Segovia

So, we went to Segovia. This place was fantastic. Lauren and I were completely in love with it - tiny Euro streets, old school Baroque cathedral, castle complete with moat. We went by bus from the station at Príncipe Pío here in Madrid for 11€ roundtrip. The bus left us off kinda at the side of town but their tourist desk gave us maps and drew out the streets to walk to see all the good stuff. We ventured off this route and it was all pretty good, though.

Our first stop was the old Roman Aqueduct left from when the Roman empire stretched all the way across Europe. They ditched quite a few Spanish towns when they took over, but for some reason they settled Segovia and it grew considerably under their influence. This old aqueduct is the best artifact from Roman occupied Spain. Being next to it is pretty surreal. It looks large in pictures but in person it is unreal. And from some views it just goes on forever! I´m really glad I got the chance to see this.

Next stop on the tourist desk tour was the cathedral. I want to keep saying that every part was my favorite just because they all felt that way. This was by far my favorite cathedral I have seen so far though by leaps and bounds. Just the outside alone is completely breathtaking. You can´t appreciate its incredible size in the pictures. The thing I like most about this cathedral in comparison to the others, though, is its elegance. Most of the other rely on sheer size and intimidation but I felt like this one has a softer and more pleasant outside, not very characteristic of the dominant Catholic church.

I am standing by the fountain at the center of the courtyard in this picture. This courtyard was so beautiful and serene, it´s hard to imagine the thriving tourism industry that exists outside the cathedral. Also, the day was so warm and pleasant that it was great to get out of the freezing cathedral and into the sunshine again.

I believe I ate this little guys brother. Maybe his cousin. Either way, it´s not like he´s going to miss him/her. The famed cuchinillo, or suckling piglet and Segovia´s specialty and method for eating pork. When people go to Segovia they eat cuchinillo so of course Lauren and I simply had to.

The best part was that it was incredible! Seriously, hands down best pork I have ever had. They roasted it and then quick fried it so the skin was really crunchy. It was a lot like moist roast chicken but with 10 times the flavor. I highly recommend it.

After late lunch (and a bottle of wine between the 2 of us) we headed to the old Segovian castle. For you folks who appreciate Disney cartoons, this was the castle that inspired old Walt when designing Sleeping Beauty´s castle for Disneyland. Speaking as one who had been to the happiest place on earth on more than one occasion, it really does look just like it. We climbed to the top of the tower behind us, too, and the picture at the top of this blog is from that view.

It was all so amazing because it was warm and the last sun of the day was shining on the surrounding woods/pasture lands. We stayed up there for about an hour just because once you´re there you don´t want to leave! I was in a castle turret.

We also met this old Spanish guy who was super nice and chatted with us about American politics, geography and genetically modified food. Like every Spaniard I have met (practically) he expressed his suprise at the fact that we have a black guy and a woman at the head of the pack for president. They are all so suprised because they think there is nothing but racism and sexism in the U.S. This made me feel bad. Also, it made me feel worse that this old Spanish guy reading a newspaper in front of the castle in Segovia knows infinitely more about our political current events than most of my peers. On this same note, some guys Lauren and I met at our sangria bar a few weeks ago knew all about the electoral process of our government, and they were just some typical college students. They also wanted to discuss the current election and administration with us. Man, if I ever thought nobody ever wanted to talk about politics with me at home I am sure getting a change of pace here! I feel also guilty because I only knew anything about the Spanish democracy because I studied up before arrival. I still don´t know anything about the royal family.

That´s all for now, my hands are chilly. I´m going to head up to my apartment to eat a little dinner and then start on some homework so I don´t have to think about it the whole week while I´m in Andalucía. I have been feeling on the verge of the flu for a few days so I have been trying to combat oncoming illness with sleep and drugs. Last night before I went to sleep (at 9:30 on a Friday night, no less) I took an Airborne tablet and some Advil with about a huhdred glasses of water, followed in an hour by some Alka-seltzer. I slept well, let me tell ya. I am determined to avoid this illness so I can feel all sorts of great on our trip.