Toledo, Segovia, and Portugal

hola!

Life is moving crazy fast and so much has happened! I can't believe that in only a little over 2 weeks
I have been on 2 day trips- Segovia and Toledo- and a weekend in Portugal.

Toledo!

Ok so let me go back to our 1st Friday here; since we don't have Friday classes, Dr. Pauwels and a few of us planned a day trip to Toledo. We were so excited and just jumped right into things on our first weekend, I guess:).

Toledo is another historical town very similar to Avila, with one main difference I noticed right away- the streets are CRAZY steep! It really was a shock how hard it was to walk around with the town built more into the side of the mountain than Avila is (at least I got a good workout). The city was very pretty, and we were able to take another Choo-Choo tour! This tour took us around the city and then up the mountain a ways where we could see all of Toledo and the river around it. After the tour we took a quick peek inside the cathedral, which, of course, was gorgeous. Then our group split up- some to tour the cathedral and the rest of us to explore. we even found this little tiny zip-line over the river that Kaitlyn, Libby, and Luke rode while all of us took pics because we are just typical tourists, Right? K'Leigh and I also found a trail by the river that took us all around the town.

It was just like us to throw in an impromptu hike:)

The trail took us back towards the bus station we were all meeting at at 5:30 (tip- always have a meeting place), but on the way we found a really neat abandoned building. It was right on the edge of the water and actually had the river flowing through the bottom of it. It is these types of place I love to find and would never happen if we didn't have the spirit to do a little adventurous exploring. Thanks K'Leigh for being my go-to adventure buddy!

I think the only interesting thing about the bus ride home was that K'Leigh and I did watch Tangled in Spanish; I mean even the songs were in Spanish! Honestly I should probably do that more to help me work on actually learning a new language, which is so much harder than I thought it would be.

Oh and one other note about Toledo; we met a guy from NY! I didn't realize how nice it is to actually be able to understand and have a real conversation with someone besides the 15 people I brought over here with me. He was so nice and took a picture of K'Leigh and I- he also immediately knew we were from TX cause of our cute little accents!

Pic from our NY friend

Apparently we planned our first weekend in Avila very well because it was the weekend of their annual medieval festival. Since we only traveled to Segovia for the day, we still had Saturday to enjoy a crazy, fun, flamboyant festival! I LOVED it because it reminded me so much of the south plains fair at home, with a cultural flavor mixed in. We walked through the walls of the city looking at jewelry, leather, spices, and DELICIOUS food. I even found a booth with crepes- the amazing Nutella kind I grew up eating at my cousins' house. The festival made for the best closing to my first weekend away for home.

Our 2nd week of classes went smoothly and were super interesting. I'm loving my Art History class and how well it relates to everything we've seen in Spain. add in a little homesickness, grocery shopping, SO much walking, a 2nd Avila tour from our Spanish professor, and a group of people I'm learning to love, and it was a crazy, good week. Next stop, art trip to Segovia! (or as Kaitlyn refers to it, Se-GO-Vi-A, to the tune of princess diaries' Genovian national anthem)

knee deep in history

Segovia is home to the beautiful and most famous Roman architecture in Spain, the aqueduct. the aqueduct of Segovia runs directly through the center of town and is an amazing sight. It really gave me so much respect and wonder fro the Roman culture; seeing something that impressive and built so long ago is truly incredible. This was our first stop on Dr. Kraft's field trip day, of course after we had eaten our cute little sack lunches from the dorm. She lead us along the length of the aqueduct up to the point where it is low enough for you to climb and stand on, and trust me, you can't pass up standing on a 2000 year old aqueduct!

Now comes the Cathedral, as you probably guessed since that has been a main part of our sightseeing in each place we've visited. This cathedral was very beautiful, but not as ornately decorated as the one in Avila. They were also kind of strict on picture taking, but how can you not take pictures?! I really do try to be respectful of the places we visit, but I'm not gonna lie, I got caught taking a picture by a security guard.....

I guess I'm gonna have to work on following the rules a little better.. but you know take risks and make memories!

Lastly in Segovia was a quick glance at the castle on the edge of the city. we didn't have enough time to go inside, but the outside was beautiful and a great picture taking spot!



I know I mentioned how hot it has been in my last post, so all of us decided to take advantage of that before fall really gets here, and take a trip to the beach. So K'Leigh did an awesome job of planning, booking, and getting us ready for our first overnight excursion. We bused out of Madrid at 9:00 pm, beginning a 9 hour drive to Lisbon, Portugal. Sounds exciting right?? Not at all. I have the hardest time sleeping on anything moving an this bus was definitely no different; I'm gonna have to stop traveling overnight. We arrived at the international bus station in Portugal at 3:30 Lisbon time and NOTHING was open... That means sleeping for a couple hours in the bus station for a couple hours until the trains and metros are awake and running for the day. Not the best idea we ever had, but hey, we all made it. Now public transportation is not my thing and I'm horrible at navigating it, so this was a very interesting morning. we had to take 2 metros and then a train to the costal town of Cascais, where our hostel was.

Cascais

After all the craziness of getting there, it was beautiful to stand and admire this cute, peaceful town. The buildings were fun colors and the cobblestone streets bold patterns. Also, yay, we finally found some food! Most of our crew couldn't wait another second to find food and ran into the nearest restaurant-McDonald's. i don't even eat there in the states, so there was no way I was going to in a foreign country, so Yeslin, Anna, Dr. Pauwels, and I found a bakery with delicious pastries. I probably ate way too much chocolate- it was worth it!

"Mouth of Hell

We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and hiking to see the "mouth of Hell", a famous cave formation in the cliffs on the coast. This whole weekend was a nice change from the cities we have been to in central Spain. 2 straight days on the beach really puts you in a good mood despite the unavoidable sunburn. Beaches are one of my favorite places, and it was so cool to be able to see one across the world. One of my favorite parts was our early morning adventure on saturday. A few of us woke up early and went out on the fishing pier to watch the sunrise over the ocean. I love the sky, sunsets, and sunrises and this one was no exception (granted it wasn't the TX sky).

I can't forget to mention the food! Apparently Indian food is very popular in Cascais, and it sounded SO yummy we couldn't resist. I had not realized how much I have missed spicy food and chicken, and not having ham all the time.

Thanks Zach for this cool pic

Delicious food, crazy public transportation, sketchy bus stations, beautiful beaches, and one more country to check off the list- a great weekend don't you think!

Adios until I have some more adventures!