonio, our Dartmouth professor! He was there with his family, and one of his daughters recognized us. It was such a surprise to see him there! After getting lost a little bit, we made our way back to the hotel and then to dinner, after which we all promptly fell right asleep - we were exhausted. The next day we went to Belém, a neighborhood about 15 minutes away by trolley, where we visited a beautiful monastery, and also the Torre de Belém, which, during Portugal’s golden age, would have been the last thing that travelers would have seen before reaching America, which is pretty cool if you ask me. We also tried a pastel de Belém, which was this DELICIOUS cream pastry sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar that Belém is famous for. After that, we grabbed our things from the hotel and made our way to the bus station, where we took an overnight bus from Lisbon to Sevilla, Spain. Still not sure what possessed us when we made that decision, although we were all so tired that we slept mostly all of the way.

The monastery in Belém

Sevilla was incredible - by far my favorite city that I have visited. It was so beautiful, and I enjoyed myself despite the lack of sleep from the night before. We arrived in Sevilla at 5:30AM, which was a bit earlier than we were anticipating (the bus was scheduled to arrive at 6:15, so much more reasonable I know), so we wandered aimlessly for a few minutes trying to find something that might be open before giving up on that idea and just heading to the hotel. After dropping our things off, we headed out in search of breakfast and a famous flea market, El Jueves. Problem: we forgot that Thursday was November 1, AKA All Saints Day, meaning that a ton of things were closed and our flea market was a shadow of what it would normally be. Oopz. We still wandered around the few booths that were there before meeting up with another Dartmouth student, Jack, who was already in Sevilla. On our way to the restaurant for breakfast, Jack led us through the Barrio de Santa Cruz, which is the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla, which was just gorgeous. It’s exactly what you think of when you think of old European neighborhoods - winding streets, laundry hanging out to dry, character everywhere you look. After breakfast, we explored some of the more famous sites - the Plaza de España, the Alcázar, and the Catedral, with its famous tower, la Giralda. Each one was more beautiful than the next, although the Alcázar was so impressive. It’s an old palace, but it was made in the Moorish style, and it is HUGE. The building went on forever, and the gardens went on for even longer than that, and all of it was ornately decorated with carvings and tiles. After that, we headed back to the hotel to get changed for dinner, which was so fun. Our lunch that day had been less than impressive (read: when we ordered chocolate mousse for dessert, we got mousse in a little yogurt-cup looking thing. to prepare said mousse, they literally just took off the lid.), and we had been pretty frugal for the rest of the trip, so we decided to treat ourselves and go out to a nice dinner. Although to call it “nice” would be the understatement of the century - dinner was perfect. The restaurant was on a small, pedestrian-only street in the Barrio de Santa Cruz, and we sat out in a terrace that was so beautiful. The food was delicious, the company was great, and it was so nice to forget that we were broke college students, even for just a meal. On our way back to the hotel, we stumbled upon a little square where we caught the end of a performance going on of the play Don Juan, which is apparently a tradition on All Saints Day. Actually the most perfect night.

part of the Alcázar (photo credit to Abby - definitely forgot my camera in the hotel in Seville… oopz)

The next morning, we hopped on a train to Cadiz, which is on the southern coast of Spain. When we got there, we met Kristy’s friend Isa, who is studying at the university there, and she helped us find our hostel. The hostel was hilariously eclectic, which just made the experience. One of the staff members was actually from Alabama, so it was fun to talk with him about his experiences. After dropping our stuff off, we went out and wandered around Cadiz, which was a pretty small city, but still very beautiful. We stopped by the beach and put our feet in the (pretty cold) water, in disbelief that our vacation was coming to a close. That night, we decided to partake in the paella cooking class that our hostel was offering, which was such the perfect decision - number 1, I now know how to make paella, but number 2, the atmosphere was so fun and it was so great to hang out and cook and just have a good time with the other people staying at the hostel, plus the paella was delicious.

our paella!! - photo from Kristy, our resident paparazzi for the trip :)

the girls on the beach in Cadiz :) (also from Abby, I was really bad about remembering my camera during this trip!! #oopz)

After dinner, we hung out with some of Isa’s friends, which was really fun. The next morning, we had delicious pancakes and granola for breakfast at the hostel before heading out to explore a little more before our bus back to Madrid. Catching the bus was a bit of a fiasco - we didn’t realize that it wouldn’t be stopping at an actual bus station. Instead, Cadiz was just a stop on this bus’s route, so it just stopped at a bus stop on the side of a road. All of that would have been fine except that we did not give ourselves nearly enough time to make it to said bus stop, so we had to run down this road, luggage in tow, to make it to the bus on time. Thankfully we caught the bus, and we spent the next 8 hours sleeping and chatting until we finally made it back to Madrid. It really is so cool how Madrid feels like home now - all the way back on the bus I was thinking about how it would be so nice to be back in the apartment, sleeping in my own bed and showering in my own bathroom. This trip also showed me how much I really like Madrid. While the other cities were beautiful, with the exception of maybe Sevilla, they still couldn’t match up with Madrid, for me. Traveling around really made me appreciate Madrid that much more.

Next week begins our final month of classes here in Spain, which is actually the weirdest - this trip is flying by. We have an exam on Friday for our history class, which will be thoroughly interesting, since none of us have really understood anything that’s been going on in that class. :) Still, it’ll be nice to be back in the rhythm of things, although I know that before I know it, this trip will be winding down, and I’ll be thinking about coming home to the good old US of A.

P.S. Happy birthday mom! hope you had a great day :)

sala salamanca

with presentations and our first midterm behind us (oh right, classes. oopz), it is now… wait for it… wait for it… VACATION WEEK! hard to believe, because that mean’s that we’re halfway through the term - we only have the month of november left! that is insane.

this past weekend, to kick off this week the right way (lol) Abby, Malcolm, Aditya, Kristy, Romen, Erin, Jackie, and I went to Salamanca, which is a hop, skip, and a jump northwest of Madrid. Saturday morning, we boarded a bus and drove the 3 hours to Salamanca, where literally one of the most gorgeous cities in the world was awaiting us. once we got there, we walked around for a few hours, getting a little bit lost in the winding, rambling streets of the city. we ended up (just in time for lunch) at a street called Libreros, which is so named because of its location, very near to the University of Salamanca’s library. The university is actually the oldest in Spain, but more on that later. After lunch we walked around and explored some more on the way to our hostel, and I swear every corner, every street, every plaza had some new beautiful building. There were more churches than you could count, and the university building itself was also so gorgeous.

some of the group in front of the catedral nueva, one of the many beautiful churches we saw!

After dropping our stuff off, we went back out and happened upon a park, complete with swingsets and jungle gyms, so obviously, we channelled our inner elementary school kids and had a blast reliving our glory days. :) from there, we just kept exploring the city, going in and touring some of the cathedrals, and generally just taking in the atmosphere of this beautiful “college town.” The city was completely walkable, which was a nice change from Madrid - although it’s easy to walk around Madrid, it’s a little too big to do it all by foot. After all that walking though, we were ready to eat, so we met up with Aditya’s friend from summer camp, José, who studies at the University of Salamanca. We ate at a delicious Italian restaurant, and it was so nice to just relax, knowing that we had a full week of vacation ahead of us. That night, we went out to a bar that felt just enough like a frat basement to make me feel a little nostalgic for dear old dartmouth, especially considering that this weekend was Homecoming weekend. 16’s, hope you touched the fire!!

La Casa Lis, lit up at night

The famous facade of the University building - there’s a very (very!) small frog carved somewhere on this facade, and legend goes that if you can find it, you’ll have good luck on all your tests/exams for the next year. thankfully, we found it!

After our extra hour of sleep (thanks daylight savings time!!), we headed out the next morning with a plan to visit some museums and go in some of the churches that we had only seen from the outside the day before. Abby and I toured the old University building, which was so so SO beautiful - it was very simple compared to some of the churches we would go in later in the day, but the building was so cool, and the views of the surrounding area were muy impresionante. After meeting up with the whole group for lunch, we went to the Casa Lis, which is an art deco museum in a building with a beautiful stained glass facade. After that, we walked around some more, stopping for pastries and some café con leche. At that point, it was time to head back to the bus station for our bus ride back, so we said goodbye to our amazing tour guide, José, and headed back. When I got home, I was so tired so I just crashed into bed. It’s pretty cool though, coming back to Madrid feels like coming home, and my bed here feels like just that - “my” bed. Today I ran some errands, and although I know I have so much more to learn, I’m definitely figuring out my way around the city here, and I feel really comfortable here.

Tomorrow morning we leave (bright and early - cheap flights, why must you always be so early?!!) for Lisbon, Portugal, where we’ll spend a couple of days before heading to Sevilla, Spain, and Cadiz, Spain, both in the southern region of the country, Andalusia. It should be so fun! We have a great group of people, and I’m sure that hilarity will ensue. Stay tuned for an update once I get back!

barcelona!!

we spent this past weekend in Barcelona, and what a weekend it was! to start, we got up at the ungodly hour of 4:15AM in order to catch a taxi at 5AM to make it to the airport by 5:30. so grim. needless to say, we were all out like a light on that plane ride.

once we arrived in barcelona (at 8AM, earlier than I wake up for school here), we headed out on a adventure through Gaudi’s art and architecture. First, we took a bus to el Parque Güell, which was designed by Gaudi originally as a gated community just outside of barcelona. Apparently it was a little too far outside the city center for the original Barcelon-ians, because no one ended up wanting to live there, so it was converted into a park. Even though it was pretty rainy, the park was still really cool - Gaudi’s architecture and designs are so unique and fantastical (is that a word? we’re gonna make it a word). After that, we hopped back on the bus and headed to la Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral that Gaudi started but is still under construction to this day. Apparently they’re trying to get it done in time for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death, which is in about 10 years, I believe (never really managed to ask anyone why it had taken so long to complete #vuelvaustedmañana, the typical spanish custom of putting off today what you can do tomorrow, or the next day, or, you know, eventually haha). To say this cathedral was beautiful would be the understatement of the century - it was breathtaking. The outside was so intricately designed and sculpted on the one side that depicted the nativity, and on the other, there were beautifully simple and angular sculptures that depicted the Passion. The inside was designed to look like a forest, and it absolutely did - the large columns that divide the sanctuary into three parts rose up to the ceiling where they split off into what look like branches, before meeting up with the ceiling that is sculpted to look like leaves of a palm tree. I wish I could show you a picture, but silly little me though that she had her camera in her purse when in fact it was snuggled safe and sound in her backpack, conveniently located on the bus.

After la Sagrada Familia, we hopped (or rather, shuffled - we were getting pretty hungry and tired at this point. did I mention we woke up at 4:15?) back on the bus to go to la Casa Milá, aka La Pedrera, an apartment building/house designed by Gaudi in the middle of the city. It immediately stood out from the buildings around it due to Gaudi’s unique style, and we were able to enter and explore, going into one of the apartments and also up on the roof, where there was even more unique architecture.

Abby and I on the roof of La Pedrera

The front of Casa Milá, aka La Pedrera

After La Pedrera, we (finally) headed to our hotel, where we all proceeded to throw our bags into our rooms and then sprint to a nearby restaurant where we ate what seemed to be the most delicious meal in existence (we were pretty hungry at this point!). after stuffing ourselves, we went and explored a bit, ending up at Las Ramblas, a famous street market in Barcelona. 

The next day, after stuffing ourselves (I’m sensing a theme here) at the hotel’s breakfast buffet, we all went to the Picasso Museum, which is in the Barrio Gótico, or Gothic neighborhood, which is one of the oldest parts of the city. After the museum, Erin, Malcolm, Abby, and I found an outdoor food market where we got lunch. After lunch, we all met up again to go on a guided tour of the Barrio Gótico, which was interesting, although a bit long for my taste. Needless to say we worked up an appetite! After dinner, we went out with some other Dartmouth students who were visiting from Milan, which was really fun.

Sunday we had the whole day to ourselves, so Malcolm, Aditya, Romen, and I decided to explore some parts of the city that we hadn’t yet seen. We had grand intentions of visiting Montjuic, a mountain in whose valley Barcelona is located. There’s a cable car that goes over the bay area that takes you to the top of the mountain where there are apparently some pretty cool views, but by the time we got there, the line was already 90 minutes long, so we decided to just hang out on the beach. It was a beautiful day (thankfully - we were so afraid it was going to rain!), so we just walked along the beach and ended up eating a leisurely lunch at a restaurant right on the shore. 

Romen, Aditya, Malcolm, and I on the beach in Barcelona!

We flew back on Sunday night, and exhausted as I was I just fell into bed. It was such a great trip!!

Now we have our last week of class before vacation week - we have presentations in our art class tomorrow (#lamezquitadecórdoba) and then an exam in art on Friday and then it’s vacaciónes!! It’s so hard to believe, because that means that after this week, we’ll be halfway through our time here. Insane!

¡vamos a barca!

We’re headed to barcelona for the weekend as a class field trip - not taking my computer with me (#pickpocketers) but expect a post when I get back! Now… back to packing (read: shoving everything into my backpack and praying it meets the size requirements!). Should be a great weekend!!

Toros and Segovia and Disney Princesses

hello! sorry for not posting in a while, the beginning of this week was pretty uneventful, which I guess speaks to how accustomed I’m getting to living and going to school here! We’re definitely getting into more of a routine now, although we only have 2 more weeks of class before our week long break, when everything will go back to being crazy again! as if I can complain :)

Teaser Trailer: Speaking of our week long break, we’ve finally figured out our plans (I think/hope)! Since we aren’t allowed to leave the Iberian Peninsula (thanks spanish department for being literally the only department that has a rule like that - is a quick jet on over to Italy or England really such a bad thing? #justtryingtobesoeuropean), a group of my friends and I have decided to spend a the first part of our week in Portugal, before heading to the south of Spain to check out a couple of cool cities. More on that in a few weeks!

This past Friday, I experienced one of the more controversial aspects of Spanish culture: La Corrida de Toros, bullfighting. It was definitely not an experience I’ll be repeating any time soon, but I’m glad I went, because it is a part of the Spanish culture, albeit a not-so-fun-for-any-vegetarians-in-the-audience one (also, we’ve all decided that the matador costume = greatest flair ever, gotta get my hands on one of those).

La Plaza de Toros

Then today, pretty much the whole group boarded a train for nearby Segovia, which is about a half hour outside of Madrid. Even though it was rainy and overcast for most of the day, it was still a great visit, with lots of new and interesting things to see, places to explore, and things to eat! First, we walked around the city a bit, visiting a beautiful church, before heading to El Alcázar, a palace that supposedly the Disney castle was based off of! It was cool to walk around and explore the castle (#iwanttobeaprincess). According to our handy-dandy tour brochure, the palace was at certain points in its history a fortress and also a prison - I don’t think I’d mind jail so much if it was in a palace, just saying. At the end of our little tour, we went up the most terrifying spiral staircase up to the very top of the tallest tower (literally this place was full of Disney princess potential), where we could see the whole city beneath us. Obviously, so beautiful.

The view from the top of the tower

After working up an appetite during our palace tour, we headed to El Bernardino, a famous restaurant that serves a quintessentially Segovian dish: el cochinillo. PETA-supporters be warned, this dish is roast suckling pig (sorry my adventures this week were of the not-so-supportive-to-animals type… oopz). It was pretty good, and it was so tender that they actually cut it into portions with a plate! The meal came with soup, segovian wine, and a delicious dessert, and we all ate until we were stuffed.

After lunch we explored some more before hopping on a train back to Madrid. I’m excited for this week, because we’re going to Barcelona next Friday-Sunday, which should be really fun (also, Dartmouth’s paying for it - yes please!!). Stay tuned for more on that!