3 Castles, 2 trips, 1 weekend!

A lot has happened since I last updated my blog. Things here have definitely been getting busier. I actually have homework that takes some time, commitments-like English lessons, and just fun things-like excursions. I love keeping everyone updated, but I haven't really had time to myself, so I took a little break.

Where to begin..? Well, Friday we didn't have regular classes. There was a scheduled excursion to "la ruta de los catillos". I'm not sure the name of the town, but we were a little less than a hour east of Segovia. That morning Julia had my lunch sitting on the counter. I had two bocadillos(sandwiches)and an orange! It's great to have someone make my lunch for me! Well, my mom still made lunches for me sometimes in high school-so I guess it shouldn't make me feel like a little girl, but it does! haha I love it!! :) Then, I met the others at the statue of the loba (she wolf) and we were off on our little tour bus. On the bus, I felt even more like a kid. We all talked about what we had in our lunches! HAHA Sam's mother gave her a box of chocolate cookies to share with us all- bless her!! hah To have chocolate in my possession is rare here.

Our first stop was to a winery. We learned all about the process of making wine and how long it takes. This place made 3 different types of white wine, which are very popular in Segovia. The bottles are cheap since they are made here, but they said in the U.S. it's very expensive. (I honestly don't understand why… it was pretty gross-shhh!) Sam and I had a little sip and it was worse than medicine to me. (and I hate syrupy medicine) I guess I won't have to worry about spending my money on that!

Our second stop was to the first castle, "Castillo de Coca". It was huge, I couldn't believe that people can actually say- Oh yeah; take a right at the castle and go through two stops signs and you'll be at my house. I can't imagine living in the same town as a castle. It seemed so out of place. However, I'm sure it was very important to people back in the day. I learned the difference between castles and palaces. Castles-are for protecting and are built for defense. Palaces-are for celebrations, show, kings and queens-all the stuff you see in movies. I didn't realize that, even when heading to the castle. I was picturing, the Palace like in "Princess Diaries", but boy was I wrong! ha Both the first and second castles we saw on Friday were obviously built for defense. The first one had a moat around it, but no water. I learned none of the castles in Spain have water in their moats because there is not a river that can filter water into them.

When we went inside, I felt so small. The walls were huge!! The first castle reminded me a lot of "Lord of the Rings". There were so many different levels, and I'm sure secret passage ways! It made me wonder -How did the people even begin building the castle!? We were told we would be climbing lots of stairs, so I wore my tennis shoes, but they didn't tell us what kind of stairs. These stairs were winding, uneven stairs used also for...you guessed it-De-de-de-DEFENSE! hah I felt almost as if I was crawling up the stairs. I would not want to be this castle’s enemy. They would have had me at stair one! We climbed all the way to the roof of both of the castles. It was beautiful. However, I refused to get close to the edge! At the end of those excursions I was knocked out. I think they are just training us for the excursions to the mountains!

After some sleep, I woke up Saturday morning around 7 to make my way to the bus station. It started out as only me, but soon grew to 8 other students traveling to Madrid for the day! I told a few friends that my friend, Kelsey, would be flying into Madrid Saturday and I wanted to see her. I thought it would be great to have company and they all thought it would be fun so they decided to come. I was pumped to have a group of 4. Then by Saturday morning we had 8!

I was so proud of Kelsey for making it to Madrid and finding our bus station in the huge city, even though she didn't think it was such a big deal. :) It was so great to see her! I hadn't seen her since the last day of Mission Indy, August 1st. She had been in Spain the whole semester before, so she kinda knew her way around Madrid. We visited the Royal Palace-which was more like the palace in "Princess Diaries", the Gardens-which is bigger than central park and beautiful, and went shopping in the busiest city I have ever seen! Madrid is huge and has A LOT to do, but I am so glad I am studying in little Segovia. Madrid would be so overwhelming. A lot of the locals in Segovia told us to be careful with our belongings in Madrid. Everyone kept telling us not to get robbed, which wasn't comforting. However, I had my money pouch-thanks to Stacey- and I was fine all day. It was a really fun day that went by so quickly.
This past weekend was packed. I hope to leave some weekends open to just spend some time in Segovia. I'm trying to keep in mind that my time in Spain will go faster than I think. Thanks for reading!