So this last weekend was our last school excursion, and my last weekend before the last week of classes. Crazy? Yes. The Fund (my school) brought us to Segovia on Friday, which is actually the only place that I went on my high school trip, besides Madrid of course. And though I thought it was neat last time, I enjoyed it even more this time! So cool!! We toured the Alcazar (castle) there, which is very fairy-tale-ish (like a Disney movie!), went a bit around town to see the cathedral and main square, and then spent some time just looking at the 2000 year old (completely intact) Roman aqueduct...so incredible, especially since they didn't even use any cement for construction. The boulders were shaped just so, so that when the last stone was set into place on each arch, it sort of locked it into place. I still don't get how it works, it really is incredible! The day was just, plain and simple, very nice. We all had a lot of fun, the weather was beautiful, and our tours were given by my history professor, since he lives in Segovia (and communtes...it's like 2 hours!), so he made it really interesting. All in all, another charming town.
Saturday I decided to go to another small town called Cuenca, about 2 hours east of Toledo (Segovia's northwest) with my friend Lindsey. Luckily they had a direct bus right from Toledo! Woot! We got there (in the more industrial part of town), expecting to find our way around rather easy (especially after Toledo...you'd think we'd be pro's by now), but had a bit of difficulty to say the least. We tried following signs for the "falling houses," which were houses built over a cliff in the 1400's, but somehow we went the wrong way and it took us a while to find our way. Still, we got there eventually, and though the houses were nice to take a picture of, there weren't a lot of them, as I expected. Only 2 or 3. Oh well. We got some sweet pictures on this huge bridge (for some reason I can't think of the name right now) of the old part of town, which was built along a cliff. And wow, I thought Toledo's hills were bad, but getting up and down Cuenca was like trying to walk straight upwards....pretty much impossible!! ;)
We looked around the cathedral for a few minutes (only the very edge of inside...we were too cheap to pay to go all the way in...we've seen a lot of cathedrals, we thought we could skip this one. Next we went to the "castle" which turned out to be just a really old wall where you could climb up and take pictures...not the most exciting. Still, we headed uphill a bit more (almost to the top/edge of the town) and ate at a small restaurant outside. The food was really good, and the day was going really well, but of course, I had to make an idiot out of myself, like always. After paying the bill, Lindsey and I were heading downwards through the town to our bus stop. After a few minutes at least, we hear heavy footsteps, and turn around to see our waitress running behind us trying to catch up with us. Apparently I had paid double what I was supposed to, and once I thought about it, I realized it was true, I did. Didn't even think about it at the time. So, she walked us back up to the restaurant, they gave me back my change while all the rest of the staff tried to hide their laughing, and I hurriedly left again with my head down in shame and embarrassment!!! Ahh! Still, it was a good laugh, though I'm pretty sure I'll never live it down in Lindsey's eyes haha. At least the waitress was nice! She did not have to do that, so I appreciate her kindness! LOL :) We finally headed down to the bus stop, walked around a bit, as Lindsey got hit on by a crazy homeless man. Good day haha.
So that was my weekend, and if you can believe it, I'm now in my last one before the semester! That's right, this next week are finals (oh dear), and then after that I'll only have a few days before I leave Spain! Wow! ...I'll leave that discussion for another post.
Ciao,
Kristin
P.S. The first three pics are of Segovia, the last two from Cuenca.
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